S3 Exam Questions

Practice Tests & Scenarios

Storage Classes Questions

Question 1

A company needs to store log files that are accessed frequently for the first 30 days, then rarely accessed but must be available within minutes. Which storage strategy is most cost-effective?

A) S3 Standard for all data

B) S3 Intelligent-Tiering

C) S3 Standard with lifecycle to Standard-IA after 30 days

D) S3 One Zone-IA for all data

Answer: C) S3 Standard with lifecycle to Standard-IA after 30 days

This provides optimal cost savings by using Standard for frequent access, then automatically transitioning to Standard-IA for infrequent access with immediate availability.

Question 2

Which S3 storage class provides the lowest cost for long-term archival with retrieval times of 12-48 hours?

A) S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval

B) S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval

C) S3 Glacier Deep Archive

D) S3 Intelligent-Tiering

Answer: C) S3 Glacier Deep Archive

Deep Archive offers the lowest storage cost with retrieval times of 12-48 hours, perfect for long-term archival.

Performance Questions

Question 3

What is the recommended approach for uploading files larger than 100MB to S3?

A) Single PUT request

B) Multipart upload

C) Transfer Acceleration

D) Pre-signed URLs

Answer: B

Multipart upload is recommended for files >100MB and required for files >5GB.

Security Questions

Question 4

Which encryption method allows you to manage your own encryption keys?

A) SSE-S3

B) SSE-KMS

C) SSE-C

D) Client-side encryption

Answer: C

SSE-C allows you to provide your own encryption keys.

Scenario-Based Questions

Scenario 1: Media Company

A media company stores video files that are frequently accessed for the first week, occasionally accessed for the next month, and rarely accessed afterward but must be retained for 7 years for compliance.

Best Solution:

  • • S3 Standard for first 7 days
  • • Lifecycle to Standard-IA after 7 days
  • • Lifecycle to Glacier Flexible Retrieval after 30 days
  • • Lifecycle to Deep Archive after 90 days

Scenario 2: Global Website

A company wants to host a static website with global users and needs fast content delivery with HTTPS support.

Best Solution:

  • • S3 bucket configured for static website hosting
  • • CloudFront distribution with S3 as origin
  • • Route 53 for DNS with custom domain
  • • ACM certificate for HTTPS

Advanced Features

Question 5

What is required to enable Cross-Region Replication in S3?

A) Versioning enabled on source bucket only

B) Versioning enabled on both source and destination

C) MFA Delete enabled

D) Object Lock enabled

Answer: B

Both source and destination buckets must have versioning enabled.

Cost Optimization

Question 6

Which storage class automatically moves data between access tiers based on usage patterns?

A) S3 Standard

B) S3 Standard-IA

C) S3 Intelligent-Tiering

D) S3 One Zone-IA

Answer: C

Intelligent-Tiering automatically moves objects between access tiers.

S3 Exam Strategies

Storage Class Selection

Match access patterns to storage classes for cost optimization

Performance Optimization

Know when to use multipart upload and Transfer Acceleration

Security Features

Understand different encryption methods and access controls

Integration Patterns

Know how S3 integrates with CloudFront, Lambda, and other services

S3 Backup & Restore Next: S3 Service Limitations