This DOP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of security and compliance. 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 is migrating to AWS and needs to comply with PCI DSS. They must encrypt all data at rest and in transit. Which THREE services or features should they use?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) with TLS termination.
Option A is correct because Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) with TLS termination ensures encryption of data in transit between clients and the load balancer, which is a PCI DSS requirement for protecting cardholder data over public networks. By terminating TLS at the ELB, you can offload the cryptographic overhead while maintaining compliance with the encryption-in-transit mandate.
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.
✓
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) with TLS termination.
Why this is correct
ELB can terminate TLS, ensuring encryption in transit between clients and load balancer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
AWS CloudTrail to log all API calls.
Why it's wrong here
CloudTrail is for auditing, not encryption.
✓
Amazon S3 server-side encryption (SSE-S3) for S3 objects.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
AWS Key Management Service (KMS) to manage encryption keys.
Why this is correct
KMS provides centralized key management for encryption at rest.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
AWS WAF to protect web applications.
Why it's wrong here
WAF is a web application firewall, not an encryption service.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse compliance-related services (like CloudTrail for logging or WAF for security) with encryption-specific services, leading them to select options that are valid for security but do not directly satisfy the encryption-at-rest and encryption-in-transit mandates of PCI DSS.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
For PCI DSS compliance, encryption at rest typically uses AES-256, and encryption in transit uses TLS 1.2 or higher. ELB supports TLS termination with configurable security policies (e.g., ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS-1-2-2017-01), and Amazon S3 SSE-S3 uses AES-256 with automatically managed keys, while AWS KMS allows customer-managed keys with rotation and audit trails. Under the hood, KMS integrates with CloudTrail to log key usage, which is critical for PCI DSS audit requirements.
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 and Compliance — This question tests Security and Compliance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) with TLS termination. — Option A is correct because Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) with TLS termination ensures encryption of data in transit between clients and the load balancer, which is a PCI DSS requirement for protecting cardholder data over public networks. By terminating TLS at the ELB, you can offload the cryptographic overhead while maintaining compliance with the encryption-in-transit mandate.
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.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
This DOP-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 DOP-C02 exam.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.