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.
Which AWS service provides a managed, rotating secret store for database credentials?
AWS Secrets Manager
Secrets Manager provides automatic rotation for supported databases.
AWS KMS
Why wrong: KMS is for encryption keys, not secret storage.
AWS IAM Roles
Why wrong: IAM roles grant permissions, not store secrets.
AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store
Why wrong: Parameter Store can store secrets but does not have built-in rotation.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
AWS Secrets Manager
AWS Secrets Manager is the correct service because it is specifically designed to manage the entire lifecycle of secrets, including automatic rotation of database credentials on a configurable schedule (e.g., every 30 days). It natively integrates with Amazon RDS, Aurora, Redshift, and DocumentDB to rotate credentials without application downtime, using a built-in Lambda rotation function. This makes it the only fully managed, rotating secret store among the options.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
AWS Secrets Manager
Why this is correct
Secrets Manager provides automatic rotation for supported databases.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
AWS KMS
Why it's wrong here
KMS is for encryption keys, not secret storage.
AWS IAM Roles
Why it's wrong here
IAM roles grant permissions, not store secrets.
AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store
Why it's wrong here
Parameter Store can store secrets but does not have built-in rotation.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates confuse AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store (which can store secrets) with Secrets Manager, but Parameter Store lacks native automatic rotation, making Secrets Manager the only correct answer for a managed rotating secret store.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, Secrets Manager uses an AWS Lambda function (created via a CloudFormation template) to perform the rotation, which updates the secret in both the service and the target database (e.g., RDS) simultaneously. The rotation process supports two strategies: 'single user' (rotates in place) and 'alternating users' (creates a new user before disabling the old one), ensuring zero-downtime rotation. A subtle behavior is that Secrets Manager caches secrets in the client SDK for a configurable TTL (default 300 seconds), so applications must handle stale cache during rotation if using the alternating users strategy.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A company's IT admin needs to give a contractor read-only access to production logs without sharing account credentials. Using role-based access control (RBAC) and temporary scoped permissions — not a permanent shared password — is the correct pattern. Questions like this test whether you can apply least-privilege access across cloud identity services.
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FAQ
Security — This question tests Security — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: AWS Secrets Manager — AWS Secrets Manager is the correct service because it is specifically designed to manage the entire lifecycle of secrets, including automatic rotation of database credentials on a configurable schedule (e.g., every 30 days). It natively integrates with Amazon RDS, Aurora, Redshift, and DocumentDB to rotate credentials without application downtime, using a built-in Lambda rotation function. This makes it the only fully managed, rotating secret store among the options.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 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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