- A
An IAM role with a trust policy that allows the external account's root user or specific IAM users/roles to assume the role
Correct. The trust policy on the role specifies which principals from other accounts can assume it.
- B
An S3 bucket policy granting access to the external account
Why wrong: The bucket policy can grant direct access to the external user without assuming a role, but the question specifies using a role.
- C
An IAM user policy in the external account allowing sts:AssumeRole
Why wrong: This policy is needed in the external account, not in the developer's account.
- D
An AWS Organizations service control policy allowing cross-account access
Why wrong: SCPs are used to restrict permissions within an organization, not to grant trust relationships.
DVA-C02 Security Practice Question
This DVA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of security. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. 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 needs to allow an IAM user in a different AWS account to assume a role in the developer's account. The role has permissions to access an S3 bucket. Which policy is required in the developer's account to enable this cross-account access?
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
An IAM role with a trust policy that allows the external account's root user or specific IAM users/roles to assume the role
Option A is correct because cross-account IAM role access requires a trust policy attached to the role in the developer's account. This trust policy specifies the external AWS account ID (or specific IAM users/roles in that account) as the principal, allowing them to call sts:AssumeRole. Once the role is assumed, the developer's account grants the necessary S3 permissions via the role's permissions policy.
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.
- ✓
An IAM role with a trust policy that allows the external account's root user or specific IAM users/roles to assume the role
Why this is correct
Correct. The trust policy on the role specifies which principals from other accounts can assume it.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
An S3 bucket policy granting access to the external account
Why it's wrong here
The bucket policy can grant direct access to the external user without assuming a role, but the question specifies using a role.
- ✗
An IAM user policy in the external account allowing sts:AssumeRole
Why it's wrong here
This policy is needed in the external account, not in the developer's account.
- ✗
An AWS Organizations service control policy allowing cross-account access
Why it's wrong here
SCPs are used to restrict permissions within an organization, not to grant trust relationships.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse the location of the trust policy (required in the account owning the role) with the permissions policy (required in the external account), or mistakenly think an S3 bucket policy alone can enable cross-account role assumption.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, the trust policy uses the 'Principal' element with the external account's ARN (e.g., 'AWS': '123456789012') and the 'Action': 'sts:AssumeRole'. The external user then calls the AWS STS API with the role's ARN to receive temporary credentials. A real-world scenario is a multi-account data lake where a central analytics account needs to read data from a producer account's S3 bucket; the producer account creates a role with a trust policy for the analytics account, and the analytics account's users assume that role to access the data.
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.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this DVA-C02 question test?
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: An IAM role with a trust policy that allows the external account's root user or specific IAM users/roles to assume the role — Option A is correct because cross-account IAM role access requires a trust policy attached to the role in the developer's account. This trust policy specifies the external AWS account ID (or specific IAM users/roles in that account) as the principal, allowing them to call sts:AssumeRole. Once the role is assumed, the developer's account grants the necessary S3 permissions via the role's permissions policy.
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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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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.
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