This SAP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of design solutions for organizational complexity. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. 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 implement a single sign-on (SSO) solution for its employees to access multiple AWS accounts and business applications. The company uses Microsoft Active Directory on-premises. Which AWS service should be used to integrate with the existing directory?
Amazon Cognito user pools
Why wrong: Cognito is for customer-facing applications, not enterprise SSO.
AWS Organizations
Why wrong: Organizations manages accounts, not user identities.
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
Why wrong: IAM does not provide SSO.
AWS IAM Identity Center (AWS SSO) with an AWS Managed Microsoft AD directory
Integrates with on-premises AD via AD Connector or managed AD.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
AWS IAM Identity Center (AWS SSO) with an AWS Managed Microsoft AD directory
AWS IAM Identity Center (formerly AWS SSO) can be integrated with an AWS Managed Microsoft AD directory to provide a single sign-on experience across multiple AWS accounts and business applications. This integration allows users to authenticate using their existing on-premises Active Directory credentials via AD Connector or a two-way forest trust, enabling seamless access to the AWS Management Console, command-line interface, and supported SAML 2.0 applications.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Amazon Cognito user pools
Why it's wrong here
Cognito is for customer-facing applications, not enterprise SSO.
AWS Organizations
Why it's wrong here
Organizations manages accounts, not user identities.
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
Why it's wrong here
IAM does not provide SSO.
AWS IAM Identity Center (AWS SSO) with an AWS Managed Microsoft AD directory
Why this is correct
Integrates with on-premises AD via AD Connector or managed AD.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse AWS IAM Identity Center with AWS IAM, assuming IAM alone can provide SSO across multiple accounts, but IAM is account-scoped and lacks the centralized application portal and cross-account federation capabilities that IAM Identity Center provides.
Detailed technical explanation
IAM Identity Center uses a regionalized service endpoint and supports both SCIM (System for Cross-domain Identity Management) for automatic user provisioning and SAML 2.0 for federated authentication. When integrated with AWS Managed Microsoft AD, it leverages Kerberos and LDAP under the hood to authenticate users, and the trust relationship can be configured as either a one-way forest trust (on-premises to AWS) or using AD Connector to proxy authentication requests without replicating directory data to the cloud.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
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
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FAQ
Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — This question tests Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: AWS IAM Identity Center (AWS SSO) with an AWS Managed Microsoft AD directory — AWS IAM Identity Center (formerly AWS SSO) can be integrated with an AWS Managed Microsoft AD directory to provide a single sign-on experience across multiple AWS accounts and business applications. This integration allows users to authenticate using their existing on-premises Active Directory credentials via AD Connector or a two-way forest trust, enabling seamless access to the AWS Management Console, command-line interface, and supported SAML 2.0 applications.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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