SAA-C03 Design Secure Architectures Practice Question
A healthcare company stores patient imaging studies in an Amazon S3 bucket. Compliance requires that every object be encrypted at rest with a key the company fully controls, including the ability to rotate and revoke the key independently of AWS. The security team must also be able to audit every use of the key. Which solution meets these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that any encryption option provides equivalent key control, when only customer managed KMS keys allow independent rotation, revocation, and auditable key usage.
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
✓
Enable SSE-KMS with a customer managed key in AWS KMS and enable AWS CloudTrail data events for KMS.
A customer managed key in AWS KMS combined with SSE-KMS lets the organization control key rotation and revocation while CloudTrail records every use of the key for audit. S3 performs the encryption transparently, so no application changes are needed. This combination meets the encryption, control, and audit requirements with less operational effort than managing keys in the application or supplying keys on every request.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Enable SSE-KMS with a customer managed key in AWS KMS and enable AWS CloudTrail data events for KMS.
Why this is correct
SSE-KMS with a customer managed key gives the company full control over rotation and revocation, and KMS integrates with CloudTrail to log every cryptographic operation. This satisfies encryption at rest, key ownership, and auditability with minimal operational effort because S3 and KMS handle the cryptographic work automatically when objects are written and read.
- ✗
Enable SSE-C and store the encryption key in AWS Secrets Manager, rotating it every 90 days with a Lambda function.
Why it's wrong here
SSE-C requires the application to supply the key on every PUT and GET, which adds significant code and operational burden. Secrets Manager rotation does not integrate with S3 SSE-C automatically, so the application must fetch the current key each time. This approach also complicates key revocation and does not natively produce key-usage audit records in CloudTrail.
- ✗
Enable SSE-S3 with the default aws/s3 key and enable S3 server access logging on the bucket.
Why it's wrong here
SSE-S3 uses an AWS-managed key that the customer cannot rotate, revoke, or audit independently, so it fails the control requirement. S3 server access logging records object-level requests but does not log key usage. This option provides encryption at rest but does not give the company ownership of the key lifecycle, making it unsuitable for the stated compliance mandate.
- ✗
Use client-side encryption with the AWS Encryption SDK and store the data key in an Amazon S3 bucket protected by a bucket policy.
Why it's wrong here
Client-side encryption with the AWS Encryption SDK is valid but requires the application to manage data keys, encryption context, and key wrapping, which increases operational overhead. Storing data keys in S3 introduces a security risk because the keys are co-located with the ciphertext. It also does not provide the integrated audit trail that KMS delivers automatically.
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 |
Go deeper
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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 SAA-C03 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 SAA-C03 exam.