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Question 1,052 of 1,748

Management and Security Governance →hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

Most Cost-Effective CloudTrail Log Retention for 7 Years

This SCS-C02 practice question tests your understanding of management and security governance. 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.

An organization has a requirement to retain all AWS CloudTrail logs for at least 7 years for compliance. Currently, logs are stored in an S3 bucket with default settings. What is the MOST cost-effective way to meet the retention requirement?

Clue words in this question

Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.

Clue: "least"
Why it matters: You want the option with minimum overhead, fewest steps, or lowest impact — not the most feature-rich or comprehensive answer.

A
Use S3 Glacier Deep Archive immediately.
Why wrong: Deep Archive is cheaper but retrieval costs are high if needed.
B
Set an S3 lifecycle policy to delete objects after 7 years.
Why wrong: Deleting after 7 years meets the requirement but does not provide cost savings during retention.
C
Set the CloudTrail trail to store logs in an S3 bucket with 7-year retention.
Why wrong: CloudTrail does not have retention settings.
D
Configure S3 lifecycle policy to transition objects to S3 Glacier after 30 days and expire after 7 years.
Transitioning to Glacier reduces cost while meeting retention.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

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

✓

Configure S3 lifecycle policy to transition objects to S3 Glacier after 30 days and expire after 7 years.

Option D is the most cost-effective because it uses an S3 lifecycle policy to transition objects to S3 Glacier after 30 days (reducing storage costs for older logs) and then expires (deletes) them after 7 years to meet the retention requirement. Option A is wrong because storing logs directly in S3 Glacier Deep Archive is not cost-effective for logs that may be accessed occasionally and does not automatically expire after 7 years without additional policy. Option B is wrong because simply deleting after 7 years does not take advantage of cheaper storage tiers. Option C is wrong because CloudTrail trails do not have a retention setting; retention must be managed via S3 lifecycle policies.

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.

✗
Use S3 Glacier Deep Archive immediately.
Why it's wrong here
Deep Archive is cheaper but retrieval costs are high if needed.
✗
Set an S3 lifecycle policy to delete objects after 7 years.
Why it's wrong here
Deleting after 7 years meets the requirement but does not provide cost savings during retention.
✗
Set the CloudTrail trail to store logs in an S3 bucket with 7-year retention.
Why it's wrong here
CloudTrail does not have retention settings.
✓
Configure S3 lifecycle policy to transition objects to S3 Glacier after 30 days and expire after 7 years.
Why this is correct
Transitioning to Glacier reduces cost while meeting retention.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "least" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.

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.
Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.

TExam Day Tips

Underline the problem statement mentally.
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 SCS-C02 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.

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FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this SCS-C02 question test?

Management and Security Governance — This question tests Management and Security Governance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Configure S3 lifecycle policy to transition objects to S3 Glacier after 30 days and expire after 7 years. — Option D is the most cost-effective because it uses an S3 lifecycle policy to transition objects to S3 Glacier after 30 days (reducing storage costs for older logs) and then expires (deletes) them after 7 years to meet the retention requirement. Option A is wrong because storing logs directly in S3 Glacier Deep Archive is not cost-effective for logs that may be accessed occasionally and does not automatically expire after 7 years without additional policy. Option B is wrong because simply deleting after 7 years does not take advantage of cheaper storage tiers. Option C is wrong because CloudTrail trails do not have a retention setting; retention must be managed via S3 lifecycle policies.

What should I do if I get this SCS-C02 question wrong?

Are there clue words in this question I should notice?

Yes — watch for: "least". You want the option with minimum overhead, fewest steps, or lowest impact — not the most feature-rich or comprehensive answer.

What is the key concept behind this question?

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

About these practice questions

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Same concept, more angles

1 more ways this is tested on SCS-C02

These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.

Variation 1. A company is implementing a data retention policy for CloudTrail logs. The logs are stored in an S3 bucket. The policy requires that logs be retained for 7 years and then automatically deleted. Which TWO actions should the security engineer take to meet this requirement?

medium

A.Use AWS Backup to manage retention and deletion.
✓ B.Enable S3 Object Lock in compliance mode on the bucket.
C.Configure the S3 bucket policy to deny s3:DeleteObject actions for all principals.
D.Enable S3 Versioning and create a lifecycle policy to delete noncurrent versions.
✓ E.Create an S3 Lifecycle policy that expires objects after 2555 days (7 years).

Why B: To retain logs for 7 years and then automatically delete, the security engineer should enable S3 Object Lock in compliance mode (B) to prevent any deletion during the retention period, and create an S3 Lifecycle policy to expire objects after 2555 days (E). The Object Lock ensures logs cannot be deleted prematurely, while the lifecycle policy handles automatic deletion after 7 years. Option C is incorrect because denying s3:DeleteObject to all principals would block the lifecycle policy from deleting objects. Options A and D are not suitable for this requirement.

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