SAA-C03 Design High-Performing Architectures Practice Question
A genomics company stores 400 TB of compressed reference data in Amazon S3. Researchers in an on-premises lab must run high-throughput reads of this data over a 10 Gbps AWS Direct Connect connection. The team observes that reads are slower than expected and wants to maximize throughput per S3 request while minimizing request costs. Which S3 feature should they implement?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is reaching for Transfer Acceleration whenever S3 feels slow, even when the workload already uses private Direct Connect connectivity.
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
✓
S3 byte-range fetches using parallel GET requests against the same object.
Large-object throughput in S3 scales with concurrent connections, so issuing parallel byte-range GETs against each object saturates the Direct Connect link far better than a single sequential GET. Transfer Acceleration targets internet paths, replication moves copies without changing read mechanics, and Intelligent-Tiering is a cost tool rather than a throughput tool.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
S3 Cross-Region Replication to a bucket in the lab's nearest Region.
Why it's wrong here
Cross-Region Replication copies objects asynchronously to another bucket, but the lab still reads from S3 over Direct Connect. Replication adds storage and request charges and does not increase per-request throughput or eliminate the bottleneck. It changes where data lives, not how efficiently a single read stream is consumed.
- ✓
S3 byte-range fetches using parallel GET requests against the same object.
Why this is correct
Byte-range fetches let a client issue multiple concurrent GET requests for different portions of one large object, which multiplies achievable throughput and uses the available Direct Connect bandwidth more fully. This is the standard S3 pattern for high-throughput reads of large objects and can reduce total request cost by retrieving full object data efficiently.
- ✗
S3 Transfer Acceleration on the bucket, because it speeds up long-distance transfers.
Why it's wrong here
Transfer Acceleration uses edge locations to optimize uploads and downloads over the public internet, but the lab already uses Direct Connect, a private dedicated link. Acceleration adds cost and does not improve throughput for traffic already entering AWS over Direct Connect. It also does not address per-request byte-range parallelism.
- ✗
S3 Intelligent-Tiering to automatically move frequently accessed data to a faster tier.
Why it's wrong here
Intelligent-Tiering optimizes storage cost by moving objects between access tiers; it does not change the network path, request concurrency, or per-request throughput. All tiers are served from the same S3 infrastructure. This option addresses cost, not the observed read performance problem.
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
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