- A
Enable S3 lifecycle policies to automatically move objects to Glacier after 30 days only.
Why wrong: Lifecycle transitions help with cost and retention, but they do not protect against overwrites or provide cross-Region copies.
- B
Enable S3 versioning and configure Cross-Region Replication to a destination bucket in another Region.
Versioning preserves previous object states against overwrites and deletes, while replication provides an additional Region copy for recovery.
- C
Disable all versioning and rely on AWS Backup to restore objects from a scheduled backup window.
Why wrong: Relying on backups may introduce recovery delays and does not give immediate protection from overwrites as versioning does.
- D
Enable S3 Block Public Access and SSE-S3 encryption, without using versioning or replication.
Why wrong: Block Public Access and encryption improve security, but they do not address resilience to overwrites or Region-level failures.
SAA-C03 Design Resilient Architectures Practice Question
This SAA-C03 practice question tests your understanding of design resilient architectures. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A team uses an S3 bucket to store important customer-generated exports. They need protection against accidental overwrites and also want copies of the data in another AWS Region for disaster recovery. Which S3 configuration best satisfies both requirements?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue:
"best"Why it matters: Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
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
Enable S3 versioning and configure Cross-Region Replication to a destination bucket in another Region.
Option B is correct because enabling S3 versioning protects against accidental overwrites by preserving all object versions, allowing recovery of previous versions. Configuring Cross-Region Replication (CRR) automatically replicates objects to a destination bucket in another AWS Region, providing disaster recovery by maintaining a copy of the data in a separate geographic location.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable S3 lifecycle policies to automatically move objects to Glacier after 30 days only.
Why it's wrong here
Lifecycle transitions help with cost and retention, but they do not protect against overwrites or provide cross-Region copies.
- ✓
Enable S3 versioning and configure Cross-Region Replication to a destination bucket in another Region.
Why this is correct
Versioning preserves previous object states against overwrites and deletes, while replication provides an additional Region copy for recovery.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Disable all versioning and rely on AWS Backup to restore objects from a scheduled backup window.
Why it's wrong here
Relying on backups may introduce recovery delays and does not give immediate protection from overwrites as versioning does.
- ✗
Enable S3 Block Public Access and SSE-S3 encryption, without using versioning or replication.
Why it's wrong here
Block Public Access and encryption improve security, but they do not address resilience to overwrites or Region-level failures.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may think lifecycle policies or AWS Backup alone can handle both accidental overwrites and disaster recovery, but they fail to address the real-time protection and cross-region copy requirements that versioning and CRR specifically provide.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
S3 versioning works by assigning a unique version ID to each object upload; when an object is overwritten, the previous version is retained and can be retrieved via the version ID. Cross-Region Replication (CRR) uses asynchronous replication to copy objects to a destination bucket in a different AWS Region, requiring versioning enabled on both source and destination buckets, and can replicate existing objects if configured with a replication rule that includes a filter. In a real-world scenario, if a customer export is accidentally overwritten, versioning allows immediate restoration of the previous version, while CRR ensures the data survives a regional outage.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SAA-C03 question test?
Design Resilient Architectures — This question tests Design Resilient Architectures — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Enable S3 versioning and configure Cross-Region Replication to a destination bucket in another Region. — Option B is correct because enabling S3 versioning protects against accidental overwrites by preserving all object versions, allowing recovery of previous versions. Configuring Cross-Region Replication (CRR) automatically replicates objects to a destination bucket in another AWS Region, providing disaster recovery by maintaining a copy of the data in a separate geographic location.
What should I do if I get this SAA-C03 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "best". Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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.
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