SCS-C02 Security Logging and Monitoring Practice Question
A security engineer is designing a monitoring solution for an AWS Lambda function that processes sensitive data. The function occasionally fails due to timeouts. The engineer needs to be alerted immediately when the function fails and also wants to analyze the error logs. Which combination of services should the engineer use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse AWS CloudTrail (which logs API activity) with CloudWatch Logs (which captures application logs), leading them to choose Option C, even though CloudTrail cannot capture runtime errors like timeouts.
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
✓
Amazon CloudWatch Logs and CloudWatch Alarms with Amazon SNS
Amazon CloudWatch Logs captures the Lambda function's execution logs, including timeout errors, and CloudWatch Alarms can monitor specific metrics like `Errors` or `Throttles` for the function. When the alarm state is triggered (e.g., `ALARM`), it publishes a notification to an Amazon SNS topic, which can send immediate alerts via email, SMS, or other endpoints. This combination provides both real-time alerting and log analysis for troubleshooting.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon CloudWatch Logs and Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose
Why it's wrong here
Kinesis Firehose delivers data to destinations but does not provide immediate alerting.
- ✓
Amazon CloudWatch Logs and CloudWatch Alarms with Amazon SNS
Why this is correct
CloudWatch Logs stores logs, and CloudWatch Alarms trigger SNS notifications on errors.
- ✗
AWS CloudTrail and Amazon SNS
Why it's wrong here
CloudTrail logs API calls, not function execution details.
- ✗
AWS Config and Amazon SNS
Why it's wrong here
Config tracks configuration changes, not runtime errors.
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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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.