SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A company needs to share a central Amazon S3 bucket containing common data files with multiple accounts in AWS Organizations. Which approach is most secure and scalable?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often choose Option C (cross-account IAM roles) because it is a familiar pattern, but they overlook the simpler and more scalable centralized policy approach using the Organization ID condition key, which AWS specifically tests for centralized resource sharing 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
✓
Use an S3 bucket policy that grants access to the organization using aws:PrincipalOrgID condition key.
Using the `aws:PrincipalOrgID` condition key in an S3 bucket policy allows you to grant access to all principals (users, roles) within your AWS Organization without needing to list individual account IDs. This approach is both secure (no public access) and scalable (automatically includes new accounts added to the organization).
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Make the bucket public with read-only access.
Why it's wrong here
Public access is insecure.
- ✗
Generate presigned URLs for each account to access the bucket.
Why it's wrong here
Not scalable; URLs expire.
- ✗
Create IAM roles in each account with permissions to assume a role in the central account.
Why it's wrong here
Adds complexity of role switching.
- ✓
Use an S3 bucket policy that grants access to the organization using aws:PrincipalOrgID condition key.
Why this is correct
Condition key ensures only accounts in the organization can access.
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.