AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) — Question 500

A company uses Amazon S3 to store high-resolution pictures in an S3 bucket. To minimize application changes, the company stores the pictures as the latest version of an S3 object. The company needs to retain only the two most recent versions of the pictures.

The company wants to reduce costs. The company has identified the S3 bucket as a large expense.

Which solution will reduce the S3 costs with the LEAST operational overhead?

Answer options

• A. Use S3 Lifecycle to delete expired object versions and retain the two most recent versions.
• B. Use an AWS Lambda function to check for older versions and delete all but the two most recent versions.
• C. Use S3 Batch Operations to delete noncurrent object versions and retain only the two most recent versions.
• D. Deactivate versioning on the S3 bucket and retain the two most recent versions.

Correct answer: A

Explanation

Amazon S3 Lifecycle rules natively support deleting noncurrent object versions while specifying the number of newer versions to retain, which requires zero custom code or management. Utilizing AWS Lambda or S3 Batch Operations would introduce unnecessary development and operational overhead. Disabling versioning entirely is incorrect because it would prevent the retention of the two most recent versions of the objects.