SOA-C02 Cost and Performance Optimization Practice Question

A company stores application log files in an Amazon S3 bucket. The logs are accessed frequently for the first 30 days, then rarely accessed but must be retrievable within 12 hours. After 1 year, the logs must be archived for compliance with a retention period of 5 years, during which retrievals are expected to be extremely rare (one or two per year) and retrieval time of 12 hours is acceptable. The SysOps administrator wants to minimize storage costs. Which S3 lifecycle policy configuration should be used?

⚠ Common exam trap

Candidates often choose S3 Standard-IA (Option A) because it seems logical for infrequent access, failing to recognize that S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval provides lower storage costs for data that is rarely accessed but still needs retrieval within 12 hours, and that a multi-tier lifecycle (Option B) is more cost-effective than a single transition.

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

✓

After 30 days, transition to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval; after 365 days, transition to S3 Glacier Deep Archive; delete after 5 years.

It uses S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval for the first year after the initial 30 days, which meets the 12-hour retrieval requirement at lower cost than S3 Standard-IA, then transitions to S3 Glacier Deep Archive for the remaining 4 years to minimize storage costs for extremely rare retrievals. The lifecycle policy transitions objects after 30 days to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval (retrieval time minutes to 12 hours), then after 365 days to S3 Glacier Deep Archive (retrieval time 12 hours), and deletes after 5 years, aligning with the access patterns and compliance retention.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

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

✗
After 30 days, transition to S3 Standard-IA; after 365 days, transition to S3 Glacier Deep Archive; delete after 5 years.
Why it's wrong here
S3 Standard-IA is more expensive than Glacier Flexible Retrieval for data that is rarely accessed. Using Glacier Flexible Retrieval for the middle tier would be more cost-effective given the rare access pattern after 30 days.
✓
After 30 days, transition to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval; after 365 days, transition to S3 Glacier Deep Archive; delete after 5 years.
Why this is correct
This lifecycle provides cost-optimized storage: S3 Standard for the first 30 days (frequent access), S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval for the next 335 days (rare access, 12-hour retrieval acceptable), and S3 Glacier Deep Archive for the final 4+ years (extremely rare access, lowest cost). This minimizes overall costs while meeting retrieval requirements.
✗
After 30 days, transition to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval; delete after 5 years.
Why it's wrong here
This lifecycle lacks the transition to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 1 year. Since the data is extremely rarely accessed after 1 year, storing it in Glacier Flexible Retrieval is more expensive than Glacier Deep Archive.
✗
After 30 days, transition to S3 Glacier Deep Archive; delete after 5 years.
Why it's wrong here
Transitioning directly to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 30 days disregards the fact that data is accessed rarely but still occasionally (within 12 hours) for the first year. Glacier Deep Archive has lower storage cost but higher retrieval costs, and for data that may be accessed a few times a year, Glacier Flexible Retrieval is more cost-effective overall.

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

1 more way this is tested on SOA-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 stores application logs in Amazon S3. The logs are rarely accessed after the first 30 days, but must be retained for 7 years for compliance. The SysOps administrator wants to minimize storage costs while ensuring logs are available for retrieval within 12 hours if needed. Which S3 lifecycle configuration is the most cost-effective?

medium

✓ A.S3 Standard for 30 days, then transition to S3 Glacier Deep Archive
B.S3 Standard for 30 days, then transition to S3 Glacier (Flexible Retrieval)
C.Use S3 Intelligent-Tiering from the start
D.S3 Standard for 30 days, then transition to S3 One Zone-IA

Why A: It transitions logs from S3 Standard (for frequent access during the first 30 days) to S3 Glacier Deep Archive, which offers the lowest storage cost for long-term retention. Since logs must be retained for 7 years and only need retrieval within 12 hours, Glacier Deep Archive's 12-hour standard retrieval time meets the requirement while minimizing costs.

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.

SOA-C02 Cost and Performance Optimization Practice Question

Why each option matters

Option-by-option breakdown

AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison

Related to this question

1 more way this is tested on SOA-C02