SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A company uses AWS Organizations and has a member account that needs to access a shared S3 bucket in another member account. The bucket policy allows access from the account's root user. What is the simplest way to grant an IAM user in the member account access?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates often overcomplicate cross-account access by assuming a role or modifying the bucket policy, when the simplest solution is to use an IAM policy on the user because the bucket policy already authorizes the account's root user.
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
✓
Attach an IAM policy to the user that allows s3:GetObject on the bucket.
The simplest way to grant an IAM user in a member account access to a shared S3 bucket in another member account is to attach an IAM policy to the user that allows the required S3 action (e.g., s3:GetObject) on the bucket. Since the bucket policy already allows access from the account's root user, the IAM user inherits permissions through the account's identity-based policies, and no cross-account role assumption or bucket policy update is needed.
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 role in the source account and have the user assume it.
Why it's wrong here
This adds unnecessary complexity; the bucket policy already grants account-level access.
- ✗
Update the bucket policy to allow the user's ARN directly.
Why it's wrong here
This would work but is not simpler than using an IAM policy.
- ✓
Attach an IAM policy to the user that allows s3:GetObject on the bucket.
Why this is correct
Since the bucket policy trusts the account, the user just needs IAM permissions.
- ✗
Use a bucket ACL to grant access to the user's canonical ID.
Why it's wrong here
ACLs are legacy and less manageable.
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
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This SAP-C02 question is part of Courseiva's 1,660-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.