SAA-C03 Design Secure Architectures Practice Question
A partner company needs read-only access to reports in an S3 bucket for a customer analytics portal. The partner has its own AWS account. What is the most secure scalable access pattern?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often choose Option D (sharing IAM user access keys) because it seems straightforward, but the exam tests the understanding that cross-account IAM roles are more secure and scalable than sharing static credentials.
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
✓
Create a bucket policy that grants the partner role least-privilege access to the required prefix
A bucket policy that grants the partner's IAM role (from the partner's AWS account) least-privilege access to a specific prefix is the most secure and scalable pattern. This uses cross-account IAM roles, avoiding long-term credentials and allowing the partner to manage their own users and permissions. The bucket policy explicitly trusts the partner's AWS account, and the partner assumes the role to access only the required objects, following the principle of least privilege.
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 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.
- ✗
Copy the objects to a public website bucket
Why it's wrong here
A public website bucket exposes data unnecessarily.
- ✗
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.
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 |
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.