- A
Enable AWS CloudTrail to monitor and alert on production changes.
Why wrong: CloudTrail is logging, not enforcement.
- B
Apply an SCP to the production OU that denies all actions to non-approved IAM roles.
SCPs can effectively block all actions from developers in production.
- C
Use resource tags to identify development and production resources and enforce policies via SCPs.
Why wrong: SCPs cannot condition on resource tags; they condition on request parameters.
- D
Create IAM roles in production with no permissions, and allow only a central CI/CD role to assume a privileged role.
This ensures developers cannot directly access production.
- E
Use AWS Config rules to detect unauthorized deployments in production.
Why wrong: Config rules are detective, not preventive.
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.
A company is designing a multi-account strategy for development, testing, and production environments. They want to ensure that developers can deploy resources in development and testing accounts but not in production. Which TWO methods should the company use to achieve this? (Choose TWO.)
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
Apply an SCP to the production OU that denies all actions to non-approved IAM roles.
Option B is correct because an SCP attached to the production OU can explicitly deny all actions to any IAM role that is not on an approved list, effectively preventing developers from deploying resources in production. This leverages AWS Organizations to enforce a preventive control at the account level, which cannot be overridden by IAM policies within the account.
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.
- ✗
Enable AWS CloudTrail to monitor and alert on production changes.
Why it's wrong here
CloudTrail is logging, not enforcement.
- ✓
Apply an SCP to the production OU that denies all actions to non-approved IAM roles.
Why this is correct
SCPs can effectively block all actions from developers in production.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Use resource tags to identify development and production resources and enforce policies via SCPs.
Why it's wrong here
SCPs cannot condition on resource tags; they condition on request parameters.
- ✓
Create IAM roles in production with no permissions, and allow only a central CI/CD role to assume a privileged role.
Why this is correct
This ensures developers cannot directly access production.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Use AWS Config rules to detect unauthorized deployments in production.
Why it's wrong here
Config rules are detective, not preventive.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse detective controls (CloudTrail, Config) with preventive controls (SCPs, IAM policies), leading them to select options that only alert or audit rather than block the action entirely.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
SCPs in AWS Organizations act as a guardrail by specifying the maximum permissions for all IAM entities in an account; they are evaluated before IAM policies and cannot be bypassed by the account administrator. In contrast, IAM roles with no permissions (Option D) rely on a central CI/CD role assuming a privileged role via STS, which is a valid preventive control but requires careful trust policy configuration and does not scale as easily as an SCP for blocking all non-approved roles across an entire OU.
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 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.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — study guide chapter
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SAP-C02 question test?
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: Apply an SCP to the production OU that denies all actions to non-approved IAM roles. — Option B is correct because an SCP attached to the production OU can explicitly deny all actions to any IAM role that is not on an approved list, effectively preventing developers from deploying resources in production. This leverages AWS Organizations to enforce a preventive control at the account level, which cannot be overridden by IAM policies within the account.
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.
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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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