SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A global company uses AWS Organizations with hundreds of accounts. The security team requires that all S3 buckets across the organization block public access. They want to enforce this policy without modifying existing bucket policies. Which solution should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse reactive detection (AWS Config) or partial policy restrictions (denying s3:PutBucketPolicy) with the comprehensive, preventive account-level block that SCPs can enforce, missing that S3 Block Public Access at the account level is the only way to block all public access without touching existing bucket policies.
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
✓
Create an SCP that denies s3:PutAccountPublicAccessBlock and s3:DeleteAccountPublicAccessBlock, and enable S3 Block Public Access at the account level via a custom resource in each account.
S3 Block Public Access settings at the account level override bucket-level policies and can be enforced organization-wide via a service control policy (SCP) that denies the ability to disable or delete those settings. By using a custom resource (e.g., AWS CloudFormation) to enable S3 Block Public Access at the account level in each account, and an SCP to prevent any account from modifying those settings, the security team ensures all buckets in the organization block public access without needing to modify existing bucket policies.
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 CloudTrail to monitor for public bucket creation and alert the security team.
Why it's wrong here
This is only detective, not preventive.
- ✗
Create a service control policy (SCP) that denies s3:PutBucketPolicy for any bucket that allows public access.
Why it's wrong here
This prevents new public policies but does not block existing public access; also bucket policies can still allow public access if not explicitly denied.
- ✗
Use AWS Config rules to detect public buckets and auto-remediate with a Lambda function.
Why it's wrong here
This is reactive and may not prevent public access in time; also does not enforce across all accounts automatically.
- ✓
Create an SCP that denies s3:PutAccountPublicAccessBlock and s3:DeleteAccountPublicAccessBlock, and enable S3 Block Public Access at the account level via a custom resource in each account.
Why this is correct
This enforces that account-level block public access settings cannot be changed, effectively blocking all public access.
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.