SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
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 with several OUs. The security team wants to enforce that EC2 instances in production accounts cannot have public IP addresses. The solution must be preventive and should not rely on developers remembering to follow guidelines. What should the security team do?
Use the Amazon EC2 'Block public access' feature at the account level.
Why wrong: EC2 Block public access is not a feature; S3 has Block Public Access.
B
Create an IAM policy that denies ec2:RunInstances if the instance is launched with a public IP and attach it to all IAM roles in production accounts.
Why wrong: IAM policies may not cover all scenarios (e.g., service-linked roles).
C
Use AWS Config to detect instances with public IPs and automatically terminate them.
Why wrong: Detective/reactive, not preventive.
D
Create a service control policy (SCP) that denies ec2:RunInstances if the request includes AssociatePublicIpAddress=true and attach it to the production OU.
SCPs are preventive and cannot be overridden by IAM policies within the account.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Create a service control policy (SCP) that denies ec2:RunInstances if the request includes AssociatePublicIpAddress=true and attach it to the production OU.
Option B is correct because SCPs can deny EC2:RunInstances if the NetworkInterface has AssociatePublicIpAddress set to true. Option A is wrong because IAM policies can be overridden by service-linked roles. Option C is wrong because the 'Block public access' feature is for S3. Option D is wrong because it is detective, not preventive.
Key principle: NAT direction and interface roles matter as much as the IP address mapping. Inside/outside designation controls which traffic is translated.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Use the Amazon EC2 'Block public access' feature at the account level.
Why it's wrong here
EC2 Block public access is not a feature; S3 has Block Public Access.
✗
Create an IAM policy that denies ec2:RunInstances if the instance is launched with a public IP and attach it to all IAM roles in production accounts.
Why it's wrong here
IAM policies may not cover all scenarios (e.g., service-linked roles).
✗
Use AWS Config to detect instances with public IPs and automatically terminate them.
Why it's wrong here
Detective/reactive, not preventive.
✓
Create a service control policy (SCP) that denies ec2:RunInstances if the request includes AssociatePublicIpAddress=true and attach it to the production OU.
Why this is correct
SCPs are preventive and cannot be overridden by IAM policies within the account.
Related concept
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Trap categories for this question
Scenario analysis trap
IAM policies may not cover all scenarios (e.g., service-linked roles).
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
→Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
→Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
→Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
Key takeaway
NAT direction and interface roles matter as much as the IP address mapping. Inside/outside designation controls which traffic is translated.
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.
Review the four NAT address types (inside local, inside global, outside local, outside global), PAT port overload, and static vs dynamic NAT use cases. Then practise related SAP-C02 NAT questions on configuration and troubleshooting.
Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — This question tests Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Create a service control policy (SCP) that denies ec2:RunInstances if the request includes AssociatePublicIpAddress=true and attach it to the production OU. — Option B is correct because SCPs can deny EC2:RunInstances if the NetworkInterface has AssociatePublicIpAddress set to true. Option A is wrong because IAM policies can be overridden by service-linked roles. Option C is wrong because the 'Block public access' feature is for S3. Option D is wrong because it is detective, not preventive.
What should I do if I get this SAP-C02 question wrong?
Review the four NAT address types (inside local, inside global, outside local, outside global), PAT port overload, and static vs dynamic NAT use cases. Then practise related SAP-C02 NAT questions on configuration and troubleshooting.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
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