PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
This PAS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of design of sap workloads on aws. 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.
An SAP administrator created the IAM policy shown in the exhibit to allow a monitoring tool to start and stop SAP application servers tagged with Environment=Production. When testing the policy, the tool fails to start an instance. What is the most likely cause?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "most likely"
Why it matters: Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The policy does not allow starting instances that are already running.
Option C is correct because the policy uses a condition that checks if the instance is already running (`ec2:InstanceState/Name` equals `running`). The `ec2:StartInstances` action is only allowed when the instance is in the `running` state, but starting an instance requires it to be in the `stopped` state. This mismatch causes the start action to fail for production-tagged instances.
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.
✗
The policy requires the instance to be stopped before starting.
Why it's wrong here
The policy does not require any precondition.
✗
The policy is missing the ec2:DescribeInstances action.
Why it's wrong here
The policy includes ec2:DescribeInstances.
✓
The policy does not allow starting instances that are already running.
Why this is correct
ec2:StartInstances only works on stopped instances; attempting to start a running instance fails.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "most likely" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
The resource ARN does not match the instance ID.
Why it's wrong here
The resource ARN uses a wildcard and matches all instances.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates assume the condition `ec2:InstanceState/Name` equals `running` is correct for starting instances, confusing the required state for start (stopped) with the state for stop (running).
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
The `ec2:StartInstances` API call requires the instance to be in the `stopped` state; if the condition checks for `running`, the request is denied by IAM before the API is even called. This is a common misconfiguration when using IAM condition keys with instance state, as the condition must match the state at the time of the API call, not the desired state. In real-world scenarios, this often occurs when policies are copied from stop-instances policies without adjusting the state condition.
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 of SAP Workloads on AWS — This question tests Design of SAP Workloads on AWS — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: The policy does not allow starting instances that are already running. — Option C is correct because the policy uses a condition that checks if the instance is already running (`ec2:InstanceState/Name` equals `running`). The `ec2:StartInstances` action is only allowed when the instance is in the `running` state, but starting an instance requires it to be in the `stopped` state. This mismatch causes the start action to fail for production-tagged instances.
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.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "most likely". Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
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.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.