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SCS-C02 · domain

Identity and Access Management

Practise AWS Certified Security Specialty SCS-C02 Identity and Access Management practice questions — original exam-style scenarios with answer choices, explanations, and analysis of common mistakes.

46 questions10 easy20 medium16 hard

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What this domain covers

What to know about Identity and Access Management

Identity and Access Management questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.

How the topic appears in realistic exam-style scenarios.

Which detail in the question changes the correct answer.

How to eliminate plausible but wrong options.

How to connect the question back to the wider exam objective.

Watch out for

Common Identity and Access Management exam traps

  • Answering from memory before reading the full scenario.
  • Missing a constraint such as cost, availability, security, scope or command context.
  • Choosing a broad answer when the question asks for the most specific fix.
  • Ignoring why the wrong options are tempting.

Question index

All Identity and Access Management questions (46)

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1

A large enterprise uses AWS Organizations to manage multiple accounts. The security team has implemented a Service Control Policy (SCP) at the root level that denies all actions unless the request originates from the corporate IP range (10.0.0.0/8). Recently, a developer in a member account tried to launch an EC2 instance from the AWS Management Console while connected via a VPN that provides an IP address within the corporate range. However, the launch failed with an 'AccessDenied' error. The developer is using an IAM user with full EC2 permissions (ec2:*). The SCP is as follows: {"Version":"2012-10-17","Statement":[{"Effect":"Deny","Action":"*","Resource":"*","Condition":{"NotIpAddress":{"aws:SourceIp":"10.0.0.0/8"}}}]}. What is the MOST likely reason for the failure?

Hard
2

A company is using AWS Organizations with multiple accounts. The security team wants to ensure that no IAM user in any account can create new IAM users. Which approach should be used?

Medium
3

A security engineer is designing IAM policies for a data analytics platform that uses Amazon S3, Amazon Athena, and AWS Glue. The platform must allow data scientists to query data in S3 using Athena, but only from specific VPC subnets. Additionally, the data must be encrypted at rest using AWS KMS. Which TWO actions should the engineer take to meet these requirements? (Choose TWO.)

Medium
4

A company has a requirement that all IAM users must use multi-factor authentication (MFA) to access the AWS Management Console. Which TWO steps should the company take to enforce this?

Hard
5

Refer to the exhibit. An IAM user has this policy attached. Can the user create a new IAM user in the us-east-1 region?

Easy
6

A company has an S3 bucket policy that allows cross-account access for a specific IAM role in another account. The bucket policy includes a Principal element with the ARN of the role. However, users in the other account that assume the role are unable to access the bucket. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Medium
7

An IAM user receives an 'AccessDenied' error when trying to list objects in an S3 bucket. The user has the following policy attached: {"Version":"2012-10-17","Statement":[{"Effect":"Allow","Action":"s3:ListBucket","Resource":"arn:aws:s3:::example-bucket"}]}. What is the most likely reason?

Easy
8

A security engineer needs to ensure that an IAM role can be assumed only from a specific VPC. Which IAM policy condition key should be used?

Hard
9

A security engineer is designing a permissions boundary for an IAM user. Which TWO statements about permissions boundaries are correct?

Hard
10

A company wants to allow users from an external AWS account to assume an IAM role in its account. What must be configured in both accounts?

Medium
11

A security engineer is designing a solution to allow an external auditor to access logs in an S3 bucket in the company's AWS account. The auditor does not have an AWS account. The engineer needs to grant read-only access to the specific bucket for a limited time. Which TWO actions should the engineer take? (Choose two.)

Hard
12

A company requires that all access to its S3 buckets be logged for compliance. Which AWS service should be used to record API calls to S3?

Easy
13

A company uses an IAM role to allow an EC2 instance to access an S3 bucket. The security team wants to ensure that if the EC2 instance is compromised, the attacker cannot use the role credentials to access resources outside the account. What should the security team do?

Hard
14

A security engineer is investigating an IAM role that was used to access AWS resources from an external account. The role has a trust policy that allows the external account to assume it. Which of the following is a required step for the external account to use the role?

Medium
15

A company wants to allow cross-account access to an S3 bucket in Account A for a user in Account B. What is the correct combination of steps?

Medium
16

A company uses AWS KMS to encrypt objects in an S3 bucket. The security team wants to ensure that only users with the appropriate KMS key permissions can decrypt objects. Which TWO conditions should be included in the S3 bucket policy to enforce this? (Choose TWO.)

Hard
17

A security engineer notices that an IAM role has a trust policy allowing any AWS account to assume it. Which attack is this misconfiguration most likely to enable?

Medium
18

A developer needs to grant an EC2 instance read-only access to an S3 bucket. Which of the following is the most secure way to provide these permissions?

Easy
19

Which IAM entity can be used to delegate permissions to an AWS service to perform actions on your behalf?

Easy
20

Refer to the exhibit. An IAM policy allows running EC2 instances. A developer tries to launch a t2.micro instance but receives an 'AccessDenied' error. What is the most likely reason?

Hard
21

A company wants to allow an external auditor to read all objects in a specific S3 bucket for a limited time. What is the most secure way to grant this access?

Easy
22

Which TWO of the following are valid ways to grant an IAM user permissions to access an S3 bucket? (Choose 2.)

Medium
23

An IAM policy is attached to a user. The user is trying to change their own password in the IAM console but receives an 'Access Denied' error. The user has an MFA device configured and is logged in with MFA. Why is the password change failing?

Hard
24

An administrator wants to audit all IAM actions in the account. Which AWS service should be used?

Medium
25

A security team needs to audit all changes to IAM resources in their AWS account. Which AWS service should they use?

Medium
26

A company has an S3 bucket with a bucket policy that grants access to a specific IAM role. However, users who assume that role are unable to list objects in the bucket. The bucket policy includes a Principal element set to the role ARN. What is the MOST likely cause?

Medium
27

A company uses AWS Organizations with SCPs to restrict services. An administrator creates an SCP that denies access to EC2. A developer in a member account tries to launch an EC2 instance but fails. What is the most likely reason?

Medium
28

Which TWO actions can be used to restrict access to an S3 bucket to only users who authenticate using multi-factor authentication (MFA)? (Choose TWO.)

Medium
29

Which TWO actions are valid ways to grant an IAM user access to an S3 bucket owned by another AWS account? (Choose TWO.)

Medium
30

A security engineer is analyzing an IAM policy that is attached to a group. The policy is intended to allow users to manage their own credentials. However, users are reporting that they cannot change their password. The policy is: { "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["iam:ChangePassword", "iam:GetAccountPasswordPolicy"], "Resource": "*" } ] } What is the issue?

Hard
31

A company has a multi-account AWS organization with centralized logging in a Security account. The Security account contains an S3 bucket that stores CloudTrail logs from all member accounts. The bucket policy allows CloudTrail from member accounts to deliver logs. Recently, a security audit revealed that the bucket is publicly accessible. The security engineer must ensure that only authorized accounts can access the logs. The engineer updates the bucket policy to include a condition that restricts access to specific AWS accounts. However, after the change, member accounts report that CloudTrail is failing to deliver logs to the bucket. The bucket policy currently includes the following statement: { "Effect": "Allow", "Principal": "*", "Action": "s3:PutObject", "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::central-logs/*", "Condition": { "StringEquals": { "aws:SourceAccount": "111111111111" } } } The Security account ID is 222222222222. What is the MOST likely cause of the delivery failure, and what should the engineer do to fix it?

Hard
32

A company has a single AWS account with multiple IAM users. The administrator created an IAM policy that allows all users to launch EC2 instances, but only if they use a specific AMI ID (ami-12345678) and a specific instance type (t3.micro). The policy uses a condition that checks the EC2 instance type and AMI ID. However, a user is able to launch an EC2 instance with a different AMI ID and a larger instance type. The administrator reviews the policy and confirms that the condition is correctly written. What is the most likely reason that the policy is not working as expected?

Easy
33

A company uses AWS Organizations with multiple accounts. The security team wants to ensure that all IAM users in the production account must use multi-factor authentication (MFA) to access the AWS Management Console. Which combination of actions should the security team take to enforce this requirement?

Medium
34

Refer to the exhibit. A security engineer runs the IAM Policy Simulator with the provided policy input. The result shows 'explicitDeny' for ec2:RunInstances even though the policy only contains an Allow. What is the most likely reason?

Hard
35

Refer to the exhibit. An IAM user has this policy attached. The user tries to download an object from the S3 bucket using the AWS CLI from an on-premises server with IP address 198.51.100.50. What will happen?

Hard
36

A company wants to allow an IAM user to manage only their own password in the AWS Management Console. Which IAM policy action should be used?

Easy
37

A company wants to grant an IAM user the ability to manage (create and update) their own access keys. Which TWO IAM actions must be allowed in the policy?

Easy
38

A company uses an IAM role to allow an EC2 instance to access an S3 bucket. The role has an attached policy that grants s3:GetObject on the bucket. However, the application on the EC2 instance is unable to read objects. What is the MOST likely cause?

Hard
39

An organization is using IAM roles for EC2 instances. The security team needs to ensure that each EC2 instance can only assume a specific role based on tags. Which feature should be used?

Medium
40

A company uses AWS Organizations with multiple accounts. The security team wants to enforce that all IAM users in member accounts must have a password policy that requires a minimum length of 14 characters. How can this be achieved centrally?

Hard
41

A developer wants to allow an IAM role to be assumed by an EC2 instance that is part of an Auto Scaling group. Which TWO AWS services or features are required? (Choose TWO.)

Easy
42

A security engineer is troubleshooting an issue where an IAM role used by an EC2 instance cannot access an S3 bucket, even though the role has an attached policy that grants s3:GetObject on the bucket. The bucket policy does not explicitly deny access. What is the most likely cause?

Medium
43

A company has an S3 bucket that contains sensitive data. The security team wants to ensure that all objects uploaded to the bucket are encrypted at rest using server-side encryption with AWS KMS (SSE-KMS). What should the security team do to enforce this requirement?

Medium
44

A security engineer needs to design an IAM policy that allows an IAM user to launch EC2 instances only if they specify a specific security group ID (sg-12345) and a specific instance type (t2.micro). Which policy achieves this?

Hard
45

Refer to the exhibit. An IAM policy is attached to a group. An IAM user in that group attempts to stop an EC2 instance from IP address 198.51.100.10. What will happen?

Medium
46

Refer to the exhibit. A security engineer runs the 'simulate-custom-policy' command to test a policy. The output shows 'explicitDeny' for ec2:RunInstances. What is the most likely reason?

Medium

Frequently asked questions

What does the Identity and Access Management domain cover on the SCS-C02 exam?
Identity and Access Management questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.
How many questions are in this domain?
This page lists all 46 Identity and Access Management questions in the SCS-C02 question bank. The actual exam draws from this domain proportionally to its weighting in the official exam blueprint.
What is the best way to practise this domain?
Start with a short focused session (10 questions) to identify gaps, then work through explanations. Repeat with a longer session once the weak areas feel solid.
Can I practise only Identity and Access Management questions?
Yes — the session launcher on this page filters questions to this domain only. Choose any session length for inline explanations and scoring.
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