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 wants to allow a development account to assume a role in the production account for deployment purposes. Which component is necessary for this cross-account access?
A VPC peering connection between the accounts
Why wrong: VPC peering does not handle IAM permissions.
An IAM role in the production account with a trust policy allowing the development account
Trust policies enable cross-account role assumption.
A service control policy (SCP) that permits AssumeRole
Why wrong: SCPs are deny lists, not grant access.
An AWS Config rule to validate the role
Why wrong: Config does not grant access.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
An IAM role in the production account with a trust policy allowing the development account
Cross-account IAM access requires a role in the target (production) account with a trust policy that explicitly lists the source (development) account as a trusted principal. The development account then uses the STS AssumeRole API to obtain temporary credentials for that role. Without this trust policy, the role cannot be assumed from another account.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
A VPC peering connection between the accounts
Why it's wrong here
VPC peering does not handle IAM permissions.
An IAM role in the production account with a trust policy allowing the development account
Why this is correct
Trust policies enable cross-account role assumption.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
A service control policy (SCP) that permits AssumeRole
Why it's wrong here
SCPs are deny lists, not grant access.
An AWS Config rule to validate the role
Why it's wrong here
Config does not grant access.
Common exam traps
The trap here is confusing network connectivity (VPC peering) with IAM authorization, or assuming that an SCP alone can enable cross-account access when SCPs only act as a permission guardrail within an organization.
Detailed technical explanation
The trust policy on the IAM role uses the `sts:AssumeRole` action with a `Principal` element set to the development account's AWS account ID (e.g., `"AWS": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:root"`). The development account must also have an IAM policy granting `sts:AssumeRole` on the production role's ARN. Under the hood, the STS service validates both the trust policy and the caller's permissions before issuing temporary credentials with a configurable session duration (default 1 hour, max 12 hours).
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
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
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FAQ
Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — This question tests Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: An IAM role in the production account with a trust policy allowing the development account — Cross-account IAM access requires a role in the target (production) account with a trust policy that explicitly lists the source (development) account as a trusted principal. The development account then uses the STS AssumeRole API to obtain temporary credentials for that role. Without this trust policy, the role cannot be assumed from another account.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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