SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company wants to design a cost-effective solution to store infrequently accessed log files for 7 years. The logs are generated daily and must be available for retrieval within 24 hours. Which Amazon S3 storage class should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse retrieval time requirements with access frequency, assuming that any 'Infrequent Access' class (like S3 One Zone-IA or S3 Standard-IA) is the best choice for archival, when in fact S3 Glacier Deep Archive is designed specifically for long-term, cost-effective archival with retrieval times that still meet the 24-hour window.
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 Glacier Deep Archive
Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive is the most cost-effective storage class for infrequently accessed data that must be retained for 7 years, with retrieval times of up to 12 hours (within the 24-hour requirement). It offers the lowest storage cost among S3 classes, making it ideal for long-term archival of log files that are rarely accessed.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access
Why it's wrong here
S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access stores objects in a single Availability Zone, so an AZ failure could destroy logs that must survive seven years. It is tempting because it is the cheapest infrequent-access class, and would be correct for reproducible, non-critical data where durability loss is acceptable.
- ✗
S3 Intelligent-Tiering
Why it's wrong here
S3 Intelligent-Tiering charges a monthly monitoring and automation fee per object, and its tiers do not extend to the seven-year archival depth required here. It is tempting because it automatically moves objects between access tiers, and would be correct for unpredictable access patterns over shorter retention periods.
- ✓
S3 Glacier Deep Archive
Why this is correct
S3 Glacier Deep Archive offers the lowest storage cost for long-term retention and supports standard retrieval within 12 hours, satisfying the 24-hour availability constraint across the 7-year period. It is designed precisely for rarely accessed compliance archives.
- ✗
S3 Standard
Why it's wrong here
S3 Standard bills at the highest per-gigabyte rate with no retrieval charge, so seven years of daily logs becomes prohibitively expensive. It is tempting because it delivers immediate, low-latency access, and would be correct for frequently accessed, performance-sensitive data rather than archival logs tolerant of a 24-hour retrieval window.
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.