Quick Answer
The answer is Amazon GuardDuty, AWS CloudTrail, and Amazon CloudWatch Logs. CloudTrail provides the raw audit trail of all API calls, capturing identity, source IP, and request parameters, which is the foundational data for detecting anomalous API calls. GuardDuty then uses machine learning and threat intelligence to analyze these CloudTrail logs alongside VPC Flow Logs and DNS logs, identifying unusual patterns like a spike in failed authentication attempts or calls from an unexpected geographic region. CloudWatch Logs serves as the centralized ingestion and monitoring layer, allowing you to set metric filters and alarms on specific API call patterns that deviate from the baseline. On the DOP-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of how these three services integrate for security monitoring, with a common trap being to select AWS Config or Inspector instead—remember, Config tracks resource configuration changes, not API call anomalies. Memory tip: think of CloudTrail as the recorder, GuardDuty as the detective, and CloudWatch as the alarm bell.
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 wants to monitor and detect anomalous API calls in their AWS account. Which THREE AWS services should they use together to achieve this?
AWS CloudTrail
Logs API calls.
Amazon Inspector
Why wrong: Assesses vulnerabilities.
Amazon CloudWatch Logs
Stores and monitors logs.
AWS Config
Why wrong: Tracks resource configuration changes.
Amazon GuardDuty
Detects anomalous behavior.
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 CloudTrail
AWS CloudTrail is correct because it records all API calls made in the AWS account, providing the raw data needed to detect anomalous activity. By enabling CloudTrail on all regions and logging to a centralized S3 bucket, you capture the identity, source IP, and request parameters for every API call, which is essential for anomaly detection.
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 CloudTrail
Why this is correct
Logs API calls.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Amazon Inspector
Why it's wrong here
Assesses vulnerabilities.
Amazon CloudWatch Logs
Why this is correct
Stores and monitors logs.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
AWS Config
Why it's wrong here
Tracks resource configuration changes.
Amazon GuardDuty
Why this is correct
Detects anomalous behavior.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse AWS Config (which tracks resource configuration changes) with CloudTrail (which tracks API calls), or they think Amazon Inspector (a vulnerability scanner) can detect anomalous API behavior when it is designed for a completely different purpose.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, CloudTrail delivers log files in JSON format containing the 'eventTime', 'userIdentity', 'sourceIPAddress', 'requestParameters', and 'responseElements' for each API call. CloudWatch Logs can ingest these logs via a CloudTrail-to-CloudWatch Logs integration, allowing you to create metric filters and alarms for patterns like repeated 'AccessDenied' errors or calls from unusual IP ranges. GuardDuty then uses its threat intelligence and machine learning models to analyze CloudTrail management events (and VPC Flow Logs, DNS logs) for indicators of compromise such as credential misuse or reconnaissance behavior.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
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
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FAQ
Security and Compliance — This question tests Security and Compliance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: AWS CloudTrail — AWS CloudTrail is correct because it records all API calls made in the AWS account, providing the raw data needed to detect anomalous activity. By enabling CloudTrail on all regions and logging to a centralized S3 bucket, you capture the identity, source IP, and request parameters for every API call, which is essential for anomaly detection.
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 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.
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