SAA-C03 Design Secure Architectures Practice Question
This SAA-C03 practice question tests your understanding of design secure architectures. 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 partner company needs read-only access to reports in an S3 bucket for a B2B file exchange site. The partner has its own AWS account. What is the most secure scalable access pattern?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Create a bucket policy that grants the partner role least-privilege access to the required prefix
Option C is correct because it uses a resource-based bucket policy that grants the partner's IAM role (from their own AWS account) least-privilege read-only access to a specific prefix. This avoids sharing long-term credentials, follows the principle of cross-account access using IAM roles and bucket policies, and is fully scalable without managing external users.
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.
✗
Make the objects public and rely on difficult-to-guess object names
Why it's wrong here
Security through obscurity is not an access-control strategy.
✗
Create an IAM user in the company account and share the access keys
Why it's wrong here
Long-term shared credentials are less secure and harder to govern.
✓
Create a bucket policy that grants the partner role least-privilege access to the required prefix
Why this is correct
A resource policy can grant cross-account access to a specific external role and prefix.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Copy the objects to a public website bucket
Why it's wrong here
A public website bucket exposes data unnecessarily.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often choose Option B (sharing IAM user keys) because it seems simpler, but AWS recommends cross-account IAM roles for secure, temporary, and auditable access between accounts.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Cross-account access works by the partner assuming an IAM role in the company account via the AWS Security Token Service (STS). The bucket policy must specify the partner's AWS account ID and the external ID (if required) to prevent the confused deputy problem. The partner's IAM role must have a trust policy allowing the company account to assume it, and the bucket policy grants s3:GetObject on the specific prefix, ensuring no other objects are exposed.
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 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
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: Create a bucket policy that grants the partner role least-privilege access to the required prefix — Option C is correct because it uses a resource-based bucket policy that grants the partner's IAM role (from their own AWS account) least-privilege read-only access to a specific prefix. This avoids sharing long-term credentials, follows the principle of cross-account access using IAM roles and bucket policies, and is fully scalable without managing external users.
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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