SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A company wants to centralize access control for multiple AWS accounts using AWS Organizations. They need to allow developers in a specific account to launch EC2 instances only in certain regions. What is the most scalable solution?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates choose detective solutions like AWS Config (Option B) or per-account IAM policies (Options A and D) because they are familiar, but they miss that SCPs provide a centralized, preventive, and scalable control that applies to all principals, including the root user.
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 an SCP attached to the organizational unit to deny EC2 actions in non-compliant regions.
Service control policies (SCPs) in AWS Organizations allow you to centrally define the maximum permissions for all accounts in an organizational unit (OU). By attaching an SCP that denies EC2 actions in non-compliant regions, you enforce the restriction across multiple accounts without needing to manage individual IAM policies or roles, making it the most scalable solution.
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 an IAM role in each account with a policy to deny non-compliant regions.
Why it's wrong here
IAM roles are still per-account and do not provide centralized management like SCPs.
- ✗
Use AWS Config rules to detect and terminate instances in non-compliant regions.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config is detective, not preventive; it cannot block the launch of instances.
- ✓
Use an SCP attached to the organizational unit to deny EC2 actions in non-compliant regions.
Why this is correct
SCPs provide centralized policy enforcement across accounts in an organization.
- ✗
Create an IAM policy in each account to deny non-compliant regions.
Why it's wrong here
IAM policies are account-specific and not centralized; managing them across many accounts is not scalable.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This SAP-C02 question is part of Courseiva's 1,660-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
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.