This SCS-C02 practice question tests your understanding of management and security governance. 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 security engineer needs to monitor for unauthorized API calls in real-time. Which combination of services should be used?
Amazon S3 event notifications and AWS Lambda
Why wrong: S3 events are for object-level events.
AWS CloudTrail and Amazon CloudWatch Logs with metric filters
CloudTrail logs, CloudWatch alarms on patterns.
AWS Config and Amazon SNS
Why wrong: Config is for configuration changes.
Amazon GuardDuty and AWS CloudTrail
Why wrong: GuardDuty does not use CloudTrail directly.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
AWS CloudTrail and Amazon CloudWatch Logs with metric filters
AWS CloudTrail records all API calls in an AWS account, and CloudWatch Logs can ingest those logs. By creating metric filters on CloudWatch Logs, you can define patterns that match unauthorized API calls (e.g., AccessDenied errors) and trigger alarms in real time. This combination provides the necessary logging and real-time monitoring capability.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Amazon S3 event notifications and AWS Lambda
Why it's wrong here
S3 events are for object-level events.
AWS CloudTrail and Amazon CloudWatch Logs with metric filters
Why this is correct
CloudTrail logs, CloudWatch alarms on patterns.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
AWS Config and Amazon SNS
Why it's wrong here
Config is for configuration changes.
Amazon GuardDuty and AWS CloudTrail
Why it's wrong here
GuardDuty does not use CloudTrail directly.
Common exam traps
Cisco often tests the distinction between services that log events (CloudTrail) versus services that detect threats (GuardDuty) versus services that monitor configuration (Config), leading candidates to choose GuardDuty because it sounds security-focused, but it does not provide real-time metric-based alerting on raw API calls.
Detailed technical explanation
CloudTrail delivers log files to an S3 bucket or CloudWatch Logs; when using CloudWatch Logs, you can create metric filters that match specific error codes like 'AccessDenied' or 'UnauthorizedOperation' in the JSON-formatted log events. The metric filter then updates a CloudWatch metric in real time, which can trigger an SNS notification or an AWS Lambda function for immediate response. This approach is commonly used in security incident response workflows to detect brute-force attempts or IAM policy violations as they happen.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
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
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FAQ
Management and Security Governance — This question tests Management and Security Governance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: AWS CloudTrail and Amazon CloudWatch Logs with metric filters — AWS CloudTrail records all API calls in an AWS account, and CloudWatch Logs can ingest those logs. By creating metric filters on CloudWatch Logs, you can define patterns that match unauthorized API calls (e.g., AccessDenied errors) and trigger alarms in real time. This combination provides the necessary logging and real-time monitoring capability.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 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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