SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
Network Topology
Refer to the exhibit. A CloudFormation stack has been deployed with the VPCId and SubnetIds outputs. A developer wants to use these outputs as parameters in another CloudFormation stack. Which AWS service can be used to pass these values to the new stack?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse Parameter Store (a general-purpose parameter store) with CloudFormation's native cross-stack reference feature, overlooking that the question explicitly asks for passing outputs between CloudFormation stacks, which is directly solved by `Export` and `ImportValue`.
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
✓
CloudFormation cross-stack references using Export and ImportValue
CloudFormation cross-stack references using the `Export` output attribute and the `Fn::ImportValue` intrinsic function allow you to pass output values from one stack as parameters to another stack within the same AWS account and region. This is the native, recommended mechanism for sharing stack outputs without introducing external services or additional complexity.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)
Why it's wrong here
SNS distributes messages to subscribers; it cannot read stack outputs or inject them as parameters into another stack. Tempting because it is a common cross-service integration mechanism, and would be correct for fanning out notifications about stack events rather than passing structured values.
- ✗
AWS Secrets Manager
Why it's wrong here
Secrets Manager stores and rotates credentials; it does not automatically capture CloudFormation stack outputs or supply them as parameters. Tempting because it holds configuration values centrally, and would be correct for sensitive data such as database passwords, not for exporting VPC identifiers between stacks.
- ✗
AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store
Why it's wrong here
Parameter Store holds static configuration values, not CloudFormation stack outputs; it cannot resolve or export them. It is tempting because it is a genuine cross-stack configuration store, and would be correct for sharing manually maintained secrets or settings between stacks, but the stem requires consuming another stack's exported outputs.
- ✓
CloudFormation cross-stack references using Export and ImportValue
Why this is correct
Exporting stack outputs and importing them via Fn::ImportValue creates a cross-stack reference, passing VPCId and SubnetIds directly into the second stack. This satisfies the requirement without hardcoding values or duplicating parameters, and CloudFormation enforces the dependency between stacks.
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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.