SAA-C03 Design Secure Architectures Practice Question
A solutions architect is designing an S3 bucket for a claims portal. The objects must never be publicly accessible, even if a developer later adds an overly broad bucket policy. What should the architect configure? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates think an IAM policy can block anonymous users, but IAM policies only apply to authenticated IAM principals, not to anonymous (unauthenticated) requests, making S3 Block Public Access the only effective solution.
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
✓
Enable S3 Block Public Access at the account or bucket level
S3 Block Public Access provides a definitive override that prevents any public access to S3 objects, even if a bucket policy or ACL later grants public access. This setting can be applied at the account or bucket level and ensures that all access is denied to anonymous users, meeting the requirement without custom scripts.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Enable S3 Block Public Access at the account or bucket level
Why this is correct
S3 Block Public Access prevents public ACLs and public bucket policies from exposing the bucket.
- ✗
Create an IAM policy that denies s3:GetObject to anonymous users
Why it's wrong here
An IAM policy alone does not protect against every public ACL or bucket policy mistake.
- ✗
Enable server access logging on the bucket
Why it's wrong here
Access logging records requests but does not prevent public exposure.
- ✗
Enable S3 Transfer Acceleration
Why it's wrong here
Transfer Acceleration improves upload performance but does not enforce private access.
Visual reference
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.