SAA-C03 Design Cost-Optimized Architectures Practice Question
A company stores 500 TB of data in Amazon S3 Standard. The data is accessed frequently for the first 30 days after creation, then access drops to almost zero, but the data must be retained for 10 years for compliance. The company wants to minimize storage costs. Which solution is MOST cost-effective?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that S3 Intelligent-Tiering is always the most cost-effective for changing access patterns, but it incurs monitoring fees and is unnecessary when the access pattern is known and predictable.
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 Lifecycle policy to transition objects to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 30 days.
S3 Glacier Deep Archive offers the lowest storage cost for long-term retention and is designed for data accessed less than once per year. A lifecycle policy to transition after 30 days automates the process and ensures data is moved to the most economical tier. Other options either cost more or do not provide the necessary durability for compliance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable S3 Versioning and use S3 Standard-Infrequent Access (S3 Standard-IA) after 30 days.
Why it's wrong here
S3 Standard-IA is cheaper than S3 Standard but still more expensive than Glacier Deep Archive for long-term archival. Versioning would increase costs by retaining multiple versions, and it does not address the need for low-cost long-term storage. While Standard-IA is suitable for infrequent access, it is not the most cost-effective for data that will be rarely accessed for 10 years.
- ✗
Use S3 One Zone-IA after 30 days to reduce costs.
Why it's wrong here
S3 One Zone-IA stores data in a single Availability Zone, which reduces cost but also reduces durability and availability compared to multi-AZ options. For compliance data that must be retained for 10 years, durability is critical. Additionally, One Zone-IA is not as cost-effective as Glacier Deep Archive for long-term archival. It is better suited for infrequently accessed, reproducible data.
- ✓
Create an S3 Lifecycle policy to transition objects to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 30 days.
Why this is correct
S3 Glacier Deep Archive is the lowest-cost storage class for long-term retention, ideal for compliance data accessed rarely. Transitioning after 30 days aligns with the access pattern. Lifecycle policies automate the transition, eliminating manual intervention. This approach minimizes storage costs for the 10-year retention period, as Deep Archive costs significantly less than S3 Standard or other infrequent access tiers.
- ✗
Use S3 Intelligent-Tiering to automatically move data between access tiers.
Why it's wrong here
S3 Intelligent-Tiering is designed for data with unknown or changing access patterns. It charges a small monitoring and automation fee per object, which can add up for 500 TB. Since the access pattern is known (frequent for 30 days, then rarely accessed), a lifecycle policy can transition data without the monitoring overhead, resulting in lower costs. Intelligent-Tiering is not the most cost-effective when the access pattern is predictable.
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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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 SAA-C03 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 SAA-C03 exam.