SOA-C02 Reliability and Business Continuity Practice Question

A company has an S3 bucket that stores critical data. The bucket has versioning enabled. A SysOps administrator accidentally deletes a version of an object. What is the quickest way to recover the deleted version?

⚠ Common exam trap

A common mix-up: candidates think S3 has an 'Undelete' feature (Option A) or that MFA Delete (Option B) can reverse deletions, but S3's versioning model requires manual recovery via version history, not a built-in undo function.

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

✓

Copy the deleted version from the bucket's version history.

S3 object versioning maintains a version history for each object, including deleted versions. When a version is deleted, it is not permanently removed; instead, a delete marker is created, and the deleted version remains in the version history. The quickest way to recover it is to copy the deleted version ID from the bucket's version history (e.g., using the AWS CLI `aws s3api copy-object` with the `--version-id` parameter) to restore the object without contacting support or enabling additional features.

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 the S3 bucket's 'Undelete' feature.
Why it's wrong here
There is no 'Undelete' feature in Amazon S3. When an object is deleted, unless you have previously enabled S3 Versioning, the object is permanently removed and cannot be restored through any console or API action. Versioning is the only built-in mechanism that preserves deleted objects as prior versions, allowing you to recover them manually.
✗
Enable MFA Delete and then restore the object.
Why it's wrong here
MFA Delete is a versioning setting that requires a one-time password to permanently delete an object version or suspend versioning; it is a protective control, not a recovery tool. Enabling it now does nothing to recover an object that was already deleted, because MFA Delete cannot recreate or restore previous states. Its sole purpose is to reduce the risk of accidental permanent deletions in the future.
✗
Contact AWS Support to restore the object.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Support will not restore a deleted S3 object for you. Because versioning is enabled on this bucket, you can immediately recover the object yourself by reverting the delete marker or copying the previous version—no support ticket needed. If versioning had not been enabled, even AWS Support would be unable to retrieve the object, as its data blocks would already be overwritten.
✓
Copy the deleted version from the bucket's version history.
Why this is correct
With S3 Versioning enabled, deleting an object does not erase the data; it simply creates a delete marker that becomes the current version while the original object remains as a noncurrent version. To restore it, copy the most recent noncurrent (deleted) version back into the bucket, which removes the delete marker and makes that version current again. This self-service method is the standard and reliable way to recover a deleted object.

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

SOA-C02 Reliability and Business Continuity Practice Question

Why each option matters

Option-by-option breakdown

AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison

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