The answer is to enable AWS IAM Access Analyzer in the management account and delegate administrative authority to the security account. This works because IAM Access Analyzer automatically generates findings for any resource shared with an external principal, including cross-account IAM roles, and when enabled at the organization level, it provides a single pane of glass across all member accounts without requiring per-account configuration. On the SAP-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of centralized governance versus distributed auditing—a common trap is choosing to enable Access Analyzer in every individual account, which violates the “centrally manage” requirement and creates administrative overhead. Remember the key distinction: organization-level Access Analyzer with delegated admin is the only way to centrally audit cross-account IAM roles without needing separate access to each account. Memory tip: think “one analyzer, many accounts” to recall that the management account’s analyzer covers the entire AWS Organization.
SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
This SAP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of design solutions for organizational complexity. 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. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. 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 company has a multi-account AWS environment. The security team needs to centrally manage and audit IAM roles that allow cross-account access. Which solution meets these requirements?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Enable AWS IAM Access Analyzer in the management account and delegate admin to the security account.
AWS IAM Access Analyzer helps identify resources shared with external principals, including cross-account IAM roles. By enabling it in the management account and delegating administration to the security account, the security team gains a centralized view of all cross-account access findings across the organization without needing to enable it in each account individually. This meets the requirement for central management and auditing of cross-account IAM roles.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Use AWS Organizations service control policies to deny cross-account access.
Why it's wrong here
SCPs prevent but do not audit existing access.
✓
Enable AWS IAM Access Analyzer in the management account and delegate admin to the security account.
Why this is correct
Access Analyzer automatically discovers cross-account access and can be centrally managed.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use AWS Trusted Advisor to check for unused cross-account roles.
Why it's wrong here
Trusted Advisor does not audit all cross-account roles, only unused ones.
✗
Enable AWS CloudTrail across all accounts and use Athena to query for AssumeRole events.
Why it's wrong here
This is reactive and requires manual querying.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse preventive controls (SCPs) with detective/audit controls, or they assume CloudTrail logging alone provides centralized auditing without considering the need for a purpose-built tool like IAM Access Analyzer to identify cross-account access configurations.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
IAM Access Analyzer uses a policy-based analysis engine that evaluates resource-based policies (e.g., IAM role trust policies) against the AWS Organizations boundary to identify external access. When delegated administration is configured, the security account can view findings from all member accounts without needing to enable the analyzer in each account, leveraging the Organizations trusted access feature. This is distinct from CloudTrail, which logs events after they occur, whereas Access Analyzer provides proactive, continuous analysis of policy configurations.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
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
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A company's IT admin needs to give a contractor read-only access to production logs without sharing account credentials. Using role-based access control (RBAC) and temporary scoped permissions — not a permanent shared password — is the correct pattern. Questions like this test whether you can apply least-privilege access across cloud identity services.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — This question tests Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Enable AWS IAM Access Analyzer in the management account and delegate admin to the security account. — AWS IAM Access Analyzer helps identify resources shared with external principals, including cross-account IAM roles. By enabling it in the management account and delegating administration to the security account, the security team gains a centralized view of all cross-account access findings across the organization without needing to enable it in each account individually. This meets the requirement for central management and auditing of cross-account IAM roles.
What should I do if I get this SAP-C02 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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