SAA-C03 Design High-Performing Architectures Practice Question
A latency-sensitive video platform uploads large files to S3 from users around the world. Which two features can improve upload performance?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse S3 Transfer Acceleration with CloudFront or think multipart upload is only for resumability, when in fact both features directly address latency and throughput for global, large-file uploads.
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 Transfer Acceleration
S3 Transfer Acceleration (B) uses AWS edge locations to route uploads over optimized network paths, reducing latency and packet loss for global users. S3 multipart upload (C) allows large files to be uploaded in parallel parts, improving throughput and enabling retries of individual parts without restarting the entire upload.
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 Object Lock
Why it's wrong here
S3 Object Lock enforces a WORM (write-once-read-many) model, placing objects under retention or legal hold to meet compliance requirements. It does not affect the network path, throughput, or latency of data transfer, so enabling it will not speed up large video uploads. In fact, it adds administrative overhead and can prevent necessary deletions, making it irrelevant—and potentially harmful—for a latency-sensitive ingestion pipeline.
- ✓
S3 Transfer Acceleration
Why this is correct
S3 Transfer Acceleration routes uploads through AWS's globally distributed edge locations, which then forward data to the bucket over the private, high-bandwidth AWS backbone instead of the public internet. This shortens the effective network path and reduces the impact of long-distance latency and packet loss, making it ideal for large, latency-sensitive videos uploaded from many global locations. While it incurs a per-GB cost, it directly addresses the throughput and latency bottlenecks typical for cross-continental uploads.
- ✓
S3 multipart upload
Why this is correct
S3 multipart upload breaks a large video file into smaller parts (each up to 5 GB) and uploads those parts in parallel, dramatically increasing aggregate throughput compared to a single HTTP PUT. It also improves resiliency because a failed part can be retried independently without restarting the entire file, which is valuable for large files on unstable connections. However, it operates at the application level and does not shorten the network distance to AWS, so its benefit is complementary to edge-path optimizations like Transfer Acceleration.
- ✗
S3 Inventory
Why it's wrong here
S3 Inventory produces a scheduled CSV or Parquet report on the objects in a bucket, including metadata such as size, storage class, encryption status, and last-modified date. This is strictly a management and governance feature used for auditing and lifecycle policy planning; it operates out-of-band and does not interact with the upload data plane. Running inventory cannot improve upload latency or throughput and will consume additional storage for report files, making it a wrong choice for performance tuning.
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 by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.