- A
Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering
Why wrong: Designed for unknown access patterns, not purely archival.
- B
Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive
Lowest cost, retrieval within 12 hours, suitable for 7-year retention.
- C
Amazon S3 Glacier with expedited retrieval
Why wrong: Expedited retrieval costs more; standard retrieval takes 1-5 minutes, not needed.
- D
Amazon S3 Standard with lifecycle policies to transition to S3 Glacier after 1 year
Why wrong: S3 Standard is costly for 7 years; Glacier is cheaper but Deep Archive is even cheaper.
Question 650 of 1,746
SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
This SAP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of design for new solutions. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
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?
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.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
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.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
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.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that 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.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
S3 Glacier Deep Archive uses a distributed erasure coding scheme across multiple Availability Zones, with retrieval times governed by a bulk retrieval queue that processes requests in 12–24 hours; the standard retrieval tier is free, while expedited (not available for Deep Archive) and bulk (5–12 hours) tiers have different pricing. Under the hood, Glacier Deep Archive stores data on tape-based or optical media with slower spin-up times, which is why it offers the lowest durability cost but requires patience for retrieval. In a real-world scenario, a financial firm subject to SEC Rule 17a-4 (7-year retention) would use Glacier Deep Archive with S3 Object Lock in compliance mode to prevent deletion or modification during the retention period.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
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 |
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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Design for New Solutions — study guide chapter
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SAP-C02 question test?
Design for New Solutions — This question tests Design for New Solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: 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.
What should I do if I get this SAP-C02 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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