SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
An organization uses AWS Organizations with multiple accounts. The security team wants to ensure that all IAM users in all accounts must use multi-factor authentication (MFA) to access the AWS Management Console. What is the most efficient way to enforce this?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to choose Option C (per-account IAM policy) because they think SCPs cannot affect IAM users directly, but SCPs apply to all principals in an account, including IAM users, and are the only way to enforce a blanket MFA requirement across all accounts from a single point.
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 a service control policy (SCP) that denies all actions if the user does not have MFA enabled.
A Service Control Policy (SCP) applied at the root or organizational unit (OU) level in AWS Organizations can centrally deny all AWS API actions for any principal that does not have a multi-factor authentication (MFA) device associated with the session. This enforces MFA across all member accounts without requiring individual account-level IAM policy changes, making it the most efficient and scalable solution for the security team's requirement.
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 users without MFA and send alerts.
Why it's wrong here
Detective control, not preventive; users can still access without MFA.
- ✗
Use AWS CloudTrail to monitor console logins and trigger an automatic remediation.
Why it's wrong here
Reactive, not preventive; relies on automation that may not be instantaneous.
- ✗
Create an IAM policy in each account that denies access without MFA.
Why it's wrong here
This is not centralized and requires manual updates in each account.
- ✓
Apply a service control policy (SCP) that denies all actions if the user does not have MFA enabled.
Why this is correct
SCPs enforce centrally across all accounts in the organization.
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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.