- A
Use AWS Config rules to automatically remediate non-compliant changes before they are applied.
Why wrong: AWS Config is reactive, not proactive for deployment approvals.
- B
Use CloudFormation Change Sets in the pipeline and add a manual approval step for any change that modifies the database security group.
Change Sets show the impact, and manual approval gates allow review before deployment.
- C
Use AWS Service Catalog to create a portfolio of approved stacks and require all deployments to use the portfolio.
Why wrong: Service Catalog does not integrate with CodePipeline for change approval workflows.
- D
Use AWS CloudTrail to monitor changes to the security group and trigger a rollback if unauthorized changes are detected.
Why wrong: CloudTrail is for auditing, not preventing changes.
PAS-C01 Operations and Maintenance Practice Question
This PAS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of operations and maintenance. 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 financial services company runs a multi-tier application on AWS. The application consists of an Application Load Balancer (ALB), a fleet of EC2 instances for the web tier, and an Amazon RDS for MySQL database for the backend. The operations team uses AWS CloudFormation to manage infrastructure. During a recent deployment, a change to the database security group caused an outage because the web tier lost connectivity to the database. The team wants to prevent similar incidents in the future. They need a solution that allows them to review and approve changes to critical resources before deployment, while still enabling rapid deployment for non-critical changes. The team uses AWS CodePipeline for CI/CD. Which approach should the team implement?
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
Use CloudFormation Change Sets in the pipeline and add a manual approval step for any change that modifies the database security group.
Option B is correct because CloudFormation Change Sets allow you to preview how proposed changes will affect your resources before execution. By integrating a manual approval step in the CodePipeline that triggers specifically when the change set modifies the database security group, the team can review and approve critical changes while allowing non-critical changes to proceed automatically. This directly addresses the requirement to prevent outages from unapproved security group modifications.
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.
- ✗
Use AWS Config rules to automatically remediate non-compliant changes before they are applied.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config is reactive, not proactive for deployment approvals.
- ✓
Use CloudFormation Change Sets in the pipeline and add a manual approval step for any change that modifies the database security group.
Why this is correct
Change Sets show the impact, and manual approval gates allow review before deployment.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Use AWS Service Catalog to create a portfolio of approved stacks and require all deployments to use the portfolio.
Why it's wrong here
Service Catalog does not integrate with CodePipeline for change approval workflows.
- ✗
Use AWS CloudTrail to monitor changes to the security group and trigger a rollback if unauthorized changes are detected.
Why it's wrong here
CloudTrail is for auditing, not preventing changes.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse reactive auditing tools (Config, CloudTrail) with proactive approval mechanisms, or they overestimate Service Catalog's ability to handle per-resource approval workflows within a single stack.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
CloudFormation Change Sets work by generating a list of resource-level changes (e.g., 'Modify SecurityGroupIngress') based on a diff between the current template and the proposed template. In CodePipeline, you can use a Lambda function or a custom action to inspect the change set JSON and conditionally invoke a manual approval action only when the change set contains a specific resource type (e.g., AWS::EC2::SecurityGroup) or a specific logical ID. This allows granular control without slowing down the entire pipeline.
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 media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
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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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this PAS-C01 question test?
Operations and Maintenance — This question tests Operations and Maintenance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use CloudFormation Change Sets in the pipeline and add a manual approval step for any change that modifies the database security group. — Option B is correct because CloudFormation Change Sets allow you to preview how proposed changes will affect your resources before execution. By integrating a manual approval step in the CodePipeline that triggers specifically when the change set modifies the database security group, the team can review and approve critical changes while allowing non-critical changes to proceed automatically. This directly addresses the requirement to prevent outages from unapproved security group modifications.
What should I do if I get this PAS-C01 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: Jun 11, 2026
This PAS-C01 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 PAS-C01 exam.
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