Question 1mediummultiple choice
Full question →mediummultiple choiceObjective-mapped
A company stores sensitive financial data in Amazon S3 and must encrypt it at rest. The compliance team mandates that the encryption key must be rotated at least once per year, and the key material must be generated and managed by the company within AWS. The company wants a fully automated solution that requires no manual intervention for key rotation. Which AWS service or feature should the company use?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
A
Distractor review
Use Amazon S3 server-side encryption with customer-provided encryption keys (SSE-C).
SSE-C allows you to provide your own encryption keys, but you must manage the keys yourself and rotation is a manual process. It does not provide an automated rotation feature within AWS.
B
Best answer
Create an AWS KMS customer managed key and enable automatic annual rotation.
Correct. AWS KMS customer managed keys (CMKs) can have automatic key rotation enabled, which rotates the key material once per year without any manual effort. The company retains control and ownership of the key.
C
Distractor review
Use an AWS KMS AWS managed key (aws/s3) which automatically rotates the key every year.
AWS managed keys rotate automatically, but they are managed by AWS on your behalf. The scenario states the company must generate and manage the key itself, so an AWS managed key does not satisfy the requirement of company management.
D
Distractor review
Use AWS CloudHSM to generate and manage the key, and implement a custom cron job to rotate the key.
AWS CloudHSM provides a hardware security module for key generation, but rotation would require building and maintaining a custom solution (e.g., a cron job) to rotate the key. This is not fully automated as a native AWS feature and introduces operational overhead.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
- Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
- Underline the problem statement mentally.
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
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More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A developer needs to launch a test server for a new application prototype. The developer logs into the AWS Management Console, selects an Amazon EC2 instance type, configures the security group, and starts the instance. The instance is running within two minutes, and the developer did not need to submit a formal request to the company's IT procurement team or wait for approval from a cloud administrator. Which essential characteristic of cloud computing does this scenario best demonstrate?
Question 2
A solutions architect is planning a new web application on AWS. The workload will include 3 Amazon EC2 instances (t3.medium) running 24/7, an Application Load Balancer, and an Amazon RDS for MySQL db.t3.small database. The architect needs to estimate the monthly cost for the first year, considering different purchasing options (On-Demand, 1-year All Upfront Reserved Instance, and Compute Savings Plan). Which AWS tool should the architect use to create this estimate?
Question 3
A company's development team frequently needs temporary test environments. A developer can log into the AWS Management Console, select an Amazon EC2 instance type, configure storage, and launch the instance within minutes without any interaction with the IT infrastructure team. This capability is an example of which essential characteristic of cloud computing?
Question 4
A company's finance team needs to analyze AWS spending in detail. They require a report that includes hourly cost data for each AWS service, each individual resource (e.g., a specific EC2 instance), and any cost allocation tags applied. The team plans to export this data to an Amazon S3 bucket and then import it into a custom business intelligence (BI) analytics dashboard. Which AWS tool should the finance team use to generate this level of detailed cost data?
Question 5
A company uses AWS for its development environment. The finance team wants to set a monthly budget of $10,000. They want to receive an email notification when the actual costs reach 80% of the budget ($8,000) and again when costs exceed the budget. The team needs a managed AWS service that can automatically send these alerts without requiring custom code or third-party tools. Which AWS service should the team use?
Question 6
A company uses AWS Organizations to manage multiple accounts. The security team needs to enforce a policy that restricts SSH access (port 22) from the internet (0.0.0.0/0) in all VPCs across all accounts. The team wants to centrally define the allowed rules and automatically apply them to newly created VPCs and security groups, while also automatically remediating any existing non-compliant security groups. Which AWS service should the team use?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this CLF-C02 question test?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Create an AWS KMS customer managed key and enable automatic annual rotation. — AWS Key Management Service (KMS) allows you to create customer managed keys (CMKs) that you have full control over. You can enable automatic annual rotation on a CMK, which causes KMS to rotate the key material once per year automatically. This meets the compliance requirement for automated rotation and gives the company ownership and management of the key within AWS. The other options either do not provide automated rotation (SSE-C, CloudHSM with custom cron) or do not give the company direct management of the key material (AWS managed key).
What should I do if I get this CLF-C02 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
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