The answer is to attach a service control policy (SCP) to the member account that denies EC2:RunInstances if the AMI ID is not approved. SCPs are the correct mechanism because they act as a centralized permission guardrail at the AWS Organizations level, allowing you to enforce allowed AMI ID with SCP across entire accounts before any IAM policies are evaluated. This makes them preventive, not detective—unlike AWS Config rules, which only alert after a noncompliant instance is launched. On the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional SAP-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of the difference between preventive controls (SCPs) and detective controls (Config), and the common trap is confusing IAM policies with SCPs: IAM policies restrict users and roles within an account, but SCPs restrict the account itself, making them the right tool for organization-wide enforcement. Memory tip: SCP = “Stop at the Cloud Perimeter”—they block actions at the account boundary before any IAM policy can allow them.
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 uses AWS Organizations with a single member account for its development environment. The IT team wants to allow developers to launch EC2 instances only if they use a specific AMI ID. Which policy type should the company use to enforce this requirement?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Attach a service control policy (SCP) to the member account that denies EC2:RunInstances if the AMI ID is not approved.
Option A is correct because SCPs can be used to restrict actions at the account level, including specifying allowed AMI IDs. Option B is wrong because IAM policies apply to users and roles within an account, but SCPs are more appropriate for organization-wide restrictions. Option C is wrong because AWS Config rules are detective, not preventive. Option D is wrong because service control policies are the right mechanism.
Key principle: NAT direction and interface roles matter as much as the IP address mapping. Inside/outside designation controls which traffic is translated.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✓
Attach a service control policy (SCP) to the member account that denies EC2:RunInstances if the AMI ID is not approved.
Why this is correct
SCPs can restrict actions at the account level and are effective for preventive controls.
Related concept
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
✗
Create an IAM policy that denies EC2:RunInstances if the AMI ID is not approved and attach it to all developer IAM roles.
Why it's wrong here
IAM policies can be bypassed if developers have permissions from other sources.
✗
Use AWS Config rules to detect noncompliant EC2 instances and automatically terminate them.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config is detective, not preventive.
✗
Use AWS Systems Manager to enforce the AMI ID requirement.
Why it's wrong here
Systems Manager does not prevent launch of non-approved AMIs.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
→Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
→Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
→Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
Key takeaway
NAT direction and interface roles matter as much as the IP address mapping. Inside/outside designation controls which traffic is translated.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A company's IT admin needs to give a contractor read-only access to production logs without sharing account credentials. Using role-based access control (RBAC) and temporary scoped permissions — not a permanent shared password — is the correct pattern. Questions like this test whether you can apply least-privilege access across cloud identity services.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Review the four NAT address types (inside local, inside global, outside local, outside global), PAT port overload, and static vs dynamic NAT use cases. Then practise related SAP-C02 NAT questions on configuration and troubleshooting.
Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — This question tests Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Attach a service control policy (SCP) to the member account that denies EC2:RunInstances if the AMI ID is not approved. — Option A is correct because SCPs can be used to restrict actions at the account level, including specifying allowed AMI IDs. Option B is wrong because IAM policies apply to users and roles within an account, but SCPs are more appropriate for organization-wide restrictions. Option C is wrong because AWS Config rules are detective, not preventive. Option D is wrong because service control policies are the right mechanism.
What should I do if I get this SAP-C02 question wrong?
Review the four NAT address types (inside local, inside global, outside local, outside global), PAT port overload, and static vs dynamic NAT use cases. Then practise related SAP-C02 NAT questions on configuration and troubleshooting.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
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 with a multi-account strategy. The DevOps team wants to allow developers to launch EC2 instances only in specific Regions and only with approved AMIs. Which AWS service should be used to enforce these controls across all accounts?
easy
A.AWS Config rules with auto-remediation
B.AWS Service Catalog with a portfolio of approved AMIs
C.AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies in each account
✓ D.AWS Organizations Service Control Policies (SCPs)
Why D: AWS Organizations Service Control Policies (SCPs) are the correct choice because they allow you to centrally define and enforce permission guardrails across all accounts in your organization. SCPs can restrict EC2 actions to specific Regions using the `aws:RequestedRegion` condition key and limit AMI usage by denying launch actions unless the AMI ID matches an approved list, ensuring compliance without requiring per-account configuration.
Variation 2. A company has a multi-account AWS environment and wants to enforce that all EC2 instances are launched with a specific AMI ID. The AMI ID is maintained by the security team in a central account. What is the MOST effective way to enforce this across all accounts?
medium
A.Create an EC2 launch template with the approved AMI and share it with all accounts
B.Use AWS CloudTrail to monitor instance launches and trigger a Lambda function to terminate non-compliant instances
C.Use AWS Config rules in each account to detect non-compliant instances and send alerts
✓ D.Apply a service control policy (SCP) that denies ec2:RunInstances if the ami parameter does not match the approved AMI ID
Why D: Option D is correct because an SCP can centrally deny the ec2:RunInstances action unless the request includes a specific AMI ID parameter, enforced across all accounts in the AWS Organization. This preventive control blocks non-compliant launches at the API level, ensuring no instance can be created with an unapproved AMI, regardless of account-level permissions.
Last reviewed: Jun 20, 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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