SAA-C03 Design Secure Architectures Practice Question
A order processing API stores audit logs in S3. The compliance team requires that logs cannot be overwritten or deleted for seven years. What should be configured? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse versioning with immutability, thinking versioning alone prevents deletion, but it only preserves overwritten versions while still allowing the current version to be deleted unless combined with Object Lock or MFA Delete.
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 Object Lock in compliance mode with an appropriate retention period
S3 Object Lock in compliance mode prevents any user, including the root user, from overwriting or deleting objects for the specified retention period. This meets the compliance requirement of a seven-year immutable audit log without custom scripts. Compliance mode enforces a legal hold that cannot be removed by any user, ensuring logs remain intact.
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 server access logging
Why it's wrong here
S3 server access logging records detailed information about requests made to an S3 bucket, including the requester, bucket name, request time, and operation performed. While useful for auditing access patterns, these logs do not prevent the underlying audit log objects themselves from being modified or deleted by an authorized user. Therefore, it fails to ensure the immutability required for compliance.
- ✗
S3 lifecycle expiration after seven years
Why it's wrong here
S3 lifecycle expiration rules are designed to manage object storage costs by automatically transitioning or deleting objects after a defined period. However, implementing a lifecycle rule to expire objects after seven years does not prevent an authorized user from manually deleting or overwriting those audit log objects *before* the seven-year period elapses. This mechanism is for automated data management, not for enforcing an immutable write-once-read-many (WORM) state.
- ✗
S3 versioning only
Why it's wrong here
S3 versioning protects against accidental overwrites and deletions by keeping multiple versions of an object, allowing recovery to previous states. While it preserves prior versions, versioning alone does not prevent an authorized user with appropriate permissions from explicitly deleting an object's current version (via a delete marker) or even permanently deleting specific object versions. This capability does not enforce the strict immutability required for compliance-driven audit logs.
- ✓
S3 Object Lock in compliance mode with an appropriate retention period
Why this is correct
S3 Object Lock in compliance mode provides robust Write Once, Read Many (WORM) protection, making objects immutable for a specified retention period. Once an object is locked in compliance mode, it cannot be overwritten or deleted by any user, including the root account, until the retention period expires. This ensures the highest level of data integrity and immutability, which is essential for audit logs subject to stringent regulatory compliance requirements.
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
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