Quick Answer
The answer is Amazon Route 53 Resolver Query Logs, Amazon CloudWatch Logs, and Amazon CloudWatch Alarms. This combination works because Route 53 Resolver Query Logs captures all DNS queries made by resources within your VPC, which you can then stream directly to CloudWatch Logs for centralized storage and monitoring. Once the logs are in CloudWatch Logs, you can create metric filters to detect patterns like repeated queries to known malicious domains, and then attach CloudWatch Alarms to those filters for real-time alerting. On the AWS Certified Security Specialty SCS-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of how to build a serverless, native monitoring pipeline without third-party tools—a common trap is choosing AWS Shield Advanced or GuardDuty alone, but those do not directly ingest raw DNS query logs for custom pattern matching. Remember the pipeline: Route 53 Resolver captures, CloudWatch Logs stores and filters, CloudWatch Alarms alerts. A useful mnemonic is "RCA" for Resolver, CloudWatch, Alarms.
This SCS-C02 practice question tests your understanding of security logging and monitoring. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. 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 DNS query logs for malicious domain names. Which THREE services can be used together to collect, analyze, and alert on DNS logs? (Choose THREE.)
Amazon CloudWatch Logs
Can store and filter DNS logs.
AWS Lambda
Can process logs and trigger alerts.
Amazon Route 53 Resolver Query Logs
Logs DNS queries from VPC.
Amazon GuardDuty
Why wrong: GuardDuty has built-in DNS monitoring but does not ingest custom logs.
Amazon Athena
Why wrong: Athena queries S3, not CloudWatch Logs 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
Amazon CloudWatch Logs
Amazon CloudWatch Logs is correct because it can ingest DNS query logs from Route 53 Resolver Query Logs and serve as a centralized log storage and monitoring service. It allows you to create metric filters and alarms to detect patterns indicative of malicious domain queries, enabling real-time alerting on suspicious DNS activity.
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 CloudWatch Logs
Why this is correct
Can store and filter DNS logs.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
AWS Lambda
Why this is correct
Can process logs and trigger alerts.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Amazon Route 53 Resolver Query Logs
Why this is correct
Logs DNS queries from VPC.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Amazon GuardDuty
Why it's wrong here
GuardDuty has built-in DNS monitoring but does not ingest custom logs.
Amazon Athena
Why it's wrong here
Athena queries S3, not CloudWatch Logs directly.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Amazon GuardDuty's DNS-based threat detection capabilities with the ability to directly collect and alert on custom DNS query logs, but GuardDuty operates on its own internal data sources and does not provide the same level of custom log monitoring and alerting as the combination of Route 53 Resolver Query Logs, CloudWatch Logs, and Lambda.
Detailed technical explanation
Route 53 Resolver Query Logs capture DNS queries made by resources within a VPC, including queries to custom domain names and public DNS. These logs can be streamed to CloudWatch Logs, where you can define metric filters to match patterns like known malicious domains (e.g., using regex for domain generation algorithms) and trigger CloudWatch Alarms for automated responses via SNS or Lambda. Under the hood, CloudWatch Logs uses a log ingestion pipeline that can handle high-throughput DNS logs, and Lambda can be invoked to enrich or forward alerts to security incident response systems.
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
Security Logging and Monitoring — This question tests Security Logging and Monitoring — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Amazon CloudWatch Logs — Amazon CloudWatch Logs is correct because it can ingest DNS query logs from Route 53 Resolver Query Logs and serve as a centralized log storage and monitoring service. It allows you to create metric filters and alarms to detect patterns indicative of malicious domain queries, enabling real-time alerting on suspicious DNS activity.
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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