SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question

Which TWO strategies can reduce the cost of storing infrequently accessed data in Amazon S3 while maintaining millisecond retrieval latency? (Choose two.)

⚠ Common exam trap

Many candidates confuse storage classes with retrieval latency, assuming that any 'Glacier' or 'Archive' class can provide millisecond retrieval, when in fact only S3 Standard, S3 Standard-IA, S3 One Zone-IA, and S3 Intelligent-Tiering (with frequent/infrequent tiers) offer that latency.

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 S3 Standard-IA for data that is accessed less frequently but requires millisecond retrieval.

Option C is correct because S3 Standard-IA (Infrequent Access) is explicitly designed for data accessed less frequently but still needing rapid, millisecond retrieval, and it charges lower storage rates than S3 Standard in exchange for a retrieval fee. Option D is correct because S3 Intelligent-Tiering automatically moves objects between access tiers (Frequent Access, Infrequent Access, Archive Instant Access, and optional archive tiers) based on changing access patterns, lowering storage costs while keeping millisecond retrieval for the frequent and infrequent access tiers. Option A is not correct because S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval does not provide millisecond retrieval—its expedited retrieval still takes 1–5 minutes, with standard retrievals taking hours. Option B is not correct because S3 Glacier Deep Archive has retrieval times of 12 hours (standard) or 48 hours (bulk), far exceeding millisecond latency. Option E is not correct because S3 One Zone-IA reduces cost only by storing data in a single Availability Zone, which lowers durability/resilience rather than being a general strategy for infrequently accessed data, and it still may not be appropriate for all data.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

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

✗
Transition objects to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after 90 days.
Why it's wrong here
Glacier Flexible Retrieval returns archived objects in minutes to hours, so it cannot maintain millisecond retrieval latency. It is tempting because it dramatically lowers storage cost for cold data, and would be correct if the workload tolerated retrieval delays rather than requiring immediate access.
✗
Use S3 Glacier Deep Archive for data older than 30 days.
Why it's wrong here
Glacier Deep Archive has retrieval times of 12 hours, not milliseconds.
✓
Use S3 Standard-IA for data that is accessed less frequently but requires millisecond retrieval.
Why this is correct
S3 Standard-IA delivers the same millisecond first-byte latency as S3 Standard while charging a lower storage rate, so infrequently accessed objects stay immediately retrievable. It satisfies the stem's dual constraint, unlike Glacier tiers, whose retrieval takes minutes to hours.
✓
Use S3 Intelligent-Tiering to automatically move objects between access tiers.
Why this is correct
S3 Intelligent-Tiering monitors access patterns and automatically moves objects between frequent and infrequent access tiers, charging a small monitoring fee. It preserves millisecond retrieval latency while cutting storage costs for data whose access is unpredictable.
✗
Use S3 One Zone-IA for all data to reduce storage costs.
Why it's wrong here
S3 One Zone-IA stores objects in a single Availability Zone, so it cannot satisfy durability requirements for data needing resilience, and it still bills a retrieval fee per gigabyte. It suits reproducible, non-critical data where cross-AZ redundancy is unnecessary — not general infrequently accessed storage.

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 Design for New Solutions Practice Question

Why each option matters

Option-by-option breakdown

AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison

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