The answer is to share the portfolio with the target accounts from the Service Catalog console. This is correct because AWS Service Catalog’s native portfolio sharing mechanism allows you to directly share a product portfolio with individual AWS accounts or organizational units (OUs) within AWS Organizations, giving the IT team precise control over which products are available for self-service provisioning without needing cross-account IAM roles or additional infrastructure. On the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional SAP-C02 exam, this question tests your understanding of centralized governance versus distributed access—a common trap is overcomplicating the solution by suggesting AWS RAM or VPC sharing, when Service Catalog’s built-in sharing is the simplest and most secure path. Remember the key distinction: Service Catalog shares portfolios, not individual products, and it works directly with Organizations. Memory tip: “Portfolios go to accounts, not roles.”
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 and wants to allow certain accounts to use AWS Service Catalog for self-service provisioning. The IT team needs to control which products are available. Where should the product portfolio be shared?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Share the portfolio with the target accounts from the Service Catalog console
Option A is correct because AWS Service Catalog allows you to share a product portfolio directly with individual AWS accounts or organizational units (OUs) within AWS Organizations. By sharing the portfolio from the Service Catalog console, the IT team can control which products are available to specific accounts, enabling self-service provisioning while maintaining governance. This approach leverages Service Catalog's native portfolio sharing mechanism, which does not require additional infrastructure or cross-account IAM roles.
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.
✓
Share the portfolio with the target accounts from the Service Catalog console
Why this is correct
Portfolio sharing enables cross-account access to products.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use AWS CloudFormation StackSets to deploy products to each account
Why it's wrong here
StackSets deploy stacks, not portfolios.
✗
Use SCPs to allow specific accounts to use Service Catalog
Why it's wrong here
SCPs do not share portfolios.
✗
Create IAM roles in the central account that developers can assume
Why it's wrong here
This gives access to the central account, not self-service in their own account.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse AWS Service Catalog portfolio sharing with other cross-account mechanisms like CloudFormation StackSets or IAM roles, failing to recognize that Service Catalog's native sharing via RAM is the correct way to control product availability for self-service provisioning.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, Service Catalog portfolio sharing uses AWS Resource Access Manager (RAM) to create a resource share that associates the portfolio with the target account or OU. The shared portfolio appears in the target account's Service Catalog console, and end users can launch products using their own IAM permissions, which are evaluated against the portfolio's launch constraints. A subtle behavior is that when sharing with an OU, new accounts added to the OU automatically receive the portfolio, simplifying management at scale.
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.
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: Share the portfolio with the target accounts from the Service Catalog console — Option A is correct because AWS Service Catalog allows you to share a product portfolio directly with individual AWS accounts or organizational units (OUs) within AWS Organizations. By sharing the portfolio from the Service Catalog console, the IT team can control which products are available to specific accounts, enabling self-service provisioning while maintaining governance. This approach leverages Service Catalog's native portfolio sharing mechanism, which does not require additional infrastructure or cross-account IAM roles.
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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Question Discussion
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