SAA-C03 S3 Access Points Practice Question
Exhibit
Bucket configuration for arn:aws:s3:::corp-shared-data: - S3 Block Public Access: enabled - Object Ownership: BucketOwnerEnforced - ACLs: disabled Bucket policy excerpt: - 17 separate statements grant GetObject and PutObject to different team roles - Each statement uses a team-specific prefix condition Audit note: "A recent policy edit granted Team B access to Team C's uploads for 18 minutes before rollback."
Based on the exhibit, the company has one shared S3 bucket for many internal teams. Security wants each team to access only its own prefix, ACLs must remain disabled, and the current bucket policy has become too large and error-prone. What is the best redesign?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to think splitting the bucket per team (Option B) is simpler, but they overlook that a single shared bucket with access points is more cost-effective and manageable, and that ACLs (Option A) are explicitly disallowed by the requirement.
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 one S3 access point per team and attach an access point policy that limits that team to its own prefix.
S3 Access Points allow you to create separate access points for each team, each with its own policy that restricts access to a specific prefix (e.g., s3://shared-bucket/team-a/). This eliminates the need for a large, error-prone bucket policy while keeping ACLs disabled, as access is managed through IAM policies and access point policies. It also maintains a single shared bucket, simplifying management and cost allocation.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Re-enable object ACLs and manage access by setting object-level ACLs for each team's prefix.
Why it's wrong here
Re-enabling object ACLs directly violates the stem’s requirement that ACLs must remain disabled, and managing access per object for each team’s prefix would reintroduce the same scalability and error-prone manual overhead that the current bucket policy suffers from. This approach is tempting because object ACLs are designed for granular, per-object permissions when a single bucket must serve multiple principals, and in a scenario where ACLs are permitted and the number of objects is small, it would be a correct choice.
- ✗
Split the bucket into one bucket per team and keep using a single shared bucket policy for all of them.
Why it's wrong here
Separate buckets can work, but they multiply operational overhead and still require policy management across many buckets. The question asks for a better redesign of the access model, not just more buckets.
- ✓
Create one S3 access point per team and attach an access point policy that limits that team to its own prefix.
Why this is correct
S3 access points are designed for simplifying access management to shared buckets. A separate access point per team keeps the bucket private, avoids ACLs, and lets each team have a smaller, easier-to-review policy boundary. This reduces the blast radius of a policy mistake and scales far better than a single giant bucket policy with many prefix rules.
- ✗
Make the bucket public and issue presigned URLs for team access so IAM policies are no longer needed.
Why it's wrong here
Presigned URLs are useful for temporary access, but making the bucket public violates the security requirement. Public access would also expose the bucket beyond the intended internal teams.
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
Related to this question
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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.