SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
This SAP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of design solutions for organizational complexity. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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.
Network Topology
A company uses a cross-account IAM role 'LogDelivery' in account 111122223333 to write logs to an S3 bucket 'my-company-logs' in a logging account. The bucket policy is shown above. Logs are not being delivered. What is the MOST likely issue?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "most likely"
Why it matters: Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
Network Topology
A
The bucket policy lacks s3:GetObject permission.
Why wrong: PutObject is sufficient for writing logs.
B
The bucket policy restricts access to a specific account only.
The resource pattern includes account 111122223333, so logs from other accounts would be denied.
C
The IAM role is not trusted by the bucket policy.
Why wrong: The bucket policy trusts the role ARN directly.
D
The bucket policy has an explicit deny that overrides the allow.
Why wrong: There is no deny statement in the policy.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The bucket policy restricts access to a specific account only.
The bucket policy restricts access to a specific AWS account (e.g., `"AWS": "111122223333"`), which only grants access to the account's root user, not to IAM roles. For the cross-account IAM role 'LogDelivery' to write logs, the bucket policy must explicitly allow the role's ARN or use `"AWS": "arn:aws:iam::111122223333:root"` to include all IAM principals in the account. Since the policy only allows the account root, the role is denied, causing the delivery failure. Option B is correct because the policy's account-only restriction does not cover the role.
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.
✗
The bucket policy lacks s3:GetObject permission.
Why it's wrong here
PutObject is sufficient for writing logs.
✓
The bucket policy restricts access to a specific account only.
Why this is correct
The resource pattern includes account 111122223333, so logs from other accounts would be denied.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "most likely" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
The IAM role is not trusted by the bucket policy.
Why it's wrong here
The bucket policy trusts the role ARN directly.
✗
The bucket policy has an explicit deny that overrides the allow.
Why it's wrong here
There is no deny statement in the policy.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates assume the bucket policy's `Principal` element with an account ID automatically grants access to all IAM roles in that account, but in reality, the bucket policy must explicitly list the role ARN or use `"AWS": "arn:aws:iam::111122223333:root"` to allow all principals in the account, and even then, the role must be assumed by a trusted service.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Cross-account S3 access requires the bucket policy to explicitly grant the `s3:PutObject` action to the IAM role's ARN (e.g., `arn:aws:iam::111122223333:role/LogDelivery`) or to the entire source account (e.g., `"AWS": "arn:aws:iam::111122223333:root"`). The role must also have a trust policy that allows the logging service (e.g., `logs.amazonaws.com` or `config.amazonaws.com`) to assume it. A common misconfiguration is using `"AWS": "111122223333"` (account ID without `arn:aws:iam::`) which is invalid, or forgetting to include the role's ARN in the `Principal` element, causing the bucket policy to only allow the account's root user, not the role.
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 media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
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
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: The bucket policy restricts access to a specific account only. — The bucket policy restricts access to a specific AWS account (e.g., `"AWS": "111122223333"`), which only grants access to the account's root user, not to IAM roles. For the cross-account IAM role 'LogDelivery' to write logs, the bucket policy must explicitly allow the role's ARN or use `"AWS": "arn:aws:iam::111122223333:root"` to include all IAM principals in the account. Since the policy only allows the account root, the role is denied, causing the delivery failure. Option B is correct because the policy's account-only restriction does not cover the role.
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.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "most likely". Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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