SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
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 is using AWS Organizations to manage multiple accounts. The security team wants to ensure that no one can disable AWS CloudTrail or delete CloudTrail log files across any account. What is the most effective way to enforce this?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Attach an SCP to the root OU that denies cloudtrail:StopLogging, cloudtrail:DeleteTrail, and s3:DeleteObject actions for the CloudTrail S3 bucket.
Option D is correct because Service Control Policies (SCPs) in AWS Organizations can be attached to the root organizational unit (OU) to centrally deny specific actions across all accounts, including the management account. By denying `cloudtrail:StopLogging`, `cloudtrail:DeleteTrail`, and `s3:DeleteObject` on the CloudTrail S3 bucket, the security team ensures that no principal in any account can disable CloudTrail or delete log files, regardless of their IAM permissions. SCPs are the only mechanism that can enforce such guardrails across all accounts in an organization without requiring per-account configuration.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
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 an SCP to require that CloudTrail is enabled.
Why it's wrong here
SCPs cannot enable services; they only deny or allow actions.
✗
Use IAM policies in each account to deny the same actions.
Why it's wrong here
IAM policies can be removed by account administrators.
✗
Use AWS Config rules to detect and remediate changes.
Why it's wrong here
This is reactive, not preventive.
✓
Attach an SCP to the root OU that denies cloudtrail:StopLogging, cloudtrail:DeleteTrail, and s3:DeleteObject actions for the CloudTrail S3 bucket.
Why this is correct
SCPs can deny these sensitive actions across all accounts.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often choose Option A (SCP to require CloudTrail) because they confuse 'requiring' a service with 'preventing its disablement,' but SCPs cannot enforce that a service is running—they can only deny API actions, making Option D the only effective preventive control.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
SCPs are evaluated before IAM policies and resource-based policies; they act as a filter that can explicitly deny actions even if an IAM policy grants them. The `s3:DeleteObject` action must be denied specifically on the CloudTrail S3 bucket (using a resource ARN in the SCP condition) to prevent log file deletion, while `cloudtrail:StopLogging` and `cloudtrail:DeleteTrail` are service-level actions that stop or remove the trail. In a real-world scenario, if an attacker compromises a root user in a member account, SCPs attached to the root OU will still block these destructive actions, providing a defense-in-depth layer that IAM policies alone cannot enforce.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
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
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — This question tests Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Attach an SCP to the root OU that denies cloudtrail:StopLogging, cloudtrail:DeleteTrail, and s3:DeleteObject actions for the CloudTrail S3 bucket. — Option D is correct because Service Control Policies (SCPs) in AWS Organizations can be attached to the root organizational unit (OU) to centrally deny specific actions across all accounts, including the management account. By denying `cloudtrail:StopLogging`, `cloudtrail:DeleteTrail`, and `s3:DeleteObject` on the CloudTrail S3 bucket, the security team ensures that no principal in any account can disable CloudTrail or delete log files, regardless of their IAM permissions. SCPs are the only mechanism that can enforce such guardrails across all accounts in an organization without requiring per-account configuration.
What should I do if I get this SAP-C02 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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