SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is designing a data lake on AWS using Amazon S3 as the storage layer. The data includes sensitive customer information that must be encrypted at rest. The company also needs to regularly rotate the encryption keys. Which solution meets these requirements with the least operational overhead?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse S3 bucket key rotation (which reduces KMS costs but does not rotate the encryption key) with actual key rotation, leading them to incorrectly select SSE-S3.
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
✓
Use server-side encryption with AWS KMS (SSE-KMS) and enable automatic key rotation in KMS.
SSE-KMS with automatic key rotation provides encryption at rest with minimal operational overhead. AWS KMS automatically rotates the customer master key (CMK) annually, and you can configure a custom rotation period (e.g., 90 days) if needed. This meets the requirement for regular key rotation without manual intervention, unlike SSE-S3 which does not support key rotation, and SSE-C which requires manual key management.
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 server-side encryption with S3 managed keys (SSE-S3) and enable S3 bucket key rotation.
Why it's wrong here
SSE-S3 does not support customer-managed key rotation.
- ✗
Implement client-side encryption using the AWS Encryption SDK and store keys in AWS Secrets Manager.
Why it's wrong here
Client-side encryption adds complexity and operational overhead.
- ✓
Use server-side encryption with AWS KMS (SSE-KMS) and enable automatic key rotation in KMS.
Why this is correct
SSE-KMS with automatic rotation meets encryption and rotation needs with low overhead.
- ✗
Use server-side encryption with customer-provided keys (SSE-C) and rotate keys manually.
Why it's wrong here
SSE-C requires manual key management and rotation.
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.