SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
Network Topology
Refer to the exhibit. A security engineer ran this AWS CLI command to investigate who created a CloudTrail trail in January 2024. The command returned no results. However, the security team knows that a trail was created during that period. What is the most likely reason for the empty result?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates assume CloudTrail events are globally visible by default, but `lookup-events` is region-scoped unless the trail is a multi-region trail, and even then, the command must be run in the home region of the trail to see the creation event.
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
✓
The trail was created in a different region and the command did not specify a region.
The AWS CLI command `aws cloudtrail lookup-events` defaults to the region configured in the AWS CLI profile (e.g., `us-east-1`). If the CloudTrail trail was created in a different region, the command will return no results unless the `--region` parameter is explicitly specified. Since the security team knows the trail was created in January 2024, the most likely reason for the empty result is that the command did not target the correct region.
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 start time is too far in the past and CloudTrail only retains events for 90 days.
Why it's wrong here
The event is within 90 days of the query date (assuming query is recent).
- ✗
The trail was created using the AWS Management Console, not the CLI.
Why it's wrong here
CloudTrail records all API calls regardless of method.
- ✓
The trail was created in a different region and the command did not specify a region.
Why this is correct
By default, the CLI uses the current region; the trail might be in another region.
- ✗
The command syntax is incorrect; the --lookup-attributes parameter should be --attribute.
Why it's wrong here
The syntax is correct.
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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.