SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
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?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — 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.
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
✓
Attach an SCP to the root OU that denies cloudtrail:StopLogging, cloudtrail:DeleteTrail, and s3:DeleteObject actions for the CloudTrail S3 bucket.
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.
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.
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.