This SAP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of design for new solutions. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. 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 is designing a new application that will process sensitive financial data. They need to ensure that data at rest is encrypted using customer-provided encryption keys (SSE-C) in Amazon S3. Which action is required to enable this?
Use AWS KMS to generate a key
Why wrong: KMS is used for SSE-KMS, not SSE-C.
Enable default encryption on the bucket
Why wrong: Default encryption uses SSE-S3 or SSE-KMS, not SSE-C.
Provide the encryption key in the request headers
SSE-C requires the key to be provided with each request.
Configure a bucket policy to require SSE-C
Why wrong: Bucket policy can require SSE-C but does not provide the key.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Provide the encryption key in the request headers
SSE-C requires the customer to provide the encryption key in the request headers when uploading or accessing objects. Amazon S3 uses the provided key to encrypt data at rest and then discards the key; the customer is responsible for managing the key lifecycle. This is the only way to enforce customer-provided encryption keys at the object level.
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.
Use AWS KMS to generate a key
Why it's wrong here
KMS is used for SSE-KMS, not SSE-C.
Enable default encryption on the bucket
Why it's wrong here
Default encryption uses SSE-S3 or SSE-KMS, not SSE-C.
Provide the encryption key in the request headers
Why this is correct
SSE-C requires the key to be provided with each request.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Configure a bucket policy to require SSE-C
Why it's wrong here
Bucket policy can require SSE-C but does not provide the key.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates confuse SSE-C with SSE-KMS or SSE-S3, assuming that a bucket policy or default encryption alone can enforce customer-provided keys, when in fact SSE-C requires the key to be explicitly supplied in every request.
Detailed technical explanation
SSE-C uses the x-amz-server-side-encryption-customer-algorithm, x-amz-server-side-encryption-customer-key, and x-amz-server-side-encryption-customer-key-MD5 headers in PUT and GET requests. S3 encrypts the object with the provided key using AES-256, stores only the encrypted object and its HMAC, and never retains the key. This is critical for compliance scenarios where the customer must control key material without AWS having any access.
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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FAQ
Design for New Solutions — This question tests Design for New Solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Provide the encryption key in the request headers — SSE-C requires the customer to provide the encryption key in the request headers when uploading or accessing objects. Amazon S3 uses the provided key to encrypt data at rest and then discards the key; the customer is responsible for managing the key lifecycle. This is the only way to enforce customer-provided encryption keys at the object level.
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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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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