← SOA-C02·Amazon Web Services

Question 88 of 1,546

Reliability and Business Continuity →easyMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

S3 Versioning and MFA Delete for Accidental Deletion Protection

This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of reliability and business continuity. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.

A company uses Amazon S3 to store critical data. The SysOps administrator needs to protect against accidental deletion of objects. Which combination of actions should the administrator take? (Choose the best answer.)

Clue words in this question

Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.

Clue: "best"
Why it matters: Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.

A
Apply a bucket policy that denies s3:DeleteObject for all principals.
Why wrong: Bucket policies cannot prevent deletion by the root user or authorized IAM users.
B
Set a lifecycle policy to expire objects after 30 days.
Why wrong: Lifecycle policies can delete objects, not protect them.
C
Enable S3 Versioning and MFA Delete on the bucket.
Versioning preserves overwrites and deletes; MFA Delete adds extra protection.
D
Configure cross-Region replication to a different bucket.
Why wrong: Replication does not prevent deletion; it copies objects asynchronously.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

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

✓

Enable S3 Versioning and MFA Delete on the bucket.

Option C is correct because enabling S3 Versioning preserves all versions of an object, allowing recovery from accidental deletion or overwrite. MFA Delete adds an additional authentication layer, requiring multi-factor authentication to permanently delete object versions or suspend versioning, thus preventing unauthorized or accidental deletions.

Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

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

✗
Apply a bucket policy that denies s3:DeleteObject for all principals.
Why it's wrong here
Bucket policies cannot prevent deletion by the root user or authorized IAM users.
✗
Set a lifecycle policy to expire objects after 30 days.
Why it's wrong here
Lifecycle policies can delete objects, not protect them.
✓
Enable S3 Versioning and MFA Delete on the bucket.
Why this is correct
Versioning preserves overwrites and deletes; MFA Delete adds extra protection.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Configure cross-Region replication to a different bucket.
Why it's wrong here
Replication does not prevent deletion; it copies objects asynchronously.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

The trap here is that candidates often choose a bucket policy denying s3:DeleteObject (Option A) thinking it prevents accidental deletion, but they overlook that it does not protect against overwrites or that versioning with MFA Delete is the only comprehensive solution that also covers permanent deletion and versioning state changes.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

S3 Versioning works by assigning a unique version ID to each object upload; when an object is deleted, a delete marker is inserted instead of removing the underlying data, and the previous version remains accessible. MFA Delete requires a valid time-based one-time password (TOTP) from a hardware or virtual MFA device to permanently delete versions or change the versioning state, enforced via the x-amz-mfa request header. In a real-world scenario, if an administrator accidentally runs a bulk delete script, versioning allows recovery by removing the delete markers, while MFA Delete prevents a compromised root user from disabling versioning.

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.

TExam Day Tips

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.

Key takeaway

Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.

Real-world example

How this comes up in practice

A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.

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

What to study next

Got this wrong? Here's your next step.

Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.

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FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this SOA-C02 question test?

Reliability and Business Continuity — This question tests Reliability and Business Continuity — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Enable S3 Versioning and MFA Delete on the bucket. — Option C is correct because enabling S3 Versioning preserves all versions of an object, allowing recovery from accidental deletion or overwrite. MFA Delete adds an additional authentication layer, requiring multi-factor authentication to permanently delete object versions or suspend versioning, thus preventing unauthorized or accidental deletions.

What should I do if I get this SOA-C02 question wrong?

Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.

Are there clue words in this question I should notice?

Yes — watch for: "best". Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.

What is the key concept behind this question?

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

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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.