SAA-C03 Design Secure Architectures Practice Question
This SAA-C03 practice question tests your understanding of design secure architectures. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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 healthcare document service must ensure that only encrypted EBS volumes can be created in the account. What is the strongest preventive control?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use an SCP that denies ec2:CreateVolume when the encrypted condition is false
Option A is correct because an SCP (Service Control Policy) is a preventive control that can deny the ec2:CreateVolume action when the encryption condition (ec2:Encrypted) is false. This ensures that no unencrypted EBS volumes can be created in the account, providing a strong, proactive guardrail that cannot be overridden by IAM policies within the account.
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.
✓
Use an SCP that denies ec2:CreateVolume when the encrypted condition is false
Why this is correct
An SCP can prevent noncompliant volume creation across accounts in an organization.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Tag encrypted volumes after creation
Why it's wrong here
Tags identify resources but do not enforce encryption.
✗
Enable VPC Flow Logs
Why it's wrong here
Flow Logs monitor network traffic and do not control EBS encryption.
✗
Run a daily Lambda function to encrypt unencrypted volumes
Why it's wrong here
Reactive remediation leaves a window of exposure.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse detective or corrective controls (like Lambda remediation or tagging) with preventive controls, failing to recognize that only SCPs or IAM policies with Deny effects can block the action before it occurs.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
SCPs are evaluated before IAM policies and can explicitly deny actions based on conditions such as ec2:Encrypted. The condition key ec2:Encrypted is a boolean that, when set to false, triggers the deny effect. This works at the AWS Organizations level, making it effective even against root user actions within member accounts, which is critical for compliance frameworks like HIPAA.
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 company's IT admin needs to give a contractor read-only access to production logs without sharing account credentials. Using role-based access control (RBAC) and temporary scoped permissions — not a permanent shared password — is the correct pattern. Questions like this test whether you can apply least-privilege access across cloud identity services.
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.
Design Secure Architectures — This question tests Design Secure Architectures — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use an SCP that denies ec2:CreateVolume when the encrypted condition is false — Option A is correct because an SCP (Service Control Policy) is a preventive control that can deny the ec2:CreateVolume action when the encryption condition (ec2:Encrypted) is false. This ensures that no unencrypted EBS volumes can be created in the account, providing a strong, proactive guardrail that cannot be overridden by IAM policies within the account.
What should I do if I get this SAA-C03 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.
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Question Discussion
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