- A
Use Amazon Elasticsearch Service (Amazon OpenSearch Service) with a cross-account ingestion pipeline.
Why wrong: OpenSearch Service is more expensive and requires more management overhead than S3 + Athena.
- B
Stream VPC Flow Logs from each account to Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics for real-time analysis.
Why wrong: Kinesis Data Analytics is for real-time, not historical querying, and is more expensive.
- C
Send VPC Flow Logs from each account to a centralized Amazon S3 bucket, then use Amazon Athena to query the logs.
This approach is cost-effective, scalable, and allows cross-account queries using Athena.
- D
Configure each account to send VPC Flow Logs to a central CloudWatch Logs group using cross-account subscription.
Why wrong: Cross-account subscriptions are complex and may incur high costs for data ingestion and storage.
DOP-C02 Monitoring and Logging Practice Question
This DOP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of monitoring and logging. 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 company has a multi-account AWS environment using AWS Organizations. The security team needs to centrally monitor and analyze VPC Flow Logs from all accounts. The solution must be cost-effective and allow querying across accounts. Which approach should they take?
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
Send VPC Flow Logs from each account to a centralized Amazon S3 bucket, then use Amazon Athena to query the logs.
Option C is correct because it uses a centralized Amazon S3 bucket to aggregate VPC Flow Logs from all accounts, which is cost-effective (S3 storage costs are low) and enables cross-account querying via Amazon Athena using standard SQL. This approach avoids per-ingestion costs of services like CloudWatch Logs or Kinesis and provides a serverless, scalable query engine for analyzing logs across accounts.
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.
- ✗
Use Amazon Elasticsearch Service (Amazon OpenSearch Service) with a cross-account ingestion pipeline.
Why it's wrong here
OpenSearch Service is more expensive and requires more management overhead than S3 + Athena.
- ✗
Stream VPC Flow Logs from each account to Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics for real-time analysis.
Why it's wrong here
Kinesis Data Analytics is for real-time, not historical querying, and is more expensive.
- ✓
Send VPC Flow Logs from each account to a centralized Amazon S3 bucket, then use Amazon Athena to query the logs.
Why this is correct
This approach is cost-effective, scalable, and allows cross-account queries using Athena.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Configure each account to send VPC Flow Logs to a central CloudWatch Logs group using cross-account subscription.
Why it's wrong here
Cross-account subscriptions are complex and may incur high costs for data ingestion and storage.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may overestimate the complexity of cross-account S3 access or underestimate the cost of CloudWatch Logs ingestion, leading them to choose Option D (central CloudWatch Logs group) which seems simpler but is actually more expensive and less query-friendly than S3+Athena.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
VPC Flow Logs can be published directly to an S3 bucket in a central account by configuring the flow log destination as the central bucket's ARN, using bucket policies to grant cross-account write access from each source account. Athena uses partitioned data (e.g., by account, region, date) to optimize query performance and reduce scanned data costs; partitioning on the `log-status` field (e.g., 'OK', 'NODATA', 'SKIPDATA') can further filter out noise. A common real-world scenario is auditing network traffic across hundreds of accounts, where S3 lifecycle policies can transition older logs to Glacier for long-term archival, balancing cost and compliance.
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 startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
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 DOP-C02 question test?
Monitoring and Logging — This question tests Monitoring and Logging — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Send VPC Flow Logs from each account to a centralized Amazon S3 bucket, then use Amazon Athena to query the logs. — Option C is correct because it uses a centralized Amazon S3 bucket to aggregate VPC Flow Logs from all accounts, which is cost-effective (S3 storage costs are low) and enables cross-account querying via Amazon Athena using standard SQL. This approach avoids per-ingestion costs of services like CloudWatch Logs or Kinesis and provides a serverless, scalable query engine for analyzing logs across accounts.
What should I do if I get this DOP-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 24, 2026
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