SOA-C02 Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation Practice Question
A company needs to retain API call logs for 7 years for compliance. Which AWS service should be used to store these logs?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse CloudTrail (API auditing) with CloudWatch Logs (operational logs) or Config (configuration history), but only CloudTrail captures the specific API call logs required for compliance retention.
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
✓
AWS CloudTrail
AWS CloudTrail is the correct service because it records API activity across your AWS infrastructure and can be configured to store logs in an S3 bucket with lifecycle policies that retain data for 7 years. CloudTrail is specifically designed for auditing and compliance, capturing management and data plane API calls, and supports long-term retention via S3 object locking or lifecycle rules.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
AWS CloudTrail
Why this is correct
CloudTrail records API activity and delivers event logs to Amazon S3, where lifecycle policies retain objects for the mandated seven years. This satisfies the compliance retention constraint, since CloudTrail itself is the capture service feeding durable storage.
- ✗
AWS Config
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config records resource configuration state and compliance over time, not API call payloads, so it cannot hold seven years of call logs. It is tempting because Config does retain long-term configuration history, which suits auditing resource changes rather than API activity.
- ✗
Amazon CloudWatch Logs
Why it's wrong here
CloudWatch Logs retention caps at ten years and is designed for operational monitoring and querying, not seven-year compliance archiving. It is tempting because it already receives API call logs natively, but Amazon S3 with a lifecycle policy is the correct destination for long-term immutable retention.
- ✗
Amazon VPC Flow Logs
Why it's wrong here
VPC Flow Logs capture IP traffic metadata for network interfaces, not API call records, and cannot satisfy a seven-year API audit requirement. CloudTrail would be correct for recording API activity; Flow Logs suit connectivity and security troubleshooting.
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 SOA-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 SOA-C02 exam.