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 architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse S3 lifecycle policies (which only manage storage tiers within a region) with cross-region replication, or incorrectly assume CloudFront's global edge caching provides durable DR storage in another region.
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 the correct AWS-native managed solution for automatically replicating objects from a source S3 bucket in one region to a destination bucket in another region, meeting the disaster recovery requirement. Versioning must be enabled on both source and destination buckets for CRR to function, as replication relies on version IDs to track and copy objects. This provides asynchronous, automatic replication without custom scripting or third-party tools.
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
An EBS snapshot schedule automates point-in-time backups of Amazon EBS volumes attached to EC2 instances, capturing block-level data rather than individual S3 objects. Since S3 is a managed object store with its own 99.999999999% durability model, EBS snapshots have no mechanism to scan, copy, or protect objects in S3 buckets, so they cannot provide the required cross-region DR copy.
- ✓
S3 Cross-Region Replication with versioning enabled
Why this is correct
S3 Cross-Region Replication requires versioning enabled on both the source and destination buckets and asynchronously replicates every new object upload to a chosen destination Region. This creates a geographically separate, durable copy of the trading dashboard's documents, satisfying disaster-recovery requirements without manual intervention. Versioning is also essential because CRR relies on object version IDs to track replication state and to replicate delete markers or overwrites consistently.
- ✗
S3 lifecycle transition to Glacier Flexible Retrieval
Why it's wrong here
An S3 lifecycle rule can transition objects to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after a specified age to reduce storage costs, but it keeps the objects in the same S3 bucket and the same AWS Region. The objects remain in the original Region, so if that Region becomes unavailable, the documents are still unavailable for retrieval. Glacier Flexible Retrieval provides low-cost archival storage, not geographic redundancy.
- ✗
A CloudFront distribution
Why it's wrong here
CloudFront is a global content delivery network that caches objects at edge locations near viewers to improve latency and reduce origin load, but those edge caches are ephemeral and are not a durable backup copy. It cannot replicate objects to a second S3 bucket for DR, and cached content can be evicted or expire. Therefore, a CloudFront distribution alone does not satisfy a cross-region disaster recovery requirement.
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
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.