SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A company wants to centrally manage IAM permissions across multiple AWS accounts using AWS Organizations. They need to allow developers to launch EC2 instances but restrict the instance types to approved families (e.g., t3 and m5). Which TWO solutions meet this requirement?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse detective controls (like AWS Config rules) with preventive controls (like SCPs), or assume that IAM roles or Service Catalog alone can enforce restrictions across all access methods without additional guardrails.
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
✓
Apply a service control policy (SCP) that denies ec2:RunInstances with an ec2:InstanceType condition key that does not match approved families.
A service control policy (SCP) applied at the AWS Organizations root or OU level can centrally deny ec2:RunInstances for non-approved instance types using the ec2:InstanceType condition key. This enforces the restriction across all accounts without requiring per-account IAM changes, and SCPs act as a guardrail that cannot be overridden by account administrators.
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 AWS Service Catalog to create a product that launches approved instances, and require developers to launch only through Service Catalog.
Why it's wrong here
Does not prevent direct EC2 launches.
- ✓
Apply a service control policy (SCP) that denies ec2:RunInstances with an ec2:InstanceType condition key that does not match approved families.
Why this is correct
Prevents unauthorized instance types at the organizational level.
- ✗
Deploy an AWS Config rule that triggers a Lambda function to terminate unauthorized instances.
Why it's wrong here
Reactive, instances can incur cost before termination.
- ✗
Create an IAM role in each account with a policy that restricts instance types, and require developers to use that role.
Why it's wrong here
Developers could still use other roles.
- ✓
Use AWS CloudFormation StackSets to deploy an IAM policy across accounts that denies ec2:RunInstances for non-approved types.
Why this is correct
Centralized policy deployment.
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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.