A company frequently creates Docker images of an application.

Option B is the correct choice and has the least operational overhead because ECR lifecycle policies are the native, managed feature built specifically to automate image cleanup:

ECR lifecycle policies can expire images based on image age (e.g., images older than X days) and can also enforce retaining a minimum number of images (count-based retention), which directly matches the requirement “retain at least a specified number of images.”

Lifecycle policies work for both tagged and untagged images using rule selection and tagging status filters, so the repository stays clean without custom automation.

Why the other options are not appropriate / higher overhead:

A is invalid: ECR is not S3; S3 lifecycle policies do not manage ECR images.

C and D introduce custom automation (Lambda or SSM scripting), scheduling, permissions, error handling, retries, logging, and ongoing maintenance—higher overhead than a managed lifecycle policy.