SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question
A company receives a Trusted Advisor recommendation to reduce costs by deleting unused Amazon EBS snapshots. The company has hundreds of snapshots. Which approach should the company use to identify and delete snapshots that are no longer needed?
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
✓
Use AWS Backup to manage snapshots and set retention rules.
AWS Backup provides lifecycle policies and centralized snapshot management, making it easy to identify and automatically delete unused snapshots. Option A is incorrect because detailed billing reports show cost data but do not help identify which specific snapshots are unused. Option B is incorrect because manually checking each snapshot with the AWS CLI is not scalable for hundreds of snapshots. Option D is incorrect because Amazon S3 Lifecycle policies manage S3 objects, not EBS snapshots.
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 detailed billing reports and analyze costs.
Why it's wrong here
Shows costs but does not identify which snapshots are unused.
- ✗
Use the AWS CLI to list all snapshots and manually check each one.
Why it's wrong here
Time-consuming and error-prone for hundreds.
- ✓
Use AWS Backup to manage snapshots and set retention rules.
Why this is correct
AWS Backup can automate snapshot lifecycle and identify old snapshots.
- ✗
Use Amazon S3 Lifecycle policies to expire snapshots automatically.
Why it's wrong here
Lifecycle policies are for S3 objects, not EBS snapshots.
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
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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.