DEA-C01 Data Security and Governance Practice Question
This DEA-C01 practice question tests your understanding of data security and governance. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A financial services company uses a multi-account AWS Organization with hundreds of accounts. The data engineering team needs to enable cross-account access to an encrypted S3 bucket in the data lake account (account ID 111111111111) for a Glue ETL job running in the analytics account (account ID 222222222222). The S3 bucket uses AWS KMS customer managed key (CMK) for server-side encryption (SSE-KMS). The Glue job fails with an AccessDenied error when trying to read data from the bucket. The IAM roles in both accounts have the necessary S3 permissions and the bucket policy allows access from the analytics account. What is the most likely cause of the failure?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "most likely"
Why it matters: Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The KMS key policy does not grant the analytics account's IAM role permission to use the key for decryption.
The Glue job fails because the KMS key policy does not grant the analytics account's IAM role permission to use the key for decryption. S3 permissions alone are insufficient when SSE-KMS is used; the key policy must explicitly allow the decrypt action for the cross-account principal.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✓
The KMS key policy does not grant the analytics account's IAM role permission to use the key for decryption.
Why this is correct
Cross-account access to SSE-KMS encrypted objects requires the key policy to allow the decrypt action for the external principal.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "most likely" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
The S3 bucket is in a different region than the Glue job.
Why it's wrong here
No region mismatch is mentioned, and S3 is global for access purposes.
✗
The Glue job does not have an IAM role assigned.
Why it's wrong here
The scenario states the IAM roles in both accounts have necessary permissions.
✗
The S3 bucket policy does not allow the s3:GetObject action for the analytics account's IAM role.
Why it's wrong here
The bucket policy is correctly configured according to the scenario.
Common exam traps
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.
Trap categories for this question
Scenario analysis trap
The scenario states the IAM roles in both accounts have necessary permissions.
Detailed technical explanation
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.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which DEA-C01 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
Data Security and Governance — This question tests Data Security and Governance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: The KMS key policy does not grant the analytics account's IAM role permission to use the key for decryption. — The Glue job fails because the KMS key policy does not grant the analytics account's IAM role permission to use the key for decryption. S3 permissions alone are insufficient when SSE-KMS is used; the key policy must explicitly allow the decrypt action for the cross-account principal.
What should I do if I get this DEA-C01 question wrong?
Identify which DEA-C01 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "most likely". Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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