SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
This SAP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of design solutions for organizational complexity. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company uses AWS Organizations and has a central IT team that manages VPCs. The team wants to ensure that only authorized accounts can create VPCs, and that all VPCs must have a specific tag. Which solution enforces this?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Apply an SCP that denies ec2:CreateVpc if the request does not include the required tag.
Option C is correct because AWS Organizations Service Control Policies (SCPs) can centrally restrict actions across all member accounts. By applying an SCP that denies ec2:CreateVpc unless the request includes a specific tag (using the ec2:ResourceTag condition key), the central IT team ensures that only authorized accounts (which cannot bypass the SCP) can create VPCs, and all VPCs must have the required tag at creation time.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
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 Config to detect and delete untagged VPCs.
Why it's wrong here
Reactive, not preventive.
✗
Use IAM policies in each account to require tags.
Why it's wrong here
Does not prevent creation via other accounts.
✓
Apply an SCP that denies ec2:CreateVpc if the request does not include the required tag.
Why this is correct
Prevents creation at the organization level.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use AWS CloudFormation StackSets to deploy VPC templates with tags.
Why it's wrong here
Does not cover console or SDK creation.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse AWS Config's detective capabilities with preventive controls, or assume IAM policies in individual accounts can be centrally enforced, when only SCPs provide organization-wide preventive enforcement that cannot be bypassed by account-level administrators.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
SCPs use the ec2:CreateVpc API action with a condition key like ec2:ResourceTag to enforce tagging at the time of resource creation. The SCP is evaluated before any IAM policies, so even if an IAM policy allows ec2:CreateVpc, the SCP can deny it if the required tag is missing. This approach works across all accounts in the organization, including the management account (if the SCP is applied to the root), and cannot be overridden by account administrators.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A company's IT admin needs to give a contractor read-only access to production logs without sharing account credentials. Using role-based access control (RBAC) and temporary scoped permissions — not a permanent shared password — is the correct pattern. Questions like this test whether you can apply least-privilege access across cloud identity services.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — This question tests Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Apply an SCP that denies ec2:CreateVpc if the request does not include the required tag. — Option C is correct because AWS Organizations Service Control Policies (SCPs) can centrally restrict actions across all member accounts. By applying an SCP that denies ec2:CreateVpc unless the request includes a specific tag (using the ec2:ResourceTag condition key), the central IT team ensures that only authorized accounts (which cannot bypass the SCP) can create VPCs, and all VPCs must have the required tag at creation time.
What should I do if I get this SAP-C02 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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