The answer is to use tag policies in AWS Organizations to enforce cost center tags on all resources. This is correct because tag policies allow you to define standardized tagging rules at the organization, OU, or account level, and AWS automatically prevents the creation of non-compliant resources, ensuring that every new resource is tagged with the required cost center tag from the moment it is provisioned. On the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional SAP-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of governance at scale—specifically, how to enforce cost center tag compliance without relying on custom scripts or post-creation remediation. A common trap is choosing AWS Config rules or Lambda-based remediation, which are reactive and less efficient for preventing untagged resources. Remember the key distinction: tag policies are proactive and preventive, while Config rules are detective and corrective. Memory tip: “Tag policies prevent, Config detects.”
SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
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 multinational corporation is using AWS Organizations with hundreds of accounts. The finance team needs to track costs by cost center, which is stored as a tag on each resource. However, some resources are missing the tag. What is the most efficient way to ensure that all resources are tagged correctly going forward?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use tag policies in AWS Organizations to enforce tagging on new resources
Option B is correct because tag policies in AWS Organizations allow you to define a set of tagging rules that are enforced across all accounts in the organization. When a tag policy is attached to an organizational root, OU, or account, AWS automatically prevents the creation of resources that do not comply with the specified tags, ensuring that all new resources are tagged correctly from the start without requiring manual remediation or custom scripts.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
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 identify untagged resources and send alerts
Why it's wrong here
Alerts do not enforce tagging.
✓
Use tag policies in AWS Organizations to enforce tagging on new resources
Why this is correct
Tag policies proactively enforce tagging rules.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Attach an SCP that denies all actions if the resource does not have the cost center tag
Why it's wrong here
This could block legitimate operations and is too restrictive.
✗
Create a Lambda function that runs daily to tag untagged resources
Why it's wrong here
Reactive and does not prevent untagged resources from being created.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse AWS Config rules (detective control) with tag policies (preventive control), or incorrectly assume that SCPs can enforce tagging at resource creation, when in fact SCPs cannot condition on resource tags for most services and are not designed for tag enforcement.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Tag policies in AWS Organizations use a JSON-based policy language that defines allowed tag keys and values, and when enforced, AWS services check compliance during resource creation via the AWS CloudTrail-based policy evaluation engine. Under the hood, tag policies leverage the AWS Resource Groups & Tag Editor API and integrate with AWS CloudFormation and the AWS Management Console to block non-compliant resource creation at the API level, returning an AccessDenied error if the required tags are missing. In a real-world scenario, a multinational corporation with hundreds of accounts can use tag policies to enforce a cost center tag across all accounts, ensuring that the finance team's cost allocation reports are accurate without needing to write custom scripts or rely on post-creation audits.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — This question tests Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use tag policies in AWS Organizations to enforce tagging on new resources — Option B is correct because tag policies in AWS Organizations allow you to define a set of tagging rules that are enforced across all accounts in the organization. When a tag policy is attached to an organizational root, OU, or account, AWS automatically prevents the creation of resources that do not comply with the specified tags, ensuring that all new resources are tagged correctly from the start without requiring manual remediation or custom scripts.
What should I do if I get this SAP-C02 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company uses AWS Organizations and wants to enable cost allocation across business units using tags. They require that all resources are tagged with a 'CostCenter' tag. What is the most effective way to enforce this?
medium
A.Create an IAM policy in each account that requires the CostCenter tag.
B.Use AWS Config rules to identify untagged resources and automatically tag them.
✓ C.Create a tag policy in AWS Organizations that requires the CostCenter tag on resources.
D.Use an SCP to deny resource creation if the CostCenter tag is missing.
Why C: Option D is correct because AWS Organizations has a tag policy feature that can enforce tags on resources during creation. Option A is wrong because SCPs can deny creation without tags, but tag policies are more specific. Option B is wrong because AWS Config can detect but not enforce. Option C is wrong because IAM policies can enforce but require per-account configuration.
Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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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.
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