Question 1hardmulti select
Full question →hardmulti selectObjective-mapped
A fleet of test servers is rebuilt every week from AMIs. EBS volumes are often left behind after termination, and the team creates daily snapshots of every volume even when nothing changes. Which three actions most reduce storage cost while preserving recovery options? Select three.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
A
Best answer
Use gp3 for new EBS volumes instead of gp2 when similar performance is enough.
Correct. gp3 decouples baseline performance from volume size, which commonly lowers cost for workloads that do not need gp2's hidden throughput coupling. It is a practical right-sizing move for many general-purpose volumes.
B
Best answer
Automate snapshot creation and deletion with Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager.
Correct. Data Lifecycle Manager removes manual snapshot sprawl and keeps retention aligned to policy. Automation is important here because the problem is not backup absence, but uncontrolled backup growth.
C
Best answer
Move old snapshots to the EBS Snapshot Archive tier once they are rarely restored.
Correct. The archive tier is specifically designed for long-term, infrequently restored snapshots. It preserves recovery options at a much lower storage cost than keeping every snapshot in the standard tier.
D
Distractor review
Keep unattached volumes around for troubleshooting after instance termination.
Incorrect. Leaving orphaned volumes attached to nothing consumes storage indefinitely and directly increases cost. If they are no longer needed, they should be removed or explicitly retained by policy.
E
Distractor review
Raise provisioned IOPS on every volume so snapshot restore time feels faster.
Incorrect. Higher IOPS increases cost and does not address the real problem, which is unnecessary retained storage and unmanaged snapshots. Restore speed is not improved by paying for extra performance on all volumes.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
- PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
- Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
- NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
- Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
- Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
- Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
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More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A team needs to distribute TCP traffic (not HTTP) across multiple services. The services must see the original client source IP for auditing. Which AWS load balancer is the best fit?
Question 2
A team wants to run containerized services with AWS-managed orchestration and autoscaling. They do NOT require Kubernetes compatibility. Which AWS service choice is most appropriate to meet these goals?
Question 3
A solutions architect is designing an S3 bucket for a IoT ingestion API. The objects must never be publicly accessible, even if a developer later adds an overly broad bucket policy. What should the architect configure? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
Question 4
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Question 5
A team wants to delegate IAM management to developers, but must ensure developers can never grant themselves permissions beyond a specific limit. Which AWS mechanism best matches this requirement?
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A solutions architect is designing an S3 bucket for a healthcare document service. The objects must never be publicly accessible, even if a developer later adds an overly broad bucket policy. What should the architect configure?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SAA-C03 question test?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use gp3 for new EBS volumes instead of gp2 when similar performance is enough. — The best cost controls are to right-size the volume type, automate snapshot retention, and archive old snapshots. gp3 is often cheaper than gp2 for similar performance needs. Data Lifecycle Manager prevents daily snapshot sprawl from becoming uncontrolled storage debt. EBS Snapshot Archive then moves rarely used backups to a much cheaper tier while preserving recovery capability, which is ideal for test environments rebuilt on a regular schedule. Why others are wrong: Keeping unattached volumes is pure waste unless there is a documented recovery reason. Increasing provisioned IOPS raises the monthly bill and does not solve unnecessary retention. The real savings come from eliminating orphaned storage, automating backup policy, and moving cold backups to a cheaper tier, not from overprovisioning performance.
What should I do if I get this SAA-C03 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
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