DVA-C02 Security Practice Question
A developer needs to grant an IAM user the ability to create and manage CloudFormation stacks. Which IAM policy action should be allowed?
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
✓
cloudformation:CreateStack
Option A (cloudformation:CreateStack). This action allows the IAM user to create and manage CloudFormation stacks. Option B (lambda:CreateFunction) is for creating Lambda functions, option C (ec2:RunInstances) is for launching EC2 instances, and option D (s3:CreateBucket) is for creating S3 buckets. None of these other actions are related to CloudFormation stack management.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
cloudformation:CreateStack
Why this is correct
cloudformation:CreateStack is the specific IAM action that authorizes a principal to launch a new CloudFormation stack from a template; combined with related actions like UpdateStack and DeleteStack it forms the core permission set needed to create and manage stacks, making it the directly applicable action for this requirement.
- ✗
lambda:CreateFunction
Why it's wrong here
lambda:CreateFunction belongs to the AWS Lambda service namespace and grants permission to create a Lambda function resource directly through the Lambda API — it has no bearing on whether a user can create or manage a CloudFormation stack, even if that stack happens to provision Lambda resources internally.
- ✗
ec2:RunInstances
Why it's wrong here
ec2:RunInstances is an EC2-namespace action used to launch EC2 instances directly via the EC2 API; it governs compute provisioning outside of CloudFormation entirely and would only become relevant if a stack template creates EC2 resources, in which case it would need to be granted separately alongside the CloudFormation permission, not instead of it.
- ✗
s3:CreateBucket
Why it's wrong here
s3:CreateBucket authorizes creating an S3 bucket through the S3 API and belongs entirely to the S3 service namespace; it has no effect on CloudFormation stack lifecycle permissions and would not enable a user to submit, update, or delete a CloudFormation stack in any way.
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 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.