SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
This SAP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of design solutions for organizational complexity. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. 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 with a central security account. They need to ensure that any S3 bucket created in any account is configured with encryption and versioning enabled. Which THREE steps should they take?
Create IAM policies in each account that require encryption and versioning for any bucket creation.
Why wrong: Hard to manage across many accounts.
B
Use AWS CloudFormation StackSets to deploy a stack in each account that creates a bucket with encryption and versioning, and use SCPs to prevent deletion.
Ensures a compliant bucket exists.
C
Deploy AWS Config rules across all accounts to detect buckets without encryption or versioning and trigger auto-remediation.
Detects and fixes existing buckets.
D
Apply a service control policy (SCP) that denies s3:CreateBucket unless encryption and versioning are specified.
Prevents non-compliant bucket creation.
E
Use AWS CloudTrail to monitor bucket creation and send alerts.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use AWS CloudFormation StackSets to deploy a stack in each account that creates a bucket with encryption and versioning, and use SCPs to prevent deletion.
Option B is correct because AWS CloudFormation StackSets allow you to deploy a standardized stack across multiple accounts in an organization, ensuring that any bucket created by the stack has encryption and versioning enabled. Combining this with a service control policy (SCP) that denies s3:CreateBucket unless encryption and versioning are specified (Option D) provides a preventive guardrail at the organization level. Additionally, deploying AWS Config rules with auto-remediation (Option C) acts as a detective and corrective measure, ensuring compliance even if buckets are created outside the approved stack.
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.
✗
Create IAM policies in each account that require encryption and versioning for any bucket creation.
Why it's wrong here
Hard to manage across many accounts.
✓
Use AWS CloudFormation StackSets to deploy a stack in each account that creates a bucket with encryption and versioning, and use SCPs to prevent deletion.
Why this is correct
Ensures a compliant bucket exists.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Deploy AWS Config rules across all accounts to detect buckets without encryption or versioning and trigger auto-remediation.
Why this is correct
Detects and fixes existing buckets.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Apply a service control policy (SCP) that denies s3:CreateBucket unless encryption and versioning are specified.
Why this is correct
Prevents non-compliant bucket creation.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use AWS CloudTrail to monitor bucket creation and send alerts.
Why it's wrong here
Only alerts, does not enforce.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often think IAM policies alone can enforce resource configuration parameters, but IAM only controls permissions, not the actual values passed in the API call, which requires SCPs or service-specific controls.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Service control policies (SCPs) in AWS Organizations can use condition keys like s3:x-amz-server-side-encryption and s3:x-amz-versioning to deny bucket creation if these parameters are not specified. AWS Config rules with auto-remediation can invoke an AWS Lambda function or Systems Manager Automation to enable encryption and versioning on non-compliant buckets. CloudFormation StackSets use a service-linked role to deploy stacks across accounts, ensuring consistent resource configuration.
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 media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
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: Use AWS CloudFormation StackSets to deploy a stack in each account that creates a bucket with encryption and versioning, and use SCPs to prevent deletion. — Option B is correct because AWS CloudFormation StackSets allow you to deploy a standardized stack across multiple accounts in an organization, ensuring that any bucket created by the stack has encryption and versioning enabled. Combining this with a service control policy (SCP) that denies s3:CreateBucket unless encryption and versioning are specified (Option D) provides a preventive guardrail at the organization level. Additionally, deploying AWS Config rules with auto-remediation (Option C) acts as a detective and corrective measure, ensuring compliance even if buckets are created outside the approved stack.
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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