SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A company's IT team uses AWS CloudFormation to deploy infrastructure. They want to enforce tagging standards across all stacks. Which approach should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently choose AWS Config (Option D) because it is a common tagging enforcement tool, but they overlook that it is reactive and does not prevent non-compliant stacks from being created, whereas SCPs provide preventive enforcement at the organization level.
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
✓
Define stack-level tags in CloudFormation templates and use an SCP to deny creation of stacks without required tags.
AWS Organizations Service Control Policies (SCPs) can deny the creation of CloudFormation stacks that do not include required stack-level tags, while stack-level tags defined in the template propagate to all resources created by the stack. This combination enforces tagging standards across all stacks without relying on individual IAM user permissions or post-creation remediation.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Create an IAM policy that requires tags on all resources and attach it to all IAM users.
Why it's wrong here
IAM policies cannot enforce tags on resources created by CloudFormation unless using condition keys that may not be supported.
- ✗
Configure CloudFormation to reject any stack that does not include tags.
Why it's wrong here
CloudFormation does not have a built-in mechanism to reject stacks based on tags.
- ✓
Define stack-level tags in CloudFormation templates and use an SCP to deny creation of stacks without required tags.
Why this is correct
SCPs can enforce that all stacks have required tags, and stack-level tags propagate to resources.
- ✗
Use AWS Config to detect resources without tags and automatically remediate using Systems Manager Automation.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config detects non-compliance after creation; it does not prevent creation of untagged resources.
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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.