SOA-C02 Reliability and Business Continuity Practice Question
A company stores critical data in an S3 bucket. To ensure data durability and availability, the company wants to automatically replicate objects to a bucket in a different AWS Region. Which S3 feature should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse enabling S3 Versioning (which is a prerequisite for CRR but does not itself replicate data) with the actual replication feature, leading them to select Option D instead of the correct CRR option.
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 Cross-Region Replication.
S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) is the correct feature because it automatically and asynchronously replicates objects from a source S3 bucket in one AWS Region to a destination bucket in a different AWS Region. This ensures data durability and availability by maintaining a copy in a separate geographic location, meeting the requirement for cross-region replication. CRR requires versioning to be enabled on both source and destination buckets.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable S3 Standard storage class on the bucket.
Why it's wrong here
S3 Standard is simply a storage class optimized for frequently accessed data with high durability and availability within a single AWS Region. It does not include any automatic data replication to another region; cross-region protection requires explicitly configuring S3 Cross-Region Replication. Changing the storage class alone leaves the data vulnerable to a regional outage.
- ✗
Use S3 One Zone-IA storage class.
Why it's wrong here
S3 One Zone-IA stores object copies redundantly within only one Availability Zone and does not replicate to any other AZ or Region. If that specific AZ experiences a failure or destruction, the data is permanently lost. Thus, it cannot satisfy a requirement to ensure critical data is protected across geographically separate locations.
- ✓
Configure S3 Cross-Region Replication.
Why this is correct
S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) asynchronously copies every uploaded object to a destination bucket in a different AWS Region, providing the geographic redundancy required for disaster recovery. CRR requires versioning to be enabled on both the source and destination buckets, and it can replicate to a different storage class. This ensures critical data remains available even if the entire source Region becomes unavailable.
- ✗
Enable S3 Versioning on the bucket.
Why it's wrong here
S3 Versioning maintains multiple versions of objects within the same bucket, which helps guard against accidental deletion or overwrite by allowing recovery of earlier versions. However, it does not copy or move data to any separate bucket or different AWS Region. Versioning is a mandatory prerequisite for Cross-Region Replication but is not itself a replication mechanism, so it alone cannot provide cross-region durability.
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 |
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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.