SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question
A company's security team wants to ensure that all S3 buckets are encrypted at rest. They have thousands of existing buckets. Which approach should a Solutions Architect use to identify noncompliant buckets?
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
✓
Create an AWS Config rule to evaluate S3 bucket encryption settings.
AWS Config provides managed rules to evaluate resource compliance. The 's3-bucket-server-side-encryption-enabled' rule checks if S3 buckets have server-side encryption enabled. This can be applied to all buckets in the account. Option A is incorrect because while AWS Trusted Advisor can check for bucket encryption, AWS Config is specifically designed for continuous compliance monitoring and auditing at scale, making it the better approach for identifying noncompliant buckets across thousands of resources. Option B is incorrect: CloudTrail logs record API calls (like PutBucketEncryption), but do not show the current encryption configuration of existing buckets. Option C is incorrect: S3 Inventory provides a list of objects and their metadata, but it does not directly indicate bucket-level encryption settings; it focuses on object-level encryption.
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 AWS Trusted Advisor to check bucket encryption.
Why it's wrong here
Trusted Advisor checks limited to specific checks.
- ✗
Analyze AWS CloudTrail logs for PutBucketEncryption API calls.
Why it's wrong here
CloudTrail logs actions, not current state.
- ✗
Enable S3 Inventory to list all objects and their encryption status.
Why it's wrong here
Inventory lists objects, not bucket-level encryption.
- ✓
Create an AWS Config rule to evaluate S3 bucket encryption settings.
Why this is correct
Config rules can evaluate all buckets.
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.