Question 1,113 of 1,570
SCS-C02 Data Protection Practice Question
A company needs to securely store database credentials that are used by an application running on Amazon EC2. The credentials must be automatically rotated every 90 days. Which AWS service should be used?
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
✓
AWS Secrets Manager
WS Secrets Manager (Option B). Secrets Manager is designed to securely store secrets like database credentials and provides built-in automatic rotation every 90 days. AWS KMS (Option A) is a key management service, not a secret store. IAM roles for EC2 (Option C) cannot store database credentials; they provide temporary credentials for AWS API calls. AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store (Option D) can store secrets but does not natively support automatic rotation without custom logic using Lambda.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
AWS KMS
Why it's wrong here
KMS manages encryption keys, not secrets.
- ✓
AWS Secrets Manager
Why this is correct
Secrets Manager supports automatic rotation of secrets.
- ✗
AWS IAM roles for EC2
Why it's wrong here
IAM roles provide temporary credentials, not database passwords.
- ✗
AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store
Why it's wrong here
Parameter Store does not automatically rotate secrets.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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Last reviewed: Jun 20, 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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