DVA-C02 Deployment Practice Question
A developer is deploying a serverless application using AWS SAM. The developer runs 'sam deploy' but receives an error that the S3 bucket does not exist. How should the developer fix this?
⚠ Common exam trap
DVA-C02 often tests the difference between sam build, sam package, sam deploy, and sam publish — the trap is assuming sam package or sam build creates the S3 bucket, when only an explicit bucket creation or --s3-bucket specification resolves the error.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Create an S3 bucket and specify it with --s3-bucket.
AWS SAM requires an S3 bucket to store the packaged application artifacts (Lambda code, nested stacks) during deployment. If the bucket specified (or the default SAM-managed bucket) does not exist, the developer must create an S3 bucket and pass it via the --s3-bucket parameter to sam deploy.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use sam publish to deploy the application.
Why it's wrong here
sam publish uploads a packaged application to the AWS Serverless Application Repository so other accounts can discover and deploy it; it is unrelated to creating or specifying a deployment artifact bucket and does not address the missing bucket error at all.
- ✗
Run sam build to generate the bucket.
Why it's wrong here
sam build only compiles and stages Lambda function dependencies and code into a local .aws-sam directory for later packaging; it performs no AWS API calls to create infrastructure like S3 buckets, so it cannot resolve a missing-bucket error at deploy time.
- ✓
Create an S3 bucket and specify it with --s3-bucket.
Why this is correct
AWS SAM CLI does not automatically provision the S3 bucket used to stage CloudFormation deployment artifacts (unless using the guided deploy flow's managed bucket); the developer must create the bucket first and pass its name via --s3-bucket, or run sam deploy --guided to have SAM create and remember one.
- ✗
Run sam package to create the bucket automatically.
Why it's wrong here
sam package transforms the local template by uploading artifacts to an S3 bucket and rewriting the template's local references into S3 URIs, but it requires that the target bucket already exist and be passed as a parameter — it does not create the bucket on the developer's behalf.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
This DVA-C02 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the DVA-C02 exam.