SCS-C02 Identity and Access Management Practice Question
A company uses AWS Organizations with SCPs to restrict services. An administrator creates an SCP that denies access to EC2. A developer in a member account tries to launch an EC2 instance but fails. What is the most likely reason?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates assume IAM permissions or permissions boundaries are the primary cause of access failures, overlooking that SCPs apply a blanket deny that overrides all account-level permissions, including those of the root user.
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
✓
The SCP from the organization denies EC2
Service Control Policies (SCPs) in AWS Organizations act as a centralized governance mechanism that applies a deny effect across all IAM principals in member accounts. When an SCP explicitly denies access to EC2, it overrides any allow permissions at the account level, including those granted by IAM policies. The developer's launch attempt fails because the SCP's deny is evaluated before any account-level permissions, effectively blocking the action regardless of the developer's IAM role or user permissions.
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 SCP from the organization denies EC2
Why this is correct
SCPs apply to all principals in the account.
- ✗
The root user of the account has denied EC2
Why it's wrong here
Root user is not restricted by SCPs.
- ✗
The developer's IAM permissions boundary blocks EC2
Why it's wrong here
Permissions boundary is set on the user, not automatically.
- ✗
The EC2 instance has a resource-based policy denying access
Why it's wrong here
Resource-based policies are on the resource.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.