SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A company uses AWS Organizations with consolidated billing. The finance team wants to track costs by project, where each project may use resources across multiple accounts. What is the MOST scalable way to allocate costs?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse cost allocation tags (which require per-account activation) with AWS Cost Categories (which provide centralized grouping), leading them to choose Option C as a simpler but less scalable solution.
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
✓
Use AWS Cost Categories in AWS Cost Explorer to group costs by shared tags that are activated centrally.
AWS Cost Categories allow you to group costs based on shared tags, accounts, or other dimensions across multiple accounts in an AWS Organization. This is the most scalable approach for tracking costs by project when resources span multiple accounts, as it centralizes cost allocation without requiring manual tag activation per account.
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 separate AWS accounts for each project and use consolidated billing to view costs.
Why it's wrong here
This is not scalable for many projects and does not allow cross-account resource sharing.
- ✗
Use AWS Budgets with cost allocation tags to track project costs.
Why it's wrong here
Budgets alert but do not provide aggregated cost allocation across accounts.
- ✗
Apply cost allocation tags to resources in each account and use AWS Cost Explorer to filter by tag.
Why it's wrong here
Tags must be applied consistently across accounts, but the activation and reporting can be centralized.
- ✓
Use AWS Cost Categories in AWS Cost Explorer to group costs by shared tags that are activated centrally.
Why this is correct
Cost Categories allow grouping by tags, accounts, or services and are managed centrally in the management account.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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