SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A financial services company needs to store sensitive customer data in Amazon S3 with encryption at rest. They require that the encryption keys be stored in AWS CloudHSM and that the S3 bucket must not be able to access the keys without explicit permission. Which S3 encryption option should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers choose SSE-KMS assuming it supports CloudHSM via a custom key store, but SSE-KMS still allows S3 to access the key through KMS policies without requiring the key to be provided per request, which does not meet the 'explicit permission per access' requirement as strictly as SSE-C does.
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
✓
SSE-C
SSE-C (Server-Side Encryption with Customer-Provided Keys) is correct because it allows the customer to supply their own encryption keys, which can be stored in AWS CloudHSM, and S3 will use those keys to encrypt data at rest. With SSE-C, the customer manages the keys outside of AWS, and S3 cannot access the keys without explicit permission because the keys are provided per request and not stored by AWS. This meets the requirement of storing keys in CloudHSM and ensuring S3 has no independent access to them.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
SSE-S3
Why it's wrong here
Uses AWS-managed keys, not CloudHSM.
- ✓
SSE-C
Why this is correct
Allows customer to provide keys stored in CloudHSM.
- ✗
Client-side encryption
Why it's wrong here
Encryption is done before upload, not S3-managed.
- ✗
SSE-KMS
Why it's wrong here
Uses KMS, not CloudHSM.
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
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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.