DEA-C01 Data Security and Governance Practice Question
A company wants to audit API calls made to its Amazon S3 buckets. Which AWS services can be used to achieve this? (Choose TWO.)
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
AWS CloudTrail
AWS CloudTrail (D) is correct because it records S3 data events such as GetObject, PutObject, and DeleteObject, providing an audit trail of API calls made to S3 buckets when data events are enabled. Amazon S3 server access logs (E) are also correct because they capture detailed records of requests made to a bucket, including the requester, bucket name, request time, request action, response status, and error code, which directly supports auditing API calls. IAM Access Analyzer (A) is not correct here because it identifies resource policies that grant external access, not a log of API calls. AWS Config (B) tracks resource configuration changes and compliance, not individual S3 API request activity. VPC Flow Logs (C) capture IP traffic metadata for network interfaces, not S3 API-level operations.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
IAM Access Analyzer
Why it's wrong here
IAM Access Analyzer evaluates resource policies to identify external or unused access; it does not record API call events, so it cannot audit who called S3. It is tempting because it surfaces overly permissive bucket policies, which is the right choice for reviewing public or cross-account access exposure.
- ✗
AWS Config
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config tracks configuration changes to S3 resources, not the API call history the audit needs, so caller identity and request details are missing. It is tempting because Config provides continuous compliance recording, and would be correct for detecting when a bucket policy or encryption setting changes.
- ✗
VPC Flow Logs
Why it's wrong here
VPC Flow Logs capture IP traffic metadata traversing elastic network interfaces, not S3 API-level operations such as GetObject or PutObject. It is tempting because Flow Logs do audit network activity, and they would be correct for recording traffic to and from EC2 instances or NAT gateways, but S3 data events require CloudTrail.
- ✓
AWS CloudTrail
Why this is correct
AWS CloudTrail records API activity in the account, including S3 management and, with data events, object-level calls. It logs the identity, time and source of each request, providing the API audit trail the company requires.
- ✓
Amazon S3 server access logs
Why this is correct
S3 server access logs record every request made to a bucket, capturing the requester, action, timestamp and response code. This provides the audit trail of API calls the company requires, delivered as log objects to a target bucket for later analysis.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This DEA-C01 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the DEA-C01 exam.