SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A company has multiple AWS accounts and wants to centralize logging of all API calls. Which TWO services should be used together to achieve this?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates often pick VPC Flow Logs (Option A) thinking it captures all API traffic, but it only captures network-level flows, not the application-layer API calls that CloudTrail records.
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
✓
AWS CloudTrail
AWS CloudTrail is the correct service because it records all API calls made within an AWS account, including the identity, source IP, and timestamp. Centralizing logging across multiple accounts requires sending these CloudTrail logs to a central Amazon S3 bucket (often with cross-account permissions) and then using Amazon CloudWatch Logs to monitor, alert, or analyze the logs in real time. Together, CloudTrail captures the API activity, and CloudWatch Logs provides a unified log management and monitoring layer.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
VPC Flow Logs
Why it's wrong here
Flow logs capture network traffic, not API calls.
- ✓
AWS CloudTrail
Why this is correct
CloudTrail records API calls.
- ✗
AWS Config
Why it's wrong here
Config records configuration changes, not API calls.
- ✓
Amazon CloudWatch Logs
Why this is correct
CloudWatch Logs can centralize logs via cross-account subscription.
- ✗
Amazon S3
Why it's wrong here
S3 stores logs but does not aggregate.
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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JA
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.