AWS Certified Data Engineer Associate DEA-C01 Practice Question

An S3 Lifecycle configuration can natively expire both current and noncurrent object versions after a specified number of days. By adding separate expiration actions for current versions and for noncurrent versions set to 2,555 days, and enabling the option to remove expired object delete markers, every copy of the object is removed automatically when it reaches the mandated age. This solution is completely managed, requires no code to maintain, and produces an auditable lifecycle rule that demonstrates compliance.

S3 Object Lock prevents deletion until the retention period ends, but it does not automatically remove objects when the period expires; manual deletion would still be required. AWS Backup retention applies only to backup copies, not to the original S3 objects, so the source data would remain. A scheduled EventBridge-Lambda process could work, but it introduces custom code and ongoing operational overhead, making it less suitable than a native lifecycle policy.