SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A company is using a multi-account strategy with AWS Organizations. The security team discovers that an SCP intended to block access to non-compliant AWS regions is not working. The SCP is attached to the root OU. When a user in a member account attempts to launch an EC2 instance in a blocked region, the request succeeds. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often assume SCPs apply to all accounts in the organization, forgetting the explicit exemption for the management account, which is a common oversight in multi-account security scenarios.
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
✓
The user belongs to the management account, and SCPs do not apply to the management account.
SCPs do not apply to the management account of an AWS Organizations hierarchy. Since the user belongs to the management account, the SCP attached to the root OU has no effect on their actions, allowing the EC2 launch in a blocked region to succeed.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The IAM policy of the user overrides the SCP.
Why it's wrong here
SCPs set boundaries; IAM policies cannot override a deny.
- ✗
The SCP is not attached to the member account's OU.
Why it's wrong here
The SCP is attached to the root OU, which applies to all accounts.
- ✗
The SCP is missing an explicit allow statement for the regions.
Why it's wrong here
SCPs deny actions; they do not require explicit allows.
- ✓
The user belongs to the management account, and SCPs do not apply to the management account.
Why this is correct
SCPs do not affect the management account.
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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.