DEA-C01 Data Security and Governance Practice Question
An organization needs to audit all access to their S3 buckets for compliance purposes. They want to log both successful and failed API calls. Which AWS service should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse AWS CloudTrail (API auditing) with AWS Config (configuration auditing) or VPC Flow Logs (network traffic logging), failing to recognize that only CloudTrail captures the specific API call details needed for access auditing.
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 is the correct service because it records all API calls made to S3, including both successful and failed requests, and delivers log files to an S3 bucket for auditing and compliance. CloudTrail captures management events (e.g., CreateBucket) and, when enabled, data events (e.g., GetObject, PutObject) for S3, providing a complete audit trail of access.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon CloudWatch Logs
Why it's wrong here
CloudWatch Logs stores application and service log output, not S3 data-plane API audit records; it cannot capture every successful and failed S3 call. It is the correct destination for custom application logs or Lambda function logs forwarded for monitoring and alarming.
- ✗
AWS Config
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config records resource configuration changes and compliance against rules, not individual S3 API invocations, so failed calls leave no record. It is the right choice when you must track whether bucket policies, encryption or versioning settings changed over time.
- ✓
AWS CloudTrail
Why this is correct
CloudTrail records S3 data-plane and management API activity, capturing both successful and failed calls with identity, timestamp and source IP. This satisfies the compliance requirement to audit all bucket access, which S3 server access logging cannot match for failed calls.
- ✗
VPC Flow Logs
Why it's wrong here
VPC Flow Logs capture IP traffic metadata through elastic network interfaces, not S3 REST API calls, and S3 traffic to public endpoints bypasses them. They are correct for diagnosing connectivity, rejected connections and traffic volumes for resources inside a VPC.
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.