The answer is that the trust policy of the 'DevAdmin' role does not grant sts:AssumeRole to the 'SecurityAudit' role. This is because a cross-account role trust policy acts as a resource-based policy on the target role, explicitly listing which principals are allowed to assume it; without that allow statement, the assumption fails even if the source role has full IAM permissions to call sts:AssumeRole. On the AWS Certified Security Specialty SCS-C02 exam, this question tests your understanding of the critical distinction between identity-based policies (what the requester can do) and resource-based policies (who the target allows), a common trap where students mistakenly blame SCPs or source-side permissions. Remember that SCPs only affect permissions within an account and cannot block a cross-account trust that is already denied by the role’s own trust policy. Memory tip: “Trust is the gatekeeper—if the door doesn’t list you, no key will open it.”
SCS-C02 Identity and Access Management Practice Question
This SCS-C02 practice question tests your understanding of identity and access management. 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 has a multi-account AWS Organization with three accounts: Management, Development, and Production. The Security team uses the Management account to manage IAM policies centrally. They have created a service control policy (SCP) named 'RestrictRootAccess' that denies all actions for the root user in all accounts. The SCP is attached to the root organizational unit. The Development account has an IAM role 'DevAdmin' with full administrator access via an IAM policy. The role's trust policy allows the Management account's 'SecurityAudit' role to assume it. A security engineer in the Management account assumes the 'SecurityAudit' role and then tries to assume the 'DevAdmin' role in the Development account. The assumption fails with an 'AccessDenied' error. What is the most likely cause?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "most likely"
Why it matters: Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The trust policy of the 'DevAdmin' role does not grant sts:AssumeRole to the 'SecurityAudit' role
The error 'AccessDenied' occurs because the trust policy of the 'DevAdmin' role in the Development account does not explicitly grant the 'sts:AssumeRole' action to the 'SecurityAudit' role from the Management account. Even though the 'SecurityAudit' role has permission to call sts:AssumeRole via its IAM policy, the target role's trust policy acts as a resource-based policy that must allow the incoming principal. Without that allow, the assumption fails regardless of permissions in the source account.
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.
✗
The SCP is attached to the root OU and overrides any allow in the member accounts
Why it's wrong here
SCPs do not affect trust policies of roles; they affect IAM policies.
✓
The trust policy of the 'DevAdmin' role does not grant sts:AssumeRole to the 'SecurityAudit' role
Why this is correct
Without a trust policy allowing the Management account role, assumption is denied.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "most likely" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
The SCP 'RestrictRootAccess' denies the sts:AssumeRole action for all principals except root
Why it's wrong here
The SCP only denies root user actions, not sts:AssumeRole for roles.
✗
The 'SecurityAudit' role requires MFA to assume the 'DevAdmin' role
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often assume an SCP attached to the root OU can block all actions across accounts, but they forget that trust policies are resource-based and evaluated separately from SCPs, so the SCP cannot cause the 'AccessDenied' error in this cross-account role assumption scenario.
Trap categories for this question
Scenario analysis trap
MFA is not mentioned in the scenario.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, sts:AssumeRole requires both the calling principal's IAM policy to allow the action and the target role's trust policy to allow the principal to assume it. SCPs apply only to IAM policies and not to resource-based policies (like trust policies), so an SCP cannot block a cross-account role assumption that is permitted by the trust policy. This is a common source of confusion because SCPs can block IAM-based actions but have no effect on trust policy evaluations.
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.
Identity and Access Management — This question tests Identity and Access Management — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: The trust policy of the 'DevAdmin' role does not grant sts:AssumeRole to the 'SecurityAudit' role — The error 'AccessDenied' occurs because the trust policy of the 'DevAdmin' role in the Development account does not explicitly grant the 'sts:AssumeRole' action to the 'SecurityAudit' role from the Management account. Even though the 'SecurityAudit' role has permission to call sts:AssumeRole via its IAM policy, the target role's trust policy acts as a resource-based policy that must allow the incoming principal. Without that allow, the assumption fails regardless of permissions in the source account.
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.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "most likely". Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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