DEA-C01 Data Security and Governance Practice Question
An organization wants to audit all API calls made to AWS services for compliance. Which AWS service should be used to capture and store these API calls?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is confusing 'audit API calls' with 'track resource configuration changes' (AWS Config) or 'capture network traffic' (VPC Flow Logs); candidates who do not distinguish control-plane API auditing from configuration history or flow telemetry pick the wrong service.
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 records API activity across AWS services, capturing who made each call, from which IP, when, and with what parameters, and delivers the events to S3 and/or CloudWatch Logs for auditing. It is the canonical service for compliance auditing of API calls. AWS Config, VPC Flow Logs, and CloudWatch Logs serve different observability purposes.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
AWS CloudTrail
Why this is correct
AWS CloudTrail records every API call to AWS services as an event, capturing the caller identity, timestamp, source IP and request details, then delivering logs to Amazon S3 for retention. This directly satisfies the compliance audit requirement to capture and store all API activity across the account.
- ✗
AWS Config
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config tracks resource configuration state and compliance against rules; it does not log API calls themselves. CloudTrail records every API request with identity, timestamp and source IP. Config is correct when you need to detect configuration drift or evaluate resource compliance.
- ✗
Amazon VPC Flow Logs
Why it's wrong here
VPC Flow Logs capture IP traffic metadata for elastic network interfaces, not AWS API calls. CloudTrail records API activity across services. Flow Logs are correct when investigating network connectivity, rejected packets or traffic patterns between subnets and instances.
- ✗
Amazon CloudWatch Logs
Why it's wrong here
CloudWatch Logs stores application and resource log streams; it does not natively capture AWS API activity. CloudTrail records API calls with caller identity and parameters. CloudWatch Logs is correct for aggregating custom application logs, Lambda output or metric filters.
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
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every DEA-C01 question from scratch — 1,321 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
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.