This DVA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of security. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. 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 developer is using AWS Secrets Manager to store database credentials. The application runs on EC2 and needs to retrieve the secret. Which approach is the most secure?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use an IAM role attached to the EC2 instance with permissions to access the secret, and call the AWS SDK to retrieve it at runtime.
Option B is correct because it follows the principle of least privilege and avoids hardcoding or storing secrets in insecure locations. By attaching an IAM role to the EC2 instance, the application can securely retrieve the secret from AWS Secrets Manager at runtime using the AWS SDK, without ever exposing the secret in code, configuration files, or environment variables. This approach leverages IAM's temporary credentials from the instance metadata service (IMDS) to authenticate the SDK call, ensuring the secret is never persisted locally.
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.
✗
Store the secret in an environment variable in the user data script.
Why it's wrong here
Environment variables can be read from /proc/self/environ or logs.
✓
Use an IAM role attached to the EC2 instance with permissions to access the secret, and call the AWS SDK to retrieve it at runtime.
Why this is correct
This follows best practices: no hardcoded secrets, automatic credential rotation.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Retrieve the secret at application startup and store it in a configuration file.
Why it's wrong here
Storing secrets in a file on disk is not secure.
✗
Download the secret from an S3 bucket using pre-signed URLs.
Why it's wrong here
Pre-signed URLs are temporary but managing them adds complexity and potential exposure.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often think storing secrets in environment variables or configuration files is acceptable because it's 'runtime only,' but the exam emphasizes that any persistent or accessible storage of secrets violates security best practices, and only IAM roles with SDK retrieval provide the necessary isolation and rotation support.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, the AWS SDK for EC2 uses the instance metadata service (IMDSv2) to obtain temporary IAM role credentials, which are then used to sign the GetSecretValue API call to Secrets Manager. The secret is encrypted at rest with AWS KMS and transmitted over TLS, ensuring end-to-end security. In a real-world scenario, this approach also supports automatic secret rotation, as the application can re-fetch the secret on each connection attempt without code changes, whereas other options would require manual updates or restarts.
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.
TExam Day Tips
→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 exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Security — This question tests Security — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use an IAM role attached to the EC2 instance with permissions to access the secret, and call the AWS SDK to retrieve it at runtime. — Option B is correct because it follows the principle of least privilege and avoids hardcoding or storing secrets in insecure locations. By attaching an IAM role to the EC2 instance, the application can securely retrieve the secret from AWS Secrets Manager at runtime using the AWS SDK, without ever exposing the secret in code, configuration files, or environment variables. This approach leverages IAM's temporary credentials from the instance metadata service (IMDS) to authenticate the SDK call, ensuring the secret is never persisted locally.
What should I do if I get this DVA-C02 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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This DVA-C02 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 DVA-C02 exam.
Question Discussion
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