SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question

A company has an existing web application that stores user-uploaded images in an Amazon S3 bucket. The bucket has S3 Standard storage and versioning enabled. Over time, storage costs have increased because many old object versions are never accessed after 30 days, but they must be retained for 1 year for compliance. The security team requires that no object version be permanently deleted before 365 days. Which solution is the MOST cost-effective while meeting the compliance requirement?

⚠ Common exam trap

The trap here is assuming that S3 Intelligent-Tiering automatically manages noncurrent versions and enforces retention, when it only optimizes access-based tiers for current objects.

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

✓

Create an S3 Lifecycle policy that transitions noncurrent versions to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 30 days and expires them after 365 days.

A lifecycle rule that transitions noncurrent versions to Glacier Deep Archive after 30 days and expires them at 365 days automatically lowers storage costs while guaranteeing retention for the compliance period. Intelligent-Tiering, bucket policies with manual deletion, and disabling versioning do not achieve the same automated, compliant cost reduction.

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 Intelligent-Tiering on the bucket and rely on it to move noncurrent versions to the archive access tier.
Why it's wrong here
S3 Intelligent-Tiering monitors access patterns and moves objects between frequent and infrequent access tiers, but it does not automatically manage noncurrent versions or enforce a 365-day retention. It also does not transition objects to Glacier Deep Archive. Without a lifecycle rule, old versions remain and costs are not minimized for the compliance period.
✗
Disable versioning on the bucket and use S3 Standard-Infrequent Access for all objects after 30 days.
Why it's wrong here
Disabling versioning does not delete existing noncurrent versions and prevents new versions from being retained, which may violate the compliance requirement to keep versions for 1 year. Transitioning current objects to Standard-IA does not address the accumulation of old versions. This approach is both non-compliant and not cost-optimal for the described access pattern.
✓
Create an S3 Lifecycle policy that transitions noncurrent versions to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 30 days and expires them after 365 days.
Why this is correct
Noncurrent version transition to Glacier Deep Archive after 30 days moves rarely accessed old versions to the lowest-cost storage class, and expiration at 365 days satisfies the retention requirement. S3 Lifecycle policies operate automatically without application changes, reducing storage cost while ensuring compliance. This is the most cost-effective option for long-term retention of noncurrent versions.
✗
Configure a bucket policy that denies s3:DeleteObjectVersion unless the object is older than 365 days, and manually delete older versions.
Why it's wrong here
A bucket policy can enforce retention, but manual deletion of old versions is operationally burdensome and error-prone. It does not reduce storage costs automatically because objects remain in S3 Standard until someone deletes them. This option meets compliance only through manual effort and does not provide the automated cost optimization of a lifecycle policy.

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

Go deeper

SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question

Why each option matters

Option-by-option breakdown

AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison

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