SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question

A company is using Amazon S3 to store critical data and needs to ensure that objects are automatically deleted after 30 days. The current lifecycle policy is configured to expire objects after 30 days, but objects are not being deleted. What is the most likely cause?

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

✓

The bucket has S3 Object Lock enabled with a retention period exceeding 30 days.

S3 Object Lock with a retention period exceeding 30 days prevents lifecycle expiration until the retention period ends. Option A is incorrect: when versioning is enabled, lifecycle expiration still applies – S3 creates a delete marker for the current version and permanently deletes noncurrent versions based on the noncurrent days configuration. Option B is incorrect: storage class (including Glacier Deep Archive) does not block expiration; objects in any class can be expired. Option D is incorrect: S3 Lifecycle does not use an IAM role; it operates under the bucket's permissions, and while a bucket policy denying s3:DeleteObject could block deletion, the issue described is not with an IAM role.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

✗
The bucket has versioning enabled, and lifecycle rules apply only to current versions.
Why it's wrong here
Lifecycle rules can apply to both current and noncurrent versions.
✗
The objects are stored in the S3 Glacier Deep Archive storage class.
Why it's wrong here
Storage class does not affect lifecycle expiration.
✓
The bucket has S3 Object Lock enabled with a retention period exceeding 30 days.
Why this is correct
Object Lock prevents object deletion before retention expires.
✗
The IAM role used by S3 Lifecycle lacks the s3:DeleteObject permission.
Why it's wrong here
Lifecycle actions are performed by S3 internally, not by an IAM role.

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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