SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A multinational company is using AWS Organizations with multiple accounts. The security team requires that all S3 buckets across the organization block public access. What is the MOST efficient way to enforce this requirement?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse preventive controls (SCPs) with detective/reactive controls (AWS Config) or assume IAM roles can restrict all users, ignoring that SCPs apply to the root user and all principals in the account.
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 an SCP to the root OU that denies s3:PutBucketPublicAccessBlock actions.
An SCP applied to the root OU is the most efficient way to enforce a blanket denial of public access to S3 buckets across all accounts in AWS Organizations. It prevents any account, including root users, from performing the s3:PutBucketPublicAccessBlock action, ensuring compliance without per-account configuration or remediation.
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 Config rules to detect and remediate public buckets in each account.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config can detect but is reactive, not preventive.
- ✗
Create a CloudFormation StackSet to deploy bucket policies in every account.
Why it's wrong here
StackSets require manual updates and don't prevent future violations.
- ✗
Use IAM roles to restrict users from modifying bucket public access settings.
Why it's wrong here
IAM roles apply per user, not across all buckets in an account.
- ✓
Apply an SCP to the root OU that denies s3:PutBucketPublicAccessBlock actions.
Why this is correct
SCPs prevent the action across all accounts in the OU.
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
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every SAP-C02 question from scratch — 1,660 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.