- A
Create an organization trail in CloudTrail that logs all accounts. Use CloudWatch Logs metric filters and alarms to detect root login events.
An organization trail logs all accounts centrally. CloudWatch Logs metric filters can detect root activity and trigger alarms in near real-time.
- B
Enable CloudTrail in each account and aggregate logs to a centralized S3 bucket. Use Athena queries to detect root activity and send alerts via SNS.
Why wrong: Athena queries are not real-time; they run on a schedule, causing delays.
- C
Use AWS Lambda functions in each account to poll CloudTrail logs and send root activity to a central SQS queue.
Why wrong: Polling adds complexity and latency; Lambda functions would need frequent invocations and are less efficient than CloudWatch alarms.
- D
Enable AWS Config rules in each account to detect root user activity and send notifications to a central SNS topic.
Why wrong: AWS Config rules are for resource configuration compliance, not for monitoring API activity in real-time.
Quick Answer
The answer is to create an organization trail in CloudTrail that logs all accounts, then use CloudWatch Logs metric filters and alarms to detect root login events. This is the most efficient solution because an organization trail centralizes CloudTrail across AWS Organizations, automatically logging API activity for every member account from a single management point, which eliminates the operational overhead of managing separate per-account trails. On the AWS Certified Security Specialty SCS-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of how organization trails simplify centralized monitoring and how CloudWatch metric filters can parse log events for specific patterns like root user activity, with alarms triggering SNS notifications within minutes. A common trap is choosing to deploy individual trails per account or relying solely on AWS Config rules, which lack the real-time alerting capability. Memory tip: think "Org Trail + Metric Filter = Centralized Root Watch."
SCS-C02 Security Logging and Monitoring Practice Question
This SCS-C02 practice question tests your understanding of security logging and monitoring. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. 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 is using AWS Organizations with multiple accounts. The security team needs to centrally monitor all root user API activity across all accounts and receive alerts within minutes. What is the MOST efficient solution?
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
Create an organization trail in CloudTrail that logs all accounts. Use CloudWatch Logs metric filters and alarms to detect root login events.
Option A is correct because an organization trail in AWS CloudTrail logs API activity for all accounts in AWS Organizations from a single point, eliminating the need to manage per-account trails. By sending these logs to CloudWatch Logs, you can create metric filters to detect root user login events (e.g., the 'RootLogin' event) and configure CloudWatch Alarms to trigger SNS notifications within minutes, meeting the requirement for centralized monitoring and rapid alerts.
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.
- ✓
Create an organization trail in CloudTrail that logs all accounts. Use CloudWatch Logs metric filters and alarms to detect root login events.
Why this is correct
An organization trail logs all accounts centrally. CloudWatch Logs metric filters can detect root activity and trigger alarms in near real-time.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Enable CloudTrail in each account and aggregate logs to a centralized S3 bucket. Use Athena queries to detect root activity and send alerts via SNS.
Why it's wrong here
Athena queries are not real-time; they run on a schedule, causing delays.
- ✗
Use AWS Lambda functions in each account to poll CloudTrail logs and send root activity to a central SQS queue.
Why it's wrong here
Polling adds complexity and latency; Lambda functions would need frequent invocations and are less efficient than CloudWatch alarms.
- ✗
Enable AWS Config rules in each account to detect root user activity and send notifications to a central SNS topic.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config rules are for resource configuration compliance, not for monitoring API activity in real-time.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may overcomplicate the solution by choosing per-account setups (B, C, D) instead of leveraging the native AWS Organizations integration with CloudTrail, which provides a single, centralized trail for all accounts.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
An organization trail in CloudTrail is created in the management account and automatically applies to all member accounts, logging management events (including IAM sign-in events) to a single S3 bucket and/or CloudWatch Logs log group. The CloudWatch metric filter uses a pattern like '{ $.userIdentity.type = "Root" && $.eventType = "AwsApiCall" }' to match root API calls, and the alarm triggers an SNS topic for immediate notification; this setup ensures alerts within minutes because CloudTrail delivers logs to CloudWatch Logs in near real-time (typically within 5-15 minutes).
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.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SCS-C02 question test?
Security Logging and Monitoring — This question tests Security Logging and Monitoring — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Create an organization trail in CloudTrail that logs all accounts. Use CloudWatch Logs metric filters and alarms to detect root login events. — Option A is correct because an organization trail in AWS CloudTrail logs API activity for all accounts in AWS Organizations from a single point, eliminating the need to manage per-account trails. By sending these logs to CloudWatch Logs, you can create metric filters to detect root user login events (e.g., the 'RootLogin' event) and configure CloudWatch Alarms to trigger SNS notifications within minutes, meeting the requirement for centralized monitoring and rapid alerts.
What should I do if I get this SCS-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.
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 →
Same concept, more angles
2 more ways this is tested on SCS-C02
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company uses AWS Organizations with multiple accounts. The security team wants to ensure that all CloudTrail trails are enabled in all accounts and log to a central S3 bucket. What is the MOST efficient way to enforce this?
hard- A.Use AWS Lambda to check each account and enable CloudTrail if missing.
- B.Use AWS Config aggregator to verify compliance and send alerts.
- C.Create a service control policy (SCP) that requires CloudTrail.
- ✓ D.Use AWS CloudFormation StackSets to deploy a CloudTrail template to all accounts.
Why D: Option C is correct because AWS CloudFormation StackSets can deploy CloudTrail across all accounts in an organization. Option A is wrong because Config aggregator does not deploy resources. Option B is wrong because Service Control Policies (SCPs) can deny disabling CloudTrail but not enable it. Option D is wrong because Lambda functions need to be triggered and are less efficient.
Variation 2. A company uses AWS Organizations with multiple accounts. They want to centralize logging of all API calls across all accounts and store them in a single S3 bucket. Which configuration should be used?
hard- A.Use AWS Config to record API calls across all accounts
- B.Create a separate CloudTrail trail in each account and aggregate logs using Amazon Athena
- ✓ C.Create an organization trail in the management account
- D.Enable VPC Flow Logs in each account and send to a central S3 bucket
Why C: Option C is correct because CloudTrail supports organization trails that log events for all accounts in the organization and deliver them to a single S3 bucket. Option A is wrong because individual trails per account would require manual aggregation. Option B is wrong because AWS Config does not log API calls. Option D is wrong because VPC Flow Logs capture network traffic, not API calls.
Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
This SCS-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 SCS-C02 exam.
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