Question 1easymultiple choice
Full question →easymultiple choiceObjective-mapped
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?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
A
Distractor review
Transition objects to S3 Standard-IA after 30 days, and to S3 Glacier after 60 days. Delete after 7 years.
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.
B
Distractor review
Transition objects to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 30 days, and delete after 7 years.
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.
C
Distractor review
Transition objects to S3 One Zone-IA after 30 days, and to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 90 days. Delete after 7 years.
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.
D
Best answer
Transition objects to S3 Standard-IA after 30 days, and to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 90 days. Delete after 7 years.
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.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
- Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
- Underline the problem statement mentally.
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Related practice questions
Related SOA-C02 practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A company uses Amazon CloudFront to deliver content to a global audience. The origin is an Application Load Balancer in us-east-1. The SysOps administrator wants to reduce costs by minimizing the number of requests that reach the origin server. Which action should the administrator take?
Question 2
A company runs a batch processing application on Amazon EC2 that runs for 2 hours every night. The workload can tolerate interruptions. Which EC2 purchasing option provides the lowest cost for this use case?
Question 3
A SysOps administrator needs to monitor the CPU utilization of an Amazon RDS DB instance and receive an alarm when CPU utilization exceeds 80% for 5 consecutive minutes. Which AWS service should be used to create this alarm?
Question 4
A company runs a critical web application on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The application uses session stickiness (sticky sessions) to maintain user sessions. The SysOps administrator notices that when instances are replaced during a scale-in or failure event, users lose their session data. The administrator needs to preserve session data across instance failures without losing stickiness benefits. What should the administrator do?
Question 5
A company runs a production web application on a single Amazon EC2 instance. The application experiences a predictable and steady workload 24/7. The SysOps administrator wants to minimize compute costs for this instance while ensuring it remains available during the expected workload. Which EC2 purchasing option should the administrator use?
Question 6
A company has a VPC with public and private subnets. The private subnets host application servers that need to make outbound HTTPS connections to the internet. The SysOps administrator must implement a solution that provides outbound internet connectivity while preventing inbound connections from the internet. Additionally, the solution must allow the company to control which domains the application servers can access. Which solution should the administrator implement?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SOA-C02 question test?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Transition objects to S3 Standard-IA after 30 days, and to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 90 days. Delete after 7 years. — To optimize cost, data should be transitioned to more cost-effective storage classes as access frequency decreases. After 30 days, transitioning to S3 Standard-IA (Infrequent Access) reduces cost while maintaining low latency. After 90 days, moving to S3 Glacier Deep Archive minimizes cost for long-term retention. Option A transitions too quickly to IA and then to Glacier, but the description says data is rarely accessed after 90 days, not immediately. Option B only transitions to Glacier, which is unnecessary for data that is still accessed occasionally for 60 days. Option C uses S3 One Zone-IA, which does not provide the durability needed for compliance data (loss of an AZ could cause data loss).
What should I do if I get this SOA-C02 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
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