SAA-C03 Design Resilient Architectures Practice Question
A trading dashboard stores uploaded documents in S3. The business requires a copy in another AWS Region for disaster recovery. What should be configured? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse S3 Cross-Region Replication with S3 lifecycle policies or CloudFront, thinking they provide cross-region replication, but only CRR with versioning enabled meets the DR requirement without custom scripts.
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) automatically replicates objects to a destination bucket in a different AWS Region, meeting the disaster recovery requirement without custom scripts. Versioning must be enabled on both source and destination buckets 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.
- ✗
An EBS snapshot schedule
Why it's wrong here
EBS snapshots do not apply to S3 objects.
- ✓
S3 Cross-Region Replication with versioning enabled
Why this is correct
CRR asynchronously replicates objects to a bucket in another Region and requires versioning.
- ✗
S3 lifecycle transition to Glacier Flexible Retrieval
Why it's wrong here
Lifecycle transition changes storage class, not Region.
- ✗
A CloudFront distribution
Why it's wrong here
CloudFront caches content but is not a durable DR copy.
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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