A team stores application logs in Amazon S3. They need access to the logs only occasionally for troubleshooting (infrequent access), and they want to reduce storage cost automatically over time without manually moving objects. What should they implement?

An S3 lifecycle policy that deletes objects after 1 day to eliminate storage costs

Deleting after 1 day would remove data before it can be used for occasional troubleshooting. Storage cost optimization must still respect retention and troubleshooting requirements; lifecycle rules should transition to cheaper classes rather than delete immediately unless deletion is explicitly acceptable.

An S3 lifecycle policy that keeps all objects in S3 Standard and only applies compression at read time

Staying in S3 Standard does not address the cost driver (storage class pricing based on access frequency). “Compression at read time” is not an S3 lifecycle storage class optimization mechanism and would not directly lower S3 storage class charges as requested.

A policy that changes bucket encryption from SSE-S3 to SSE-KMS to reduce storage cost

Changing encryption type affects security and KMS key usage, not the fundamental S3 storage class pricing model. It is not a reliable method to reduce storage costs for infrequent access workloads.

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: An S3 lifecycle policy that transitions objects to a lower-cost storage class after a set number of days — For infrequently accessed logs, the most direct way to reduce S3 cost automatically is to use an S3 lifecycle policy to transition objects from S3 Standard to a more cost-effective storage class after they age (for example, Standard-IA or Glacier-based options). This keeps data available for occasional troubleshooting while applying lower storage pricing once the access pattern becomes infrequent. Why others are wrong: Deleting after a day would break troubleshooting needs and typically violates retention expectations. Keeping objects in S3 Standard ignores the key cost optimization lever (choosing a storage class appropriate for infrequent access). Changing encryption does not implement a storage-class transition and therefore won’t reliably reduce storage costs in the way described.

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.