SAA-C03 Design Resilient Architectures Practice Question
A ticket booking system stores uploaded documents in S3. The business requires a copy in another AWS Region for disaster recovery. What should be configured? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse S3 Cross-Region Replication with S3 lifecycle policies or Glacier transitions, mistakenly thinking that moving data to a cheaper storage class in the same region satisfies a disaster recovery requirement for geographic separation.
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 Cross-Region Replication with versioning enabled
S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) is a fully managed AWS-native feature that automatically replicates objects from a source S3 bucket in one AWS Region to a destination bucket in another Region, meeting the disaster recovery requirement for a geographically separate copy. Enabling versioning on both buckets is mandatory for CRR to function, as it tracks object versions and ensures consistency during replication.
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 lifecycle transition to Glacier Flexible Retrieval
Why it's wrong here
S3 Lifecycle transitions alter the storage class of objects within the same bucket and Region; they never move data to a different geographic location. While Glacier Flexible Retrieval offers low-cost archival storage, it does not provide a redundant copy in another Region, so it cannot meet a cross-Region disaster recovery requirement. To copy objects to a second Region, you must use replication, not a lifecycle rule.
- ✗
An EBS snapshot schedule
Why it's wrong here
EBS snapshots are point-in-time backups of Amazon Elastic Block Store volumes, which are block-level storage attached to EC2 instances. They have no effect on objects stored in Amazon S3, and they cannot move or copy data between Regions for S3-based content. Since the ticket system stores documents in S3, configuring an EBS snapshot schedule is entirely outside the scope of the data being protected.
- ✓
S3 Cross-Region Replication with versioning enabled
Why this is correct
S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) asynchronously replicates newly uploaded objects to a destination bucket in a different AWS Region, creating a durable secondary copy for disaster recovery. CRR requires versioning to be enabled on both the source and destination buckets, and it also replicates delete markers and metadata by default. Because the destination bucket is in another Region, applications can fail over and still access the ticket documents if the source Region becomes unavailable.
- ✗
A CloudFront distribution
Why it's wrong here
A CloudFront distribution caches content at edge locations worldwide, improving latency and reducing load on the origin, but it is not a durable storage copy that persists independently. If the origin S3 bucket is deleted or the source Region experiences a disaster, CloudFront edge caches are not a reliable backup and do not provide cross-Region data replication. CloudFront is a content delivery service, not a disaster recovery replication mechanism.
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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JA
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.