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 is creating an IAM policy to allow SAP basis users to manage their own SAP EC2 instances. The policy above is intended to allow users to start, stop, and reboot instances tagged with their username. However, users report that they cannot start instances. What is the MOST likely reason?
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 ec2:StartInstances action does not support resource-level permissions; it requires a separate condition or a wildcard resource.
The ec2:StartInstances action does not support resource-level permissions in IAM policies. This means that even if the policy specifies a condition based on tags, the condition is ignored for StartInstances, and the action will be denied unless the resource element is set to a wildcard ('*'). AWS documentation explicitly states that StartInstances, StopInstances, and RebootInstances require a wildcard resource or a separate condition to allow the action, making option D the correct answer.
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 condition references ${aws:username} which is not available in the context.
Why it's wrong here
aws:username is available.
✗
The condition key ec2:ResourceTag/SAPSystem is not valid.
Why it's wrong here
The condition key is valid.
✗
The actions are not correct for managing instances.
Why it's wrong here
Actions are correct.
✓
The ec2:StartInstances action does not support resource-level permissions; it requires a separate condition or a wildcard resource.
Why this is correct
StartInstances does not support resource-level permissions, so the condition doesn't apply.
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.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates assume all EC2 actions support resource-level permissions and conditions, but AWS explicitly excludes certain actions like StartInstances, StopInstances, and RebootInstances from this support, requiring a wildcard resource or a separate condition to function correctly.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, AWS IAM evaluates resource-level permissions differently for actions that affect the state of an EC2 instance. For actions like ec2:StartInstances, the service does not support resource-level conditions because the action is considered a 'service-level' operation that requires the ability to act on any instance in the account. This is a deliberate design choice to prevent overly restrictive policies from breaking automation scripts or recovery procedures. In practice, to allow tag-based control for start/stop/reboot, you must use a separate condition key like ec2:ResourceTag in a policy that also includes a wildcard resource, or use a service control policy (SCP) at the account level.
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 ec2:StartInstances action does not support resource-level permissions; it requires a separate condition or a wildcard resource. — The ec2:StartInstances action does not support resource-level permissions in IAM policies. This means that even if the policy specifies a condition based on tags, the condition is ignored for StartInstances, and the action will be denied unless the resource element is set to a wildcard ('*'). AWS documentation explicitly states that StartInstances, StopInstances, and RebootInstances require a wildcard resource or a separate condition to allow the action, making option D the correct answer.
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.
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Question Discussion
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