SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company wants to share a large dataset stored in Amazon S3 with a partner who has their own AWS account. The partner needs to access the data using their own account credentials. Which approach should the company use?
⚠ Common exam trap
The SAP-C02 exam often tests the misconception that pre-signed URLs are the only way to grant temporary access, but the question explicitly requires the partner to use their own account credentials, which only a bucket policy (or an S3 access point with a policy) can achieve.
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
✓
Grant the partner's AWS account access via a bucket policy.
A bucket policy can grant cross-account access to the partner's AWS account by specifying the partner's AWS account ID as the principal. This allows the partner's IAM users or roles to access the S3 bucket directly using their own credentials, without needing to share access keys or create users in the company's account. The bucket policy must explicitly allow the necessary actions (e.g., s3:GetObject) and the partner must also have an IAM policy that permits the same actions.
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 S3 cross-region replication.
Why it's wrong here
Cross-region replication copies objects into another bucket you own; it cannot grant a partner's account principals access, since authorisation still requires a bucket policy or ACL naming that account. It tempts because replication genuinely serves durability, latency and compliance scenarios across Regions you control.
- ✓
Grant the partner's AWS account access via a bucket policy.
Why this is correct
A bucket policy grants cross-account access directly to the partner's AWS account principal, letting them use their own credentials without sharing keys. This satisfies the requirement for account-to-account sharing of a large S3 dataset, unlike IAM users or presigned URLs, which are tied to the source account or expire.
- ✗
Create a pre-signed URL for the partner.
Why it's wrong here
A pre-signed URL embeds the issuer's credentials, so the partner accesses objects as the signing identity rather than with their own account credentials, and it expires. It tempts because pre-signed URLs correctly grant temporary access to unauthenticated users or one-off downloads.
- ✗
Provide the partner with an IAM user in the company's account.
Why it's wrong here
Creating an IAM user inside the company's account gives the partner credentials belonging to that account, not their own, and breaches credential-sharing practice. It tempts because cross-account IAM roles are the standard mechanism, and IAM users are genuinely correct for identities within a single account.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
Related to this question
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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.