SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
Which TWO actions improve the security of an S3 bucket that stores sensitive data?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse performance or cost features (Transfer Acceleration, Glacier lifecycle, S3 Select) with security controls, leading them to select options that do not actually protect data confidentiality or integrity.
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
✓
Enable default encryption with SSE-S3 or SSE-KMS.
Enabling default encryption with SSE-S3 or SSE-KMS ensures that all objects written to the S3 bucket are automatically encrypted at rest, protecting sensitive data even if the uploader does not explicitly request encryption. This is a foundational security control that mitigates the risk of data exposure due to misconfigured uploads or accidental storage of unencrypted data.
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 default encryption with SSE-S3 or SSE-KMS.
Why this is correct
Encrypts objects at rest.
- ✓
Block all public access using the S3 Block Public Access feature.
Why this is correct
Prevents public access to the bucket.
- ✗
Enable S3 Transfer Acceleration.
Why it's wrong here
Transfer Acceleration improves speed, not security.
- ✗
Configure a lifecycle policy to transition objects to Glacier.
Why it's wrong here
Lifecycle policies are for storage management, not security.
- ✗
Enable S3 Select to filter data.
Why it's wrong here
S3 Select is a data retrieval feature, not security.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
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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.