SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A financial services company needs to store transaction records for 7 years to meet regulatory requirements. The records must be retrievable within 24 hours of a request. The volume of data is 10 TB per year. Which storage solution is MOST cost-effective?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse 'retrievable within 24 hours' with 'needs fast retrieval' and choose Glacier with expedited retrieval (Option C), failing to recognize that Glacier Deep Archive's standard retrieval (12–24 hours) meets the requirement at a fraction of the cost.
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 Glacier Deep Archive
Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive is the most cost-effective storage class for data that must be retained for 7 years and retrieved within 24 hours, as it offers the lowest storage cost among AWS storage options while supporting retrieval times of 12–24 hours via standard retrieval. The 10 TB/year volume (70 TB total) and 24-hour retrieval window align perfectly with Glacier Deep Archive's design for long-term archival data that is 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.
- ✗
Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering
Why it's wrong here
Designed for unknown access patterns, not purely archival.
- ✓
Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive
Why this is correct
Lowest cost, retrieval within 12 hours, suitable for 7-year retention.
- ✗
Amazon S3 Glacier with expedited retrieval
Why it's wrong here
Expedited retrieval costs more; standard retrieval takes 1-5 minutes, not needed.
- ✗
Amazon S3 Standard with lifecycle policies to transition to S3 Glacier after 1 year
Why it's wrong here
S3 Standard is costly for 7 years; Glacier is cheaper but Deep Archive is even cheaper.
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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JA
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.