Practice Free SAA-C03 Exam Online Questions
A company plans to use an Amazon S3 bucket to archive backup data. Regulations require the company to retain the backup data for 7 years.
During the retention period, the company must prevent users, including administrators, from deleting the data. The company can delete the data after 7 years.
Which solution will meet these requirements?
- A . Create an S3 bucket policy that denies delete operations for 7 years. Create an S3 Lifecycle policy to delete the data after 7 years.
- B . Create an S3 Object Lock default retention policy that retains data for 7 years in governance mode.
Create an S3 Lifecycle policy to delete the data after 7 years. - C . Create an S3 Object Lock default retention policy that retains data for 7 years in compliance mode.
Create an S3 Lifecycle policy to delete the data after 7 years. - D . Create an S3 Batch Operations job to set a legal hold on each object for 7 years. Create an S3
Lifecycle policy to delete the data after 7 years.
C
Explanation:
Comprehensive and Detailed Step-by-Step
The requirement is toprevent data deletion by any user, including administrators, for 7 years while allowing automatic deletion afterward.
S3 Object Lock in Compliance Mode (Correct Choice – C)
Compliance mode ensures that even the root user cannot delete or modify the objects during the retention period.
After 7 years, the S3 Lifecycle policy automatically deletes the objects. This meets bothimmutability and automatic deletionrequirements. Governance Mode (Option B – Incorrect)
Governance mode prevents deletion,but administrators can override it.
The requirement explicitly states thateven administrators must not be able to delete the data.
S3 Bucket Policy (Option A – Incorrect)
An S3 bucket policy candeny deletes, but policies can be modified at any time by administrators.
It does not enforce strict retention like Object Lock.
S3 Batch Operations Job (Option D – Incorrect)
A legal hold does not have an automatic expiration.
Legal holds must be manually removed, which is not efficient.
Why Option C is Correct:
S3 Object Lock in Compliance Mode prevents deletion by all users, including administrators.
The S3 Lifecycle policy deletes the data automatically after 7 years, reducing operational overhead.
Reference: S3 Object Lock Compliance Mode
S3 Lifecycle Policies
A company is designing a new multi-tier web application that consists of the following components:
• Web and application servers that run on Amazon EC2 instances as part of Auto Scaling groups
• An Amazon RDS DB instance for data storage
A solutions architect needs to limit access to the application servers so that only the web servers can access them.
Which solution will meet these requirements?
- A . Deploy AWS PrivateLink in front of the application servers. Configure the network ACL to allow only the web servers to access the application servers.
- B . Deploy a VPC endpoint in front of the application servers Configure the security group to allow only the web servers to access the application servers
- C . Deploy a Network Load Balancer with a target group that contains the application servers’ Auto Scaling group Configure the network ACL to allow only the web servers to access the application servers.
- D . Deploy an Application Load Balancer with a target group that contains the application servers’ Auto Scaling group. Configure the security group to allow only the web servers to access the application servers.
D
Explanation:
Application Load Balancer (ALB): ALB is suitable for routing HTTP/HTTPS traffic to the application servers. It provides advanced routing features and integrates well with Auto Scaling groups.
Target Group Configuration:
Create a target group for the application servers and register the Auto Scaling group with this target group.
Configure the ALB to forward requests from the web servers to the application servers.
Security Group Setup:
Configure the security group of the application servers to only allow traffic from the web servers’ security group.
This ensures that only the web servers can access the application servers, meeting the requirement to limit access.
Benefits:
Security: Using security groups to restrict access ensures a secure environment where only intended traffic is allowed.
Scalability: ALB works seamlessly with Auto Scaling groups, ensuring the application can handle varying loads efficiently.
Reference: Application Load Balancer
Security Groups for Your VPC
A media company has an ecommerce website to sell music. Each music file is stored as an MP3 file. Premium users of the website purchase music files and download the files. The company wants to store music files on AWS. The company wants to provide access only to the premium users. The company wants to use the same URL for all premium users.
Which solution will meet these requirements?
- A . Store the MP3 files on a set of Amazon EC2 instances that have Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volumes attached. Manage access to the files by creating an IAM user and an IAM policy for each premium user.
- B . Store all the MP3 files in an Amazon S3 bucket. Create a presigned URL for each MP3 file. Share the presigned URLs with the premium users.
- C . Store all the MP3 files in an Amazon S3 bucket. Create an Amazon CloudFront distribution that uses the S3 bucket as the origin. Generate CloudFront signed cookies for the music files. Share the signed cookies with the premium users.
- D . Store all the MP3 files in an Amazon S3 bucket. Create an Amazon CloudFront distribution that uses the S3 bucket as the origin. Use a CloudFront signed URL for each music file. Share the signed URLs with the premium users.
C
Explanation:
CloudFront Signed Cookies:
CloudFront signed cookies allow the company to provide access to premium users while maintaining a single, consistent URL.
This approach is simpler and more scalable than managing presigned URLs for each file.
Incorrect Options Analysis:
Option A: Using EC2 and EBS increases complexity and cost.
Option B: Managing presigned URLs for each file is not scalable.
Option D: CloudFront signed URLs require unique URLs for each file, which does not meet the requirement for a single URL.
Reference: Serving Private Content with CloudFront
A company uses a single Amazon S3 bucket to store data that multiple business applications must access. The company hosts the applications on Amazon EC2 Windows instances that are in a VPC. The company configured a bucket policy for the S3 bucket to grant the applications access to the bucket.
The company continually adds more business applications to the environment. As the number of business applications increases, the policy document becomes more difficult to manage. The S3 bucket policy document will soon reach its policy size quota. The company needs a solution to scale its architecture to handle more business applications.
Which solution will meet these requirements in the MOST operationally efficient way?
- A . Migrate the data from the S3 bucket to an Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) volume.
Ensure that all application owners configure their applications to use the EFS volume. - B . Deploy an AWS Storage Gateway appliance for each application. Reconfigure the applications to use a dedicated Storage Gateway appliance to access the S3 objects instead of accessing the objects directly.
- C . Create a new S3 bucket for each application. Configure S3 replication to keep the new buckets synchronized with the original S3 bucket. Instruct application owners to use their respective S3 buckets.
- D . Create an S3 access point for each application. Instruct application owners to use their respective S3 access points.
D
Explanation:
Amazon S3 Access Points simplify managing data access for shared datasets in S3 by allowing the creation of distinct access policies for different applications or users. Each access point has its own policy and can be managed independently. This method avoids overloading a single bucket policy and helps remain within policy size limits.
Option D provides a scalable and operationally efficient solution by offloading individual access controls from a central bucket policy to individually managed access points, which is ideal for environments with many consuming applications.
A company is implementing a shared storage solution for a media application that the company hosts on AWS. The company needs the ability to use SMB clients to access stored data.
Which solution will meet these requirements with the LEAST administrative overhead?
- A . Create an AWS Storage Gateway Volume Gateway. Create a file share that uses the required client protocol. Connect the application server to the file share.
- B . Create an AWS Storage Gateway Tape Gateway. Configure tapes to use Amazon S3. Connect the application server to the Tape Gateway.
- C . Create an Amazon EC2 Windows instance. Install and configure a Windows file share role on the instance. Connect the application server to the file share.
- D . Create an Amazon FSx for Windows File Server file system. Connect the application server to the file system.
D
Explanation:
The key requirements are shared storage, SMB protocol support, and least administrative overhead. Amazon FSx for Windows File Server is a fully managed AWS service designed specifically to provide native SMB file shares compatible with Windows-based workloads and SMB clients.
Option D is the optimal solution because FSx for Windows File Server eliminates the need to manage operating systems, patching, backups, file server clustering, and availability. AWS handles infrastructure management, scaling, and availability, while providing high-performance file storage that integrates seamlessly with Active Directory and supports standard Windows file permissions and SMB semantics. This makes it ideal for media applications that rely on shared file access.
Option A (Storage Gateway Volume Gateway) is designed primarily for hybrid environments that extend on-premises storage into AWS, not for cloud-native shared file systems.
Option B (Tape Gateway) is intended for backup and archival workflows, not active file access.
Option C requires significant operational overhead, including OS maintenance, security patching, scaling, and high availability design.
Therefore, D meets all requirements with the least administrative effort while providing a scalable, secure, and highly available SMB-compatible storage solution.
A solutions architect is designing the architecture for a web application that has a frontend and a backend. The backend services must receive data from the frontend services for processing. The frontend must manage access to the application by using API keys. The backend must scale without affecting the frontend.
Which solution will meet these requirements?
- A . Deploy an Amazon API Gateway HTTP API as the frontend to direct traffic to an Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) queue. Use AWS Lambda functions as the backend to read from the queue.
- B . Deploy an Amazon API Gateway REST API as the frontend to direct traffic to an Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) queue. Use Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) on AWS Fargate as the backend to read from the queue.
- C . Deploy an Amazon API Gateway REST API as the frontend to direct traffic to an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic. Use AWS Lambda functions as the backend. Subscribe the Lambda functions to the topic.
- D . Deploy an Amazon API Gateway HTTP API as the frontend to direct traffic to an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic. Use Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) on AWS Fargate as the backend. Subscribe Amazon EKS to the topic.
A
Explanation:
Using API Gateway with API keys provides secure access control. Amazon SQS allows asynchronous decoupling between frontend and backend, ensuring that backend processing can scale independently. AWS Lambda reading from SQS ensures scalable, event-driven processing with minimal operational management. This architecture is resilient and decoupled.
Reference: AWS Well-Architected C Decoupling and Microservices, API Gateway with SQS and Lambda Integration
A company runs an application on several Amazon EC2 instances that store persistent data on an Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) file system. The company needs to replicate the data to another AWS Region by using an AWS managed service solution.
Which solution will meet these requirements MOST cost-effectively?
- A . Use the EFS-to-EFS backup solution to replicate the data to an EFS file system in another Region.
- B . Run a nightly script to copy data from the EFS file system to an Amazon S3 bucket. Enable S3 Cross-Region Replication on the S3 bucket.
- C . Create a VPC in another Region. Establish a cross-Region VPC peer. Run a nightly rsync to copy data from the original Region to the new Region.
- D . Use AWS Backup to create a backup plan with a rule that takes a daily backup and replicates it to another Region. Assign the EFS file system resource to the backup plan.
D
Explanation:
AWS Backup supports cross-Region backup for Amazon EFS, allowing automated, scheduled backups and replication to another Region. This managed service simplifies backup management and ensures data resilience without the need for custom scripts or manual processes
A company wants to provide a third-party system that runs in a private data center with access to its AWS account. The company wants to call AWS APIs directly from the third-party system. The company has an existing process for managing digital certificates. The company does not want to use SAML or OpenID Connect (OIDC) capabilities and does not want to store long-term AWS credentials.
Which solution will meet these requirements?
- A . Configure mutual TLS to allow authentication of the client and server sides of the communication channel.
- B . Configure AWS Signature Version 4 to authenticate incoming HTTPS requests to AWS APIs.
- C . Configure Kerberos to exchange tickets for assertions that can be validated by AWS APIs.
- D . Configure AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) Roles Anywhere to exchange X.509 certificates for AWS credentials to interact with AWS APIs.
D
Explanation:
A company is deploying a critical application by using Amazon RDS for MySQL. The application must be highly available and must recover automatically. The company needs to support interactive users (transactional queries) and batch reporting (analytical queries) with no more than a 4-hour lag. The analytical queries must not affect the performance of the transactional queries.
Which solution will meet these requirements?
- A . Configure Amazon RDS for MySQL in a Multi-AZ DB instance deployment with one standby instance. Point the transactional queries to the primary DB instance. Point the analytical queries to a secondary DB instance that runs in a different Availability Zone.
- B . Configure Amazon RDS for MySQL in a Multi-AZ DB cluster deployment with two standby instances. Point the transactional queries to the primary DB instance. Point the analytical queries to the reader endpoint.
- C . Configure Amazon RDS for MySQL to use multiple read replicas across multiple Availability Zones. Point the transactional queries to the primary DB instance. Point the analytical queries to one of the replicas in a different Availability Zone.
- D . Configure Amazon RDS for MySQL as the primary database for the transactional queries with automated backups enabled. Each night, create a read-only database from the most recent snapshot to support the analytical queries. Terminate the previously created database.
C
Explanation:
The requirement has three key elements: high availability with automatic recovery, separation of transactional and analytical workloads, and acceptable reporting lag up to 4 hours. The clean AWS-native pattern for isolating heavy read/reporting traffic from transactional writes in RDS for MySQL is to use read replicas and direct reporting queries to the replica endpoint(s).
Option C meets these requirements well. The primary RDS for MySQL instance handles transactional traffic (reads/writes). One or more RDS read replicas asynchronously replicate data from the primary. Because replication is asynchronous, some lag is expected; the requirement explicitly tolerates up to a 4-hour lag, which fits the read replica model. Directing batch reporting and analytical queries to a replica prevents those expensive queries from consuming CPU, memory, and I/O on the primary, thereby protecting interactive user performance. Deploying replicas across multiple Availability Zones also improves availability of the reporting tier and reduces the risk that an AZ issue prevents reporting access.
Option A is incorrect because a standard Multi-AZ DB instance uses a synchronous standby that is not readable and is intended for failover, not for serving analytical queries.
Option B describes a Multi-AZ DB cluster deployment, which does provide readable standbys in some RDS engines; however, for the classic RDS MySQL exam pattern, the most direct and widely used method to isolate analytics is read replicas.
Option D creates a nightly snapshot-based read-only copy; this increases operational complexity, can result in stale data for most of the day, and introduces provisioning delays, which is unnecessary when replicas provide continuous near-real-time copies.
Therefore, C is the best fit because it provides HA for the primary, isolates reporting reads to replicas, and meets the allowed replication lag requirement.
A company has a web application that has thousands of users. The application uses 8-10 user-uploaded images to generate Al images. Users can download the generated Al Images once every 6 hours. The company also has a premium user option that gives users the ability to download the generated Al images anytime
The company uses the user-uploaded images to run Al model training twice a year. The company needs a storage solution to store the images.
Which storage solution meets these requirements MOST cost-effectively?
- A . Move uploaded images to Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive. Move premium user-generated Al
images to S3 Standard. Move non-premium user-generated Al images to S3 Standard-Infrequent Access (S3 Standard-IA). - B . Move uploaded images to Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive. Move all generated Al images to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval.
- C . Move uploaded images to Amazon S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access {S3 One Zone-IA) Move premium user-generated Al images to S3 Standard. Move non-premium user-generated Al images to S3 Standard-Infrequent Access (S3 Standard-IA).
- D . Move uploaded images to Amazon S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access {S3 One Zone-IA) Move all generated Al images to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval
C
Explanation:
S3 One Zone-IA:
Suitable for infrequently accessed data that doesn’t require multiple Availability Zone resilience.
Cost-effective for storing user-uploaded images that are only used for AI model training twice a year.
S3 Standard:
Ideal for frequently accessed data with high durability and availability.
Store premium user-generated AI images here to ensure they are readily available for download at any time.
S3 Standard-IA:
Cost-effective storage for data that is accessed less frequently but still requires rapid retrieval.
Store non-premium user-generated AI images here, as these images are only downloaded once every 6 hours, making it a good balance between cost and accessibility.
Cost-Effectiveness: This solution optimizes storage costs by categorizing data based on access patterns and durability requirements, ensuring that each type of data is stored in the most cost-effective manner.
Reference: Amazon S3 Storage Classes
S3 One Zone-IA