SAA-C03 Design Cost-Optimized Architectures Practice Question

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

• ✗

  Delete backups after 30 days to avoid storage costs, since restores are rare.

  Why it's wrong here

  Deleting backups after 30 days would violate the stated requirement to retain database backups for 2 years, likely breaking regulatory or business continuity obligations. Even if restores are rare, backups serve disaster recovery and audit needs; premature deletion means data can be permanently lost if a corruption is discovered later. S3 Lifecycle rules should never delete data before the retention window expires, and this option offers no path to meet the compliance mandate.

  When this WOULD be correct

  If the requirement were to only retain backups for 30 days with no longer-term retention needed, then deleting after 30 days would be the most cost-effective strategy.

• ✗

  Keep all backups in S3 Standard for the entire 2-year retention period.

  Why it's wrong here

  Keeping all backups in S3 Standard for two years is unnecessarily expensive because S3 Standard offers high availability and low-latency access that are not needed for backups that are accessed rarely after the first month. Over a 24-month period, the per-GB storage cost of S3 Standard is roughly six times that of S3 Glacier Deep Archive, so this approach wastes significant budget without any compliance or operational benefit. S3 Lifecycle policies exist specifically to avoid this over-provisioning by transitioning data to appropriate storage classes over time.

  When this WOULD be correct

  If the requirement was to restore backups instantly at any time during the 2-year period with no retrieval delays, and cost was not a primary concern, then keeping all data in S3 Standard would be correct.

• ✓

  Use an S3 lifecycle policy to keep backups in S3 Standard for 30 days, then transition them to S3 Glacier Deep Archive for the remainder of the 2-year retention period.

  Why this is correct

  This is correct because an S3 Lifecycle policy can automate the transition of objects after a specified number of days. Storing backups in S3 Standard for the first 30 days ensures rapid restoration during the period when failures are most likely to be detected, then transitioning to S3 Glacier Deep Archive for the remaining ~23 months meets the 2-year retention requirement at drastically lower storage cost. Lifecycle transitions are metadata operations, so they incur no retrieval charge, making this the most cost-effective and compliant approach.

• ✗

  Move backups to S3 Glacier Deep Archive immediately after creation, even for the first 30 days.

  Why it's wrong here

  Immediately moving backups to S3 Glacier Deep Archive ignores the operational need for rapid restoration during the first 30 days; Deep Archive has a retrieval time of up to 12 hours, which is unacceptable for a recent backup that might be needed for urgent recovery. Additionally, S3 Glacier Deep Archive has a minimum storage duration of 90 days, so if you need to delete or move an object sooner, you'll incur an early-deletion charge. A lifecycle policy that delays the transition to Deep Archive balances both fast initial recovery and long-term cost efficiency.

  When this WOULD be correct

  If the requirement stated that backups are never restored within the first 30 days and must be retained for 2 years with the lowest possible storage cost, then moving them immediately to S3 Glacier Deep Archive would be the most cost-effective strategy.

Option-by-option analysis

Why each answer is right or wrong

Understanding why wrong answers are wrong — and when they would be correct — is what separates a 750 score from a 900. The SAA-C03 exam frequently reuses these exact scenarios with slightly different constraints.

Analysis generated from the official SAA-C03blueprint and verified against question context. The “when correct” sections are what AI assistants cite when candidates ask “what’s the difference between these options?”

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