SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A company is using AWS Organizations with a single OU for all production accounts. The security team wants to restrict the use of specific instance types across all accounts in the OU. They create a Service Control Policy (SCP) that denies ec2:RunInstances if the instance type is not in the allowed list. However, some accounts still launch disallowed instance types. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates assume SCPs apply retroactively to existing resources, but AWS SCPs only affect future API actions, not the state of already-provisioned resources.
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 SCP only denies future API calls; it does not affect already running instances.
The most likely cause is that the SCP only denies future API calls, not already running instances. SCPs are evaluated at the time of the API request; any instances launched before the SCP was applied or before it was updated to include the deny condition will continue to run unaffected. The security team may be observing those pre-existing disallowed instances, not new launches.
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 SCP only denies future API calls; it does not affect already running instances.
Why this is correct
SCPs are preventive, not detective or corrective.
- ✗
The SCP has a delay of up to 24 hours before it takes effect.
Why it's wrong here
SCPs are effective within minutes.
- ✗
The SCP is not attached to the management account.
Why it's wrong here
The SCP should be attached to the OU, not the management account.
- ✗
The SCP condition is incorrectly formatted; SCPs cannot evaluate instance types.
Why it's wrong here
SCPs can use conditions to evaluate instance types.
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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.