DOP-C02 Monitoring and Logging Practice Question
A company uses Amazon S3 to store sensitive data. The security team wants to be notified when an S3 bucket policy is modified. Which approach is most efficient?
⚠ Common exam trap
DOP-C02 often tests the difference between event-driven detection (EventBridge) and periodic/compliance-based detection (Config, access logs) — candidates may pick S3 event notifications, which do not cover bucket policy API calls.
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
✓
Create an Amazon EventBridge rule that matches the 'PutBucketPolicy' API call and sends a notification to an SNS topic.
Amazon EventBridge can match AWS API calls such as PutBucketPolicy via CloudTrail management events and route them to an SNS topic for notification. This is the most efficient, near-real-time, event-driven approach for alerting on bucket policy changes.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Create an Amazon EventBridge rule that matches the 'PutBucketPolicy' API call and sends a notification to an SNS topic.
Why this is correct
EventBridge matches the PutBucketPolicy API call from CloudTrail and routes it to an SNS topic, giving near-real-time notification without polling. This is more efficient than scheduled log analysis or S3 event notifications, which do not cover bucket policy changes.
- ✗
Set up an AWS Config rule to detect changes to the bucket policy.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config records resource configuration changes and can trigger notifications, but detection is periodic and requires a configuration recorder plus delivery channel. It is tempting because Config is built for compliance tracking, and would be correct for continuous configuration-history auditing, yet EventBridge plus CloudTrail delivers immediate notification of the policy modification.
- ✗
Configure S3 event notifications for 's3:PutBucketPolicy' on the bucket.
Why it's wrong here
S3 event notifications support only object-level events such as PutObject and DeleteObject; PutBucketPolicy is a management-plane action and cannot be subscribed to this way. It is tempting because notifications are the native S3 push mechanism, and would be correct for reacting to uploaded objects, not bucket policy changes.
- ✗
Enable S3 server access logs and use CloudWatch Logs Insights to run queries periodically.
Why it's wrong here
Server access logs record object-level data requests, not control-plane API calls such as PutBucketPolicy, so the modification would never appear. It is tempting because access logging is a familiar S3 auditing tool, and would be correct for tracing who read or wrote objects, but CloudTrail captures management events.
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 |
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
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.