Quick Answer
The answer is Amazon CloudTrail and Amazon CloudWatch Logs. CloudTrail is the service that records every AWS API call across your accounts, capturing the who, what, and when of each action, while CloudWatch Logs provides the centralized ingestion, monitoring, and alerting layer. To centralize API calls logging in a multi-account environment, you configure CloudTrail to deliver logs from all accounts into a single S3 bucket, then stream those logs into CloudWatch Logs for real-time search and metric filters. On the SAP-C02 exam, this pairing tests your understanding of how to aggregate audit data across organizational units without duplicating effort—a common trap is choosing AWS Config or Amazon Athena alone, which lack the real-time monitoring and alerting that CloudWatch Logs provides. Remember the mnemonic: “CloudTrail records the trail, CloudWatch watches the logs.”
This SAP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of design solutions for organizational complexity. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. 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 environment and wants to centralize logging for all AWS API calls. Which TWO services should they use together to achieve this?
AWS CloudTrail
Logs API calls.
Amazon CloudWatch Logs
Can receive logs from multiple accounts via subscription.
Amazon GuardDuty
Why wrong: Threat detection, not logging.
Amazon S3
Why wrong: Storage only, does not aggregate.
AWS Config
Why wrong: Logs resource changes, not API calls.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
AWS CloudTrail
AWS CloudTrail is the service that records all AWS API calls made in an account, capturing the who, what, when, and source IP for every action. To centralize these logs from multiple accounts into a single location, you can configure CloudTrail to deliver log files to a centralized Amazon S3 bucket, and then use Amazon CloudWatch Logs to monitor, search, and alert on those API events in real time. Together, they provide a complete, centralized logging and monitoring solution for API activity across a multi-account environment.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
AWS CloudTrail
Why this is correct
Logs API calls.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Amazon CloudWatch Logs
Why this is correct
Can receive logs from multiple accounts via subscription.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Amazon GuardDuty
Why it's wrong here
Threat detection, not logging.
Amazon S3
Why it's wrong here
Storage only, does not aggregate.
AWS Config
Why it's wrong here
Logs resource changes, not API calls.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Amazon S3 as a logging service rather than a storage destination, or they mistakenly think GuardDuty or AWS Config can replace CloudTrail for capturing API calls.
Detailed technical explanation
CloudTrail delivers log files to S3 in gzipped JSON format, and you can use CloudWatch Logs subscription filters to stream those logs in real time from S3 to CloudWatch Logs via Lambda or Kinesis. For multi-account centralization, you typically create a CloudTrail trail in a central logging account that aggregates logs from all member accounts using AWS Organizations, ensuring a single point of access and retention. CloudWatch Logs then enables metric filters and alarms on specific API calls (e.g., IAM policy changes) for operational visibility.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
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Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — study guide chapter
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FAQ
Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — This question tests Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: AWS CloudTrail — AWS CloudTrail is the service that records all AWS API calls made in an account, capturing the who, what, when, and source IP for every action. To centralize these logs from multiple accounts into a single location, you can configure CloudTrail to deliver log files to a centralized Amazon S3 bucket, and then use Amazon CloudWatch Logs to monitor, search, and alert on those API events in real time. Together, they provide a complete, centralized logging and monitoring solution for API activity across a multi-account environment.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Same concept, more angles
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company has a multi-account AWS environment. They want to use AWS CloudTrail to log all API calls across all accounts and deliver the logs to a central S3 bucket in the logging account. They have configured a trail in the management account that logs management events for all accounts. However, they notice that the logs from member accounts are not being delivered to the central S3 bucket. What is the most likely cause?
easyWhy B: Option B is correct because a trail in the management account can log management events for all accounts, but it requires that the trail be created with the option 'Apply trail to all accounts in the organization' and the S3 bucket policy must allow CloudTrail to write from member accounts. Option A is wrong because there is no such limitation. Option C is wrong because CloudTrail supports cross-account delivery. Option D is wrong because the bucket policy is likely the issue.
Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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.
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