SAA-C03 Design Cost-Optimized Architectures Practice Question
A media company uploads raw video thumbnails to an S3 bucket every hour. The application needs these thumbnails for active browsing for the first 7 days. After day 7, access becomes rare. Requirements: - Objects must remain available in S3 for at least 180 days total. - After day 7, the team can tolerate retrieval latency in the range of minutes to hours. - They want to minimize storage cost while keeping the ability to read objects (no application changes required). Which storage strategy is the most cost-optimized fit?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates choose S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval (Option D) because of the word 'Instant,' overlooking that the requirement explicitly tolerates minutes-to-hours latency, making the cheaper Glacier Flexible Retrieval the better cost-optimized choice.
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
✓
Use a lifecycle rule to transition objects to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after day 7 and expire them after day 180.
S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval provides retrieval times from minutes to hours, which matches the tolerance for rare access after day 7, and offers the lowest storage cost among the options for data that is rarely accessed. A lifecycle rule transitions objects from S3 Standard (used for the first 7 days of active browsing) to Glacier Flexible Retrieval on day 7, then expires them after day 180, meeting the 180-day retention requirement without application changes.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use a bucket-level lifecycle rule to transition objects to S3 Standard-IA on day 7 and then expire them after day 180.
Why it's wrong here
Standard-IA is cheaper than Standard, but it is typically more expensive than Glacier storage classes for infrequent access. Since retrieval latency can be minutes to hours after day 7, Glacier Flexible Retrieval is usually the more cost-optimized option.
- ✓
Use a lifecycle rule to transition objects to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after day 7 and expire them after day 180.
Why this is correct
Glacier Flexible Retrieval is designed for infrequent access and supports restore times compatible with minutes to hours. Transitioning after day 7 reduces storage cost for the long period where access is rare, while expiring at day 180 satisfies the 180-day retention requirement. The application can still use S3 GetObject; retrieval simply takes longer due to the archival tier.
- ✗
Keep all objects in S3 Standard for 180 days, and enable S3 Intelligent-Tiering only if the bucket’s access frequency is above a threshold.
Why it's wrong here
Keeping objects in Standard does not minimize storage cost, especially during the long period after day 7 when access is rare. Intelligent-Tiering is most useful when access patterns are unpredictable; here the stem states the pattern is predictable (frequent for 7 days, rare afterward), so targeted lifecycle transitions to Glacier are more direct and cost-optimized.
- ✗
Use a lifecycle rule to transition objects to S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval after day 7 and expire them after day 180.
Why it's wrong here
Glacier Instant Retrieval is optimized for faster restores (typically minutes) and is usually more expensive than Glacier Flexible Retrieval. Since the team can tolerate minutes to hours after day 7, Flexible Retrieval provides better cost optimization for the allowed latency.
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 by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
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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.