The answer is to create an IAM role in each account with read-only S3 permissions and a trust policy that allows the security account to assume the role. This is the most secure and scalable approach because it leverages cross-account IAM roles, which eliminate the need for long-term access keys by using temporary credentials obtained via AWS Security Token Service, while the trust policy explicitly delegates access only to the auditing principal. On the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional SAP-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of the principle of least privilege and centralized access management, often appearing as a trap where candidates mistakenly choose bucket policies or ACLs—those are resource-based and don’t scale across hundreds of accounts, nor do they support the read-only auditing pattern without complex condition keys. A common memory tip: for cross-account read-only auditing, always think “role-based trust, not bucket-based policies,” and remember the mnemonic “R.A.T.”—Role, Assume, Trust.
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 company has a multi-account AWS environment with a centralized security account. The security team needs to have read-only access to all Amazon S3 buckets across all accounts for auditing purposes. Which solution is the MOST secure and scalable?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Create an IAM role in each account with read-only S3 permissions and a trust policy that allows the security account to assume the role.
Option A is correct because it uses IAM roles with cross-account trust policies, which is the most secure and scalable approach for granting read-only S3 access across multiple accounts. The security account assumes the role in each target account, avoiding long-term credentials and allowing centralized control via AWS Organizations or manual role creation.
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.
✓
Create an IAM role in each account with read-only S3 permissions and a trust policy that allows the security account to assume the role.
Why this is correct
This provides scalable and secure cross-account access.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Attach a bucket policy to each S3 bucket that grants read-only access to the security team's IAM user in the security account.
Why it's wrong here
This requires updating each bucket individually, not scalable for many buckets.
✗
Use the root user of each account to access the buckets.
Why it's wrong here
Root user access is a security risk and not auditable.
✗
Create an IAM user in each account with read-only S3 permissions and share the credentials with the security team.
Why it's wrong here
Managing multiple credentials is insecure and not scalable.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may choose Option B thinking bucket policies are simpler, but they overlook the scalability and maintenance burden of managing individual bucket policies across hundreds or thousands of buckets, and the fact that bucket policies do not support cross-account access without explicitly listing the principal ARN, which is less flexible than IAM roles.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Cross-account IAM roles use AWS Security Token Service (STS) to issue temporary credentials via the AssumeRole API, which automatically expire (default 1 hour, max 12 hours). This eliminates the need for long-term access keys and supports centralized auditing through AWS CloudTrail, which logs the role session ARN. In real-world scenarios, this pattern is often combined with AWS Organizations and SCPs to enforce read-only access at the organizational level, further reducing administrative overhead.
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.
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: Create an IAM role in each account with read-only S3 permissions and a trust policy that allows the security account to assume the role. — Option A is correct because it uses IAM roles with cross-account trust policies, which is the most secure and scalable approach for granting read-only S3 access across multiple accounts. The security account assumes the role in each target account, avoiding long-term credentials and allowing centralized control via AWS Organizations or manual role creation.
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 has a production AWS account and a development AWS account. The development team needs to assume an IAM role in the production account to deploy resources. What is the correct way to set up this cross-account access?
easy
✓ A.Create an IAM role in the production account with a trust policy that specifies the development account as a trusted entity
B.Apply a service control policy to allow cross-account access
C.Create an IAM user in the production account and share the credentials with the development team
D.Configure security group rules to allow access from the development account
Why A: Option A is correct because cross-account IAM role access requires creating an IAM role in the production (trusting) account with a trust policy that explicitly lists the development (trusted) account as a principal. The development team then assumes that role using the AWS STS AssumeRole API, which returns temporary security credentials. This follows the AWS recommended pattern for delegating access without sharing long-term credentials.
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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