The correct choice is a customer managed key with automatic rotation enabled and a yearly rotation period. This works because AWS KMS allows customer managed keys to have a customizable rotation period, which you can set to 365 days to meet the annual requirement, whereas AWS managed keys are locked to a fixed rotation of every three years (1095 days) and cannot be adjusted. On the AWS Certified Security Specialty SCS-C02 exam, this distinction tests your understanding of key management control boundaries—specifically, that only customer managed keys offer configurable rotation intervals, while AWS managed keys are designed for general compliance but not for custom schedules. A common trap is assuming all KMS keys rotate on the same timeline; remember that “customer managed” means you control the cadence. Memory tip: “Customer managed = custom calendar; AWS managed = automatic but annual? No, it’s triennial.”
SCS-C02 Data Protection Practice Question
This SCS-C02 practice question tests your understanding of data protection. 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.
A company uses AWS KMS to encrypt data at rest in Amazon S3. The security team requires that all encryption keys be automatically rotated every year. Which solution meets this requirement?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use a customer managed key and enable automatic rotation with a yearly rotation period.
Option C is correct because customer managed keys (CMKs) in AWS KMS support automatic rotation with a customizable rotation period, which can be set to 365 days (one year) to meet the security team's requirement. AWS managed keys, on the other hand, have a fixed automatic rotation period of every three years (1095 days) and cannot be adjusted, making them unsuitable for a yearly rotation mandate. By using a CMK with automatic rotation enabled and specifying a rotation period of one year, the company ensures that the encryption key material is rotated annually without manual intervention.
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 an AWS managed key and enable automatic rotation.
Why it's wrong here
AWS managed keys automatically rotate every three years, not yearly.
✗
Use a customer managed key with imported key material and enable automatic rotation.
Why it's wrong here
Imported key material cannot be rotated automatically.
✓
Use a customer managed key and enable automatic rotation with a yearly rotation period.
Why this is correct
Customer managed keys support automatic rotation with a configurable period (yearly).
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use an AWS managed key and manually rotate it every year.
Why it's wrong here
AWS managed keys cannot be manually rotated.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often assume AWS managed keys can be configured for automatic rotation with a custom period, but in reality, AWS managed keys have a fixed three-year rotation schedule and cannot be adjusted, making customer managed keys the only option for yearly rotation.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, AWS KMS automatic rotation for customer managed keys creates new cryptographic material for the key every time the rotation period elapses, while retaining the old material for decryption of previously encrypted data. The rotation period is specified in days and can range from 90 to 2560 days (approximately 7 years), with a default of 365 days if not explicitly set. In a real-world scenario, if an organization uses a CMK with imported key material, they must implement a custom rotation solution using AWS KMS key aliases and manual key creation, as automatic rotation is not supported for imported keys.
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.
Data Protection — This question tests Data Protection — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use a customer managed key and enable automatic rotation with a yearly rotation period. — Option C is correct because customer managed keys (CMKs) in AWS KMS support automatic rotation with a customizable rotation period, which can be set to 365 days (one year) to meet the security team's requirement. AWS managed keys, on the other hand, have a fixed automatic rotation period of every three years (1095 days) and cannot be adjusted, making them unsuitable for a yearly rotation mandate. By using a CMK with automatic rotation enabled and specifying a rotation period of one year, the company ensures that the encryption key material is rotated annually without manual intervention.
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 →
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 is using AWS KMS to encrypt data in Amazon Redshift. They need to rotate the KMS key annually. Which approach meets the requirement with minimal operational impact?
hard
A.Create a new KMS key each year and update the Redshift cluster to use the new key
B.Use an AWS Lambda function to rotate the key every year
✓ C.Enable automatic key rotation on the KMS key
D.Rotate the key by re-importing key material into an existing KMS key
Why C: Option C is correct because AWS KMS supports automatic annual key rotation for customer-managed KMS keys. Enabling this feature automatically rotates the key material once per year with no manual intervention, minimal operational overhead, and no impact on the Redshift cluster, which continues to use the same key ID.
Variation 2. A company uses AWS KMS to encrypt data at rest in Amazon S3. The security team requires that all encryption keys be automatically rotated every year. Which key type meets this requirement?
medium
✓ A.AWS managed key (aws/s3)
B.Customer managed key with manual rotation
C.Asymmetric customer managed key
D.Imported key material in a customer managed key
Why A: AWS managed keys (aws/s3) are automatically rotated every year. Customer managed keys (CMKs) can be rotated manually or automatically, but the question specifies automatic rotation. Option B is correct because AWS managed keys are automatically rotated. Option A is incorrect because customer managed keys require manual rotation or enabling automatic rotation. Option C is incorrect because imported key material does not support automatic rotation. Option D is incorrect because asymmetric keys are not automatically rotated.
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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.
Question Discussion
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