The answer is Amazon GuardDuty and AWS CloudTrail with CloudWatch alarms. GuardDuty uses machine learning and threat intelligence to continuously monitor for suspicious activity, including unauthorized API calls, and can send real-time alerts via Amazon EventBridge or SNS. CloudTrail records every API call in your account, including those that fail with AccessDenied errors; by streaming these logs to CloudWatch Logs and creating a metric filter with an alarm, you trigger immediate notifications for unauthorized attempts. On the SCS-C02 exam, this pairing tests your understanding of detective controls—GuardDuty for anomaly-based threats and CloudTrail for audit-trail monitoring. A common trap is choosing only CloudTrail without the CloudWatch alarm setup, or selecting AWS Config, which tracks resource configuration changes, not API call activity. Memory tip: think "Trail for the trail of calls, Duty for the suspicious haul."
SCS-C02 Security Logging and Monitoring Practice Question
This SCS-C02 practice question tests your understanding of security logging and monitoring. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. 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 wants to monitor unauthorized API calls in their AWS account. Which TWO AWS services can provide real-time alerting on such events?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
AWS CloudTrail
AWS CloudTrail is the correct service because it records all API calls made to the AWS environment, including unauthorized ones (e.g., AccessDenied errors). By configuring CloudTrail to deliver logs to Amazon CloudWatch Logs and setting up a metric filter with an alarm, you can receive real-time alerts when unauthorized API calls occur. This directly meets the requirement for monitoring and alerting on such events.
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.
✗
AWS Config
Why it's wrong here
Config tracks resource changes but not real-time API calls.
✓
AWS CloudTrail
Why this is correct
CloudTrail logs all API calls, including those that return AccessDenied errors.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Amazon GuardDuty
Why this is correct
GuardDuty analyzes CloudTrail events and can generate findings for unauthorized activity.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
AWS Trusted Advisor
Why it's wrong here
Trusted Advisor provides best-practice checks, not real-time alerting.
✗
Amazon Inspector
Why it's wrong here
Inspector is for vulnerability assessment, not API monitoring.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse AWS Config's compliance alerts (which are not real-time and focus on resource drift) with CloudTrail's API-level event monitoring, or they mistakenly think GuardDuty is the only service for security alerts, but GuardDuty uses anomaly detection and threat intelligence rather than direct API call logging.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
CloudTrail logs include the `userIdentity`, `eventTime`, and `errorCode` fields; filtering for `errorCode` values like 'AccessDenied' or 'UnauthorizedOperation' allows precise detection of unauthorized API calls. When integrated with CloudWatch Logs, you can create a metric filter that matches these error codes and trigger an SNS notification via a CloudWatch Alarm, enabling near-real-time alerting (typically within minutes). This setup is critical for security incident response, as it can detect brute-force attempts or misconfigured IAM policies immediately.
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.
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: AWS CloudTrail — AWS CloudTrail is the correct service because it records all API calls made to the AWS environment, including unauthorized ones (e.g., AccessDenied errors). By configuring CloudTrail to deliver logs to Amazon CloudWatch Logs and setting up a metric filter with an alarm, you can receive real-time alerts when unauthorized API calls occur. This directly meets the requirement for monitoring and alerting on such events.
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 security team needs to monitor for unauthorized API calls in their AWS account. Which TWO services can provide real-time alerts for such events?
medium
A.Amazon CloudWatch Logs Insights
✓ B.AWS CloudTrail with Amazon CloudWatch Events
C.Amazon VPC Flow Logs
D.AWS Config
✓ E.Amazon GuardDuty
Why B: Options A and D are correct. CloudTrail logs API calls, and when combined with CloudWatch Events, can trigger real-time alerts. GuardDuty also detects suspicious API activity and can generate findings in real-time. Option B is incorrect because AWS Config evaluates resource configurations, not API calls. Option C is incorrect because VPC Flow Logs capture network traffic, not API calls. Option E is incorrect because CloudWatch Logs Insights is a query tool, not a real-time alerting service.
Variation 2. A security engineer notices that an IAM user in the company's AWS account is making API calls from an IP address outside the allowed corporate network. The engineer needs to be alerted immediately when such activity occurs. Which solution meets these requirements with the least operational overhead?
medium
✓ A.Create an Amazon CloudWatch Events rule that matches the IAM user's API calls from the unauthorized IP and sends an SNS notification.
B.Enable AWS Trusted Advisor and configure email notifications for security checks.
C.Enable VPC Flow Logs and analyze them with Amazon Athena to detect suspicious IPs.
D.Configure S3 server access logs on the IAM users' bucket and use Amazon Macie to detect anomalies.
Why A: Option C is correct because CloudWatch Events (now Amazon EventBridge) can capture API calls from CloudTrail and trigger an SNS notification based on a rule matching the source IP address. Option A is wrong because Trusted Advisor does not monitor IAM user API calls in real time. Option B is wrong because VPC Flow Logs capture network traffic but not API-level details. Option D is wrong because S3 server access logs are for S3 operations only.
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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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