SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company needs to provide temporary credentials for users to access an S3 bucket for exactly 1 hour. The solution must not require any custom code or user management. Which AWS service should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse IAM roles (which define permissions) with the actual mechanism to issue temporary credentials (STS), leading them to select Option B, but a role alone cannot generate credentials without STS or custom code.
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
✓
AWS STS
AWS STS (Security Token Service) is the correct choice because it can generate temporary, limited-privilege credentials for IAM users or federated users, with a configurable expiration period (up to 1 hour for the default API call). This meets the requirement of providing temporary credentials for exactly 1 hour without requiring custom code or user management, as STS is a managed service that issues credentials via API calls like AssumeRole or GetFederationToken.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon Cognito identity pools
Why it's wrong here
Cognito is for federated identities, not simple temporary credentials.
- ✗
An IAM role with a trust policy
Why it's wrong here
Roles require a principal to assume them, not direct user access.
- ✗
S3 pre-signed URLs
Why it's wrong here
Pre-signed URLs grant access to specific objects, not the entire bucket.
- ✓
AWS STS
Why this is correct
STS generates temporary credentials with a specified duration.
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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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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