DOP-C02 Configuration Management and IaC Practice Question
A company uses AWS CloudFormation to manage infrastructure. They have a nested stack that creates an ECS cluster. The parent stack fails with the error: 'The following resource(s) failed to create: [ECSCluster]'. Which TWO are possible causes? (Choose TWO.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse a resource creation failure with a template validation error or cross-stack reference issue, but the specific error message 'The following resource(s) failed to create: [ECSCluster]' indicates the nested stack itself failed to create its resources, not a parent-child output dependency or naming conflict.
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
✓
The parent stack's IAM role does not have permission to create the nested stack's resources
The parent stack's IAM role must have sufficient permissions to create all resources defined in the nested stack, including the ECS cluster. If the role lacks the necessary ECS actions (e.g., ecs:CreateCluster), CloudFormation will fail with the generic 'failed to create' error for the nested stack resource.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The parent stack is referencing an output from the nested stack that does not exist
Why it's wrong here
This would cause a different error, not a creation failure.
- ✗
The nested stack is in a different AWS region from the parent stack
Why it's wrong here
Nested stacks must be in the same region.
- ✗
The nested stack's name is not unique among all stacks in the account
Why it's wrong here
Stack names only need to be unique within the account and region.
- ✓
The parent stack's IAM role does not have permission to create the nested stack's resources
Why this is correct
Insufficient permissions would cause creation failure.
- ✓
The nested stack template contains an invalid resource property
Why this is correct
Syntax errors cause stack creation failure.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.