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S3 storage classes and lifecycle: SAA-C03 study notes and practice questions

What to know about S3 storage classes and lifecycle for the SAA-C03 exam, from the Design Cost-Optimized Architectures domain (20% of the exam guide), then 3 free questions to test it. Part of the SAA-C03 study guide.

Last verified against current AWS documentation ·How we write our questions

What to know for the exam

Storage class questions give you an access pattern (read often, rarely, or unpredictably) and a retrieval requirement (milliseconds, minutes, hours). The cheapest class that meets both is the answer.

The classes

Class Retrieval Minimum storage duration Best for
S3 Standard Milliseconds None Frequently read data
S3 Intelligent-Tiering Milliseconds (optional archive tiers are slower) None Unknown or changing access patterns; small monthly monitoring fee per object, no retrieval fees
S3 Standard-IA Milliseconds, per-GB retrieval fee 30 days Read about once a month, must be fast
S3 One Zone-IA Milliseconds, per-GB retrieval fee 30 days Re-creatable data that doesn’t need multi-zone resilience
S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval Milliseconds, higher retrieval fee 90 days Read about once a quarter, still needs instant access
S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval Minutes to hours (expedited 1-5 minutes, standard 3-5 hours, bulk 5-12 hours) 90 days Archives read once or twice a year
S3 Glacier Deep Archive Within 12 hours (standard) or 48 hours (bulk) 180 days Long-term retention, compliance archives
S3 Express One Zone Single-digit milliseconds None Latency-sensitive workloads in one zone

All classes except the One Zone ones store data across at least three Availability Zones.

Lifecycle rules

  • Transition actions move objects to cheaper classes after a number of days (for example Standard → Standard-IA at 30 days → Glacier Deep Archive at 180 days).
  • Expiration actions delete objects, old versions or incomplete multipart uploads.
  • Objects smaller than 128 KB aren’t transitioned by default, because per-object overheads outweigh savings.

How to choose

  • Access pattern known and declining: lifecycle rules to step down through classes.
  • Access pattern unknown or different per object: Intelligent-Tiering.
  • “Rarely read but must load in milliseconds”: Glacier Instant Retrieval (quarterly) or Standard-IA (monthly).
  • “Keep for 7 years, retrieval within 48 hours is fine”: Glacier Deep Archive.
  • “Easily re-created thumbnails”: One Zone-IA.

Common traps

  • Glacier Flexible Retrieval or Deep Archive when the data must be available immediately.
  • Standard-IA for data read many times a month. Retrieval fees can cost more than Standard.
  • Ignoring minimum durations. Deleting Glacier Deep Archive data after 30 days still bills 180 days.
  • One Zone-IA for data that must survive a zone failure.

Try the 3 practice questions

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Question 1

Medium ·Link to this question (question 1)

A company stores application logs in Amazon S3, at about 5 MB per object.

Engineers read logs many times a day for the first 30 days. From day 30 to day 90, logs are read a few times a month and must still open in milliseconds. After 90 days, logs are almost never read, and a retrieval time of up to 48 hours is acceptable.

Logs must be deleted after 7 years.

Which solution is the MOST cost-effective?

Choose one answer.

  1. A. Add a lifecycle rule that moves logs to S3 Standard-IA after 30 days and to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 90 days, and expires them after 7 years.
  2. B. Add a lifecycle rule that moves logs to S3 Standard-IA after 30 days and to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after 90 days, and expires them after 7 years.
  3. C. Add a lifecycle rule that moves logs to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after 30 days and to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 90 days, and expires them after 7 years.
  4. D. Upload logs to S3 Intelligent-Tiering with the Deep Archive Access tier activated, and add a lifecycle rule that expires them after 7 years.
Show the answer and explanation

Answer: A

Explanation

When the access pattern is known, S3 Lifecycle rules move each object to the cheapest class that still meets its access needs. Standard-IA covers days 30 to 90 with millisecond reads; Glacier Deep Archive covers the long tail because 48-hour retrieval is acceptable; and an expiration action deletes logs at 7 years. Intelligent-Tiering's monitoring fee pays off only when the pattern is unpredictable.

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Question 2

Medium ·Link to this question (question 2)

A design agency keeps 30 million project files in Amazon S3, most between 2 MB and 50 MB.

Some files are reopened daily for months, others are never read again after delivery, and the agency cannot predict which. When an old file is needed it must open immediately, and the agency wants no retrieval fees that could make monthly bills spike. It has no staff to tune lifecycle rules.

Which storage approach is MOST cost-effective?

Choose one answer.

  1. A. Store all files in S3 Intelligent-Tiering, and use only its automatic access tiers, which need no restore.
  2. B. Store all files in S3 Standard, and add a lifecycle rule that moves each file to S3 Standard-IA 30 days after it is created.
  3. C. Store all files in S3 One Zone-IA from upload, because its storage price is lower than that of S3 Standard-IA.
  4. D. Store all files in S3 Intelligent-Tiering, and activate the Deep Archive Access tier for files that are not opened for 180 days.
Show the answer and explanation

Answer: A

Explanation

With unpredictable access, a class that tiers each object by its own use avoids both guessing and retrieval fees. S3 Intelligent-Tiering's automatic Frequent, Infrequent and Archive Instant Access tiers all give millisecond access with no retrieval charges; only the optional archive tiers need a restore. The files are well above 128 KB, so they are all eligible for automatic tiering.

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Question 3

Harder ·Link to this question (question 3)

An insurance company stores photos of claim damage in Amazon S3, averaging 4 MB each.

For the first 30 days after a claim is opened, adjusters view its photos many times. After that, each photo is viewed about once a quarter, but when one is needed it must load within milliseconds. Photos must survive the loss of an Availability Zone, be kept for 7 years, and then be deleted.

Which lifecycle configuration is MOST cost-effective?

Choose one answer.

  1. A. Transition objects to S3 Standard-IA 30 days after creation, and expire them 7 years after creation.
  2. B. Transition objects to S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval 30 days after creation, and expire them 7 years after creation.
  3. C. Transition objects to S3 One Zone-IA 30 days after creation, and expire them 7 years after creation.
  4. D. Transition objects to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after 30 days, use Expedited retrievals, and expire them after 7 years.
Show the answer and explanation

Answer: B

Explanation

After 30 days the photos are rarely read but must still load in milliseconds and stay resilient to the loss of an Availability Zone. S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval is designed for exactly this: data read about once a quarter, millisecond access, at least three zones, and storage up to 68% cheaper than Standard-IA for that access pattern. One Zone-IA fails the resilience requirement and Glacier Flexible Retrieval fails the latency requirement.

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