SOA-C02 Cost and Performance Optimization Practice Question

A company stores large volumes of log data in Amazon S3. The logs are accessed frequently for the first 30 days, then occasionally for the next 60 days, and after 90 days they are rarely accessed but must be retained for 7 years for compliance. The SysOps administrator wants to minimize storage costs while ensuring data is available when needed. Which S3 lifecycle policy configuration should be applied?

⚠ Common exam trap

Candidates often choose Option A because they think S3 Glacier is the standard archival tier, but they overlook that S3 Glacier Deep Archive is cheaper for 7-year retention and that the occasional-access period (days 31–90) is better served by S3 Standard-IA, not S3 Glacier.

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

✓

Transition objects to S3 Standard-IA after 30 days, and to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 90 days. Delete after 7 years.

It aligns the lifecycle transitions with the access patterns: frequent access for the first 30 days (S3 Standard), occasional access for the next 60 days (S3 Standard-IA), and rare access after 90 days (S3 Glacier Deep Archive, the lowest-cost storage class for long-term retention). The deletion after 7 years meets compliance requirements while minimizing costs by using progressively cheaper storage classes.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

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

✗
Transition objects to S3 Standard-IA after 30 days, and to S3 Glacier after 60 days. Delete after 7 years.
Why it's wrong here
Transitioning to Glacier after 60 days is too aggressive because the data is still accessed occasionally until 90 days. Retrieval from Glacier incurs additional time and cost. Also, Glacier is not the cheapest for long-term archival; Glacier Deep Archive is cheaper.
✗
Transition objects to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 30 days, and delete after 7 years.
Why it's wrong here
Moving data to Deep Archive after only 30 days is not cost-effective because the data is still frequently accessed in the first 30 days. Retrieval from Deep Archive takes hours and incurs significant costs, making it unsuitable for data that needs quick access.
✗
Transition objects to S3 One Zone-IA after 30 days, and to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 90 days. Delete after 7 years.
Why it's wrong here
S3 One Zone-IA does not provide the same durability as Standard-IA. For compliance data that must be retained for 7 years, using One Zone-IA increases the risk of data loss if the single Availability Zone fails. Standard-IA is the safer and still cost-effective choice.
✓
Transition objects to S3 Standard-IA after 30 days, and to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 90 days. Delete after 7 years.
Why this is correct
This lifecycle policy matches the access patterns: frequent access -> Standard-IA after 30 days, occasional access for next 60 days (still in IA), then rarely accessed -> Deep Archive after 90 days. Deep Archive is the lowest-cost storage option for long-term retention. Deleting after 7 years meets compliance. This is the most cost-effective configuration.

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 Cost and Performance Optimization Practice Question

Why each option matters

Option-by-option breakdown

AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison

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