SAA-C03 Design Secure Architectures Practice Question
A solutions architect is designing an S3 bucket for a IoT ingestion API. 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
It's easy for candidates to think an IAM policy denying s3:GetObject to anonymous users is sufficient, but anonymous users are not IAM principals, so such a policy has no effect on anonymous access granted by a bucket policy.
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 objects, regardless of bucket policies or object ACLs. This setting, when enabled at the account or bucket level, ensures that even if a developer later attaches an overly permissive bucket policy, the public access is blocked. It meets the requirement of avoiding custom operational scripts by being a native, configurable S3 feature.
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 Transfer Acceleration
Why it's wrong here
S3 Transfer Acceleration only improves upload throughput by routing data through AWS edge locations; it does not apply any access control or modify bucket or object permissions. A bucket with acceleration enabled remains subject to its existing bucket policy, ACLs, and public-access settings, so objects can still be publicly readable if those allow it. Use Transfer Acceleration purely for faster uploads over long distances, not as a security control.
- ✗
Create an IAM policy that denies s3:GetObject to anonymous users
Why it's wrong here
IAM policies are attached to principals, but anonymous users have no IAM identity, so an IAM deny statement is never evaluated for unauthenticated requests. Even if you attempt to deny s3:GetObject via an IAM policy, a public bucket policy with Principal '*' would still permit anonymous reads, and an IAM deny cannot override an allow in a resource-based bucket policy unless the bucket policy itself includes an explicit deny. The correct way to block anonymous access is to modify the bucket policy or ACLs, or to use S3 Block Public Access.
- ✓
Enable S3 Block Public Access at the account or bucket level
Why this is correct
S3 Block Public Access provides four independent settings—BlockPublicAcls, IgnorePublicAcls, BlockPublicPolicy, and RestrictPublicBuckets—that prevent users from making objects or buckets public through ACLs or bucket policies. When enabled at the account level, these settings act as a guardrail for all current and future buckets, and they take precedence over any conflicting public ACL or bucket policy. For an IoT ingestion API where objects must remain private, this is the decisive control.
- ✗
Enable server access logging on the bucket
Why it's wrong here
Server access logging generates detailed log records for every request—including operation, requester, and response status—but it is purely observational and does not change bucket or object permissions. Enabling logging cannot remove an existing public ACL or invalidate a public bucket policy, so objects may still be exposed to the internet. Logging is useful for post-incident auditing, not for enforcing privacy.
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
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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.