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. A key principle to apply: s3 bucket policies grant cross-account access to specific AWS principals.. 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 image sharing application. 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 D is correct because it uses a resource-based bucket policy that grants the partner's AWS account (via its IAM role) least-privilege read-only access to a specific prefix. This avoids sharing long-term credentials, leverages AWS's cross-account trust mechanism, and ensures the partner's access is controlled through their own IAM roles, which is the most secure and scalable pattern for cross-account S3 access.
Key principle: S3 bucket policies grant cross-account access to specific AWS principals.
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.
✗
Copy the objects to a public website bucket
Why it's wrong here
A public website bucket exposes data unnecessarily.
✓
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
S3 bucket policies grant cross-account access to specific AWS principals.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often choose sharing IAM access keys (Option B) because it seems simpler, but the SAA-C03 exam emphasizes using IAM roles and resource-based policies for cross-account access to avoid long-term credential management and improve security.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Cross-account S3 access works by combining a bucket policy that grants the partner's AWS account ID (or a specific role ARN) with a matching IAM role in the partner account that allows the necessary S3 actions. The bucket policy uses the `Principal` element with the partner's AWS account ID, and the partner's IAM role must have an inline policy allowing `s3:GetObject` on the same bucket/prefix. This pattern avoids hardcoded keys and supports AWS CloudTrail logging for auditing, as all access is performed via the partner's role, not static credentials.
KKey Concepts to Remember
S3 bucket policies grant cross-account access to specific AWS principals.
Cross-account access uses the partner's IAM role ARN in the bucket policy.
Bucket policies support least-privilege access to specific S3 prefixes.
This method avoids sharing credentials or making data public.
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
S3 bucket policies grant cross-account access to specific AWS principals.
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.
Review s3 bucket policies grant cross-account access to specific AWS principals., then practise related SAA-C03 questions on the same topic to reinforce the concept.
Design Secure Architectures — This question tests Design Secure Architectures — S3 bucket policies grant cross-account access to specific AWS principals..
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 D is correct because it uses a resource-based bucket policy that grants the partner's AWS account (via its IAM role) least-privilege read-only access to a specific prefix. This avoids sharing long-term credentials, leverages AWS's cross-account trust mechanism, and ensures the partner's access is controlled through their own IAM roles, which is the most secure and scalable pattern for cross-account S3 access.
What should I do if I get this SAA-C03 question wrong?
Review s3 bucket policies grant cross-account access to specific AWS principals., then practise related SAA-C03 questions on the same topic to reinforce the concept.
What is the key concept behind this question?
S3 bucket policies grant cross-account access to specific AWS principals.
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