Google ACE Deploying and Implementing a Cloud Solution Practice Question
A company wants to create a Cloud Storage bucket to store archival data that is accessed infrequently (less than once a year). The data must be stored at the lowest possible cost. Which storage class should they choose?
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
✓
Archive
Archive storage class is the lowest-cost option for long-term archival data accessed less than once a year. Nearline and Coldline have higher retrieval costs but are for data accessed less frequently than standard, not as low as Archive. Standard is for frequently accessed data.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Archive
Why this is correct
Archive is the correct choice because it is the lowest-cost Cloud Storage class for data that is accessed less than once a year, offering the cheapest per-gigabyte monthly price for long-term retention. It does incur retrieval fees and a 365-day minimum storage duration, but for true archival data with infrequent access these trade-offs are acceptable. This class also has no availability SLA, which is fine for this access pattern but means it should only be used for durable, rarely accessed data.
- ✗
Coldline
Why it's wrong here
Coldline is a storage class designed for data accessed at most once every 90 days (quarterly), not the once-a-year pattern in this scenario. While it is cheaper than Standard and Nearline, it is still priced higher per gigabyte than Archive and carries retrieval and minimum storage costs that make it uneconomical for this one-year access interval. The 90-day minimum storage duration also aligns to quarterly access, so it does not fit the requirement.
- ✗
Nearline
Why it's wrong here
Nearline storage has a minimum storage duration of 30 days and a retrieval cost that, while lower than standard classes, is still higher than the Archive class. For data accessed less than once a year, the Archive class offers a lower per-gigabyte storage price and a 90-day minimum, making Nearline unnecessarily expensive for this infrequent access pattern. It is tempting because Nearline is designed for data accessed roughly once a quarter, such as backups or short-term disaster recovery, where its balance of low cost and moderate retrieval speed would be correct.
- ✗
Standard
Why it's wrong here
Standard storage is optimized for frequently accessed ('hot') data and has no minimum storage duration, but it has the highest per-gigabyte storage price among all Cloud Storage classes. For data that will be accessed less than once a year, choosing Standard would mean paying a large premium for low-latency and frequent-access performance that the workload never uses. There are no retrieval charges with Standard, but the sustained storage overhead for an archival object makes it the wrong, most costly option.
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
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Google Cloud Platform Overview
Key term
Storage class
A storage class is a category of data storage that defines how data is stored, accessed, retrieved, and billed in a cloud environment.
Key term
Cloud storage
Cloud storage is a service that lets you save data on remote servers accessed over the internet instead of on your computer's hard drive.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This ACE practice question is part of Courseiva's free Google Cloud 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 ACE exam.