SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is designing a new application to store and retrieve user profile pictures. The images will be accessed frequently and must be served with low latency. Which storage solution should they use?
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
✓
Amazon S3
Amazon S3 is ideal for storing and serving static content like images with low latency. Option A (Amazon EBS) is block storage for EC2, Option C (Amazon EFS) is file storage, and Option D (Amazon RDS) is a relational database.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon EBS
Why it's wrong here
Amazon EBS provides block storage volumes attached to a single EC2 instance in one Availability Zone, so it cannot serve images directly to users. It is tempting because it offers low-latency persistent storage, which would be correct for a database's data files or a single instance's boot volume.
- ✓
Amazon S3
Why this is correct
Amazon S3 delivers low-latency object retrieval for frequently accessed images, satisfying the stem's performance requirement. Objects are served directly over HTTP without provisioning servers, and S3 scales elastically for profile picture workloads. For even lower latency, CloudFront can cache content at edge locations, though S3 alone meets the stated need.
- ✗
Amazon EFS
Why it's wrong here
Amazon EFS is a shared NFS file system for Linux workloads across multiple instances, not an object store for serving images over HTTP. It is tempting because it scales elastically and is shared, which would suit lift-and-shift file shares needing concurrent POSIX access, not frequently accessed profile pictures.
- ✗
Amazon RDS
Why it's wrong here
Amazon RDS is a managed relational database, so storing images as BLOBs adds cost and cannot serve them over HTTP with low latency. It is tempting because it offers durable managed storage with backups, which would be correct for structured metadata about the pictures rather than the image objects themselves.
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 SAP-C02 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 SAP-C02 exam.