The answer is AWS Control Tower and Service Control Policies (SCPs). This combination is correct because Control Tower automates AWS account creation through Account Factory, while SCPs enforce baseline security configurations by defining guardrails that restrict actions across all accounts in an AWS Organization, ensuring every new account is provisioned with consistent, compliant policies without manual effort. On the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional SAP-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of multi-account governance and the separation of duties between provisioning (Control Tower) and policy enforcement (SCPs). A common trap is selecting AWS Organizations alone, which lacks the automated account creation and built-in guardrails that Control Tower provides. Remember the memory tip: “Control Tower builds the accounts, SCPs lock the doors.”
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 wants to automate the creation of new AWS accounts and apply baseline security configurations. Which combination of services should be used to achieve this?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
AWS Control Tower and Service Control Policies (SCPs).
AWS Control Tower provides a managed service to automate the creation of new AWS accounts through Account Factory, while Service Control Policies (SCPs) enforce baseline security guardrails across all accounts in the organization. This combination ensures that every new account is provisioned with consistent security policies without manual intervention.
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.
✗
AWS Service Catalog and AWS Config.
Why it's wrong here
Service Catalog provisions products, not accounts; AWS Config monitors compliance.
✗
AWS Organizations API and CloudTrail.
Why it's wrong here
Organizations API can create accounts, but CloudTrail does not apply baseline configurations.
✓
AWS Control Tower and Service Control Policies (SCPs).
Why this is correct
Control Tower provides account factory and guardrails via SCPs.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
AWS CloudFormation StackSets and IAM.
Why it's wrong here
CloudFormation StackSets deploy templates across accounts but do not create accounts.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse AWS Control Tower with AWS Organizations alone, forgetting that Control Tower adds automated account provisioning and pre-built security guardrails (SCPs) that Organizations alone does not provide.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
AWS Control Tower uses Account Factory, which leverages AWS Organizations and AWS CloudFormation under the hood to provision accounts with a predefined baseline. SCPs are applied at the organization root or OU level and are evaluated before any IAM policies, effectively blocking actions like disabling CloudTrail or deleting VPC flow logs across all accounts. In a real-world scenario, a company with hundreds of accounts can use Control Tower's 'guardrails' (mandatory or elective) to enforce encryption, restrict regions, or prevent root user activity without custom scripting.
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 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
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: AWS Control Tower and Service Control Policies (SCPs). — AWS Control Tower provides a managed service to automate the creation of new AWS accounts through Account Factory, while Service Control Policies (SCPs) enforce baseline security guardrails across all accounts in the organization. This combination ensures that every new account is provisioned with consistent security policies without manual intervention.
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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