DVA-C02 Development with AWS Services Practice Question
Which TWO of the following are valid use cases for Amazon S3 event notifications?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse S3 event notifications with S3 lifecycle policies or replication features, mistakenly thinking notifications can directly perform actions like deletion or replication, when in fact they only trigger notifications to specified destinations.
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
✓
Send a notification to an SQS queue when a new object is created
Amazon S3 event notifications can be configured to publish events to an SQS queue when a new object is created (s3:ObjectCreated:*). This allows decoupled, asynchronous processing of object creation events without polling, making it ideal for workflows like log aggregation or data ingestion pipelines.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Automatically replicate objects to another bucket
Why it's wrong here
This is not a valid use case for S3 event notifications. Amazon S3 provides native replication capabilities, such as Cross-Region Replication (CRR) or Same-Region Replication (SRR), which are configured directly on the bucket. These features automatically copy objects to a destination bucket upon creation or update, without requiring S3 event notifications to initiate the replication process itself. Event notifications are for informing other services about S3 actions, not for performing the replication.
- ✗
Automatically delete objects after 30 days
Why it's wrong here
Automatically deleting objects after a specified period, such as 30 days, is handled by Amazon S3 Lifecycle policies, not S3 event notifications. Lifecycle policies are configured directly on an S3 bucket to define rules for object expiration or transitions to different storage classes. These policies execute automatically based on the defined criteria, making event notifications unsuitable for initiating the deletion process.
- ✗
Encrypt objects automatically with KMS
Why it's wrong here
Automatically encrypting objects with AWS Key Management Service (KMS) is not a function of S3 event notifications. S3 bucket default encryption, configured directly on the bucket, dictates that all new objects uploaded will be encrypted using the specified KMS key or S3-managed keys. This encryption occurs transparently during the object upload process, making event notifications irrelevant for initiating or performing the encryption itself.
- ✓
Send a notification to an SQS queue when a new object is created
Why this is correct
This is a valid and common use case for Amazon S3 event notifications. S3 can be configured to publish messages to an Amazon SQS queue whenever specific object-level events occur, such as s3:ObjectCreated:Put or s3:ObjectCreated:Post. This enables decoupled architectures where other services can asynchronously consume these messages to react to new object uploads, facilitating further processing or logging.
- ✓
Trigger a Lambda function to process an image after upload
Why this is correct
Triggering an AWS Lambda function to process an image immediately after it's uploaded to S3 is a primary use case for S3 event notifications. S3 can directly invoke a Lambda function in response to object creation events, such as s3:ObjectCreated:Put. This enables real-time, serverless processing workflows, allowing the Lambda function to perform tasks like image resizing, metadata extraction, or content analysis without requiring any polling or intermediary services.
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 |
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