SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A company has a centralized logging solution using Amazon S3 and AWS CloudTrail. They want to ensure that logs are immutable and cannot be deleted or modified by any user, including the root user. Which S3 feature should be enabled?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often choose a bucket policy denying s3:DeleteObject, not realizing that the root user can bypass bucket policies by modifying them, whereas S3 Object Lock in compliance mode provides a true immutability guarantee that even the root user cannot override.
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
✓
S3 Object Lock in compliance mode.
S3 Object Lock in compliance mode ensures that objects are write-once-read-many (WORM) and cannot be deleted or overwritten by any user, including the root user. Compliance mode locks the retention period and prevents any user, even the AWS account root user, from shortening or removing the retention settings, making logs truly immutable.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
S3 Object Lock in compliance mode.
Why this is correct
S3 Object Lock in compliance mode prevents any principal, including the account root user, from overwriting or deleting protected object versions for the retention period. This satisfies the immutability constraint that standard bucket policies or versioning alone cannot guarantee.
- ✗
S3 Versioning with a lifecycle policy.
Why it's wrong here
Versioning retains prior object versions but any principal with delete permission can still add delete markers or permanently remove versions; a lifecycle policy actively expires them. It suits retention and recovery from overwrites, not the requirement that even the root user cannot delete or alter logs.
- ✗
S3 bucket policy denying s3:DeleteObject.
Why it's wrong here
A bucket policy denying s3:DeleteObject can be edited or removed by the bucket owner or root user, who retain PutBucketPolicy rights, so it is not immutable. It is the usual way to restrict deletion for ordinary IAM principals, but not against root.
- ✗
S3 MFA Delete.
Why it's wrong here
MFA Delete requires multi-factor authentication for version deletion, yet the bucket owner and root user can still suspend it and delete objects, and it does not prevent overwrites. It guards against accidental deletion, not the stated requirement of immutability against every user including root.
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 SAP-C02 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 SAP-C02 exam.