SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A company uses AWS Organizations with a single OU. The management account has a service control policy (SCP) that denies all actions on EC2 instances with a specific tag. However, users in a member account can still terminate tagged instances. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often assume SCPs apply to all accounts in the organization, including the management account, but AWS explicitly exempts the management account from SCP evaluation.
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
✓
The users are operating in the management account.
SCPs do not affect the management account in AWS Organizations. They can only restrict permissions in member accounts. Since the users are operating in the management account, the SCP denying EC2 termination based on a tag has no effect, allowing them to terminate the tagged instances.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The SCP is attached to the root, not the OU.
Why it's wrong here
Attaching to root applies to all accounts, including management account, but management account is exempt.
- ✗
The users have a permissions boundary that allows the actions.
Why it's wrong here
Permissions boundaries restrict, not allow; they cannot override an SCP deny.
- ✗
The SCP's condition key does not match the actual tag.
Why it's wrong here
This is possible, but the question states the SCP is specifically for the tag.
- ✓
The users are operating in the management account.
Why this is correct
SCPs do not apply to the management account.
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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.