This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of security and compliance. 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 company's security policy requires that all Amazon EC2 instances must have a specific tag 'Environment' with a value of either 'Production' or 'Development'. The SysOps administrator needs to detect any instance that is missing this tag or has an invalid value, and automatically email the operations team. Which AWS service should be used to achieve this with the least operational overhead?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "least"
Why it matters: You want the option with minimum overhead, fewest steps, or lowest impact — not the most feature-rich or comprehensive answer.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
AWS Config with the 'required-tags' managed rule and Amazon SNS
AWS Config's 'required-tags' managed rule continuously evaluates EC2 instances against the specified tag key and allowed values, triggering an SNS notification when non-compliant resources are detected. This provides automated detection and alerting with minimal operational overhead, as it requires no custom code or infrastructure management.
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.
✓
AWS Config with the 'required-tags' managed rule and Amazon SNS
Why this is correct
AWS Config evaluates EC2 instances for the required tag and sends compliance changes to SNS, which can email the team.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "least" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Amazon CloudWatch Events with an EC2 instance state change rule and AWS Lambda
Why it's wrong here
CloudWatch Events can trigger on instance launch, but custom logic is needed to verify tags; this adds operational overhead.
✗
AWS Trusted Advisor with a custom check
Why it's wrong here
Trusted Advisor does not support custom checks for EC2 tags. It only provides predefined best practice checks.
✗
Amazon Inspector with a network assessment
Why it's wrong here
Amazon Inspector assesses network accessibility and vulnerabilities, not tag compliance.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may confuse AWS Config's continuous compliance evaluation with event-driven services like CloudWatch Events, assuming that a state change rule can also check tags, but Config is purpose-built for resource configuration auditing without custom code.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
AWS Config evaluates resources against rules on a periodic basis (e.g., every hour) or on configuration changes, using a managed AWS Lambda function behind the scenes for the 'required-tags' rule. The rule evaluates the 'Environment' tag against a JSON parameter list of allowed values, and any instance missing the tag or having a non-allowed value is marked non-compliant, triggering an SNS topic via Config's delivery channel. In a real-world scenario, this ensures that new instances launched without the correct tag are automatically flagged before they can be used in production.
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 healthcare organisation deploys an application with a public-facing web tier and a private database tier. The database subnet has no public IP and only accepts connections from the web tier's security group. Questions like this test whether you can design cloud network isolation using VNets/VPCs, subnets, and security group rules.
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.
Security and Compliance — This question tests Security and Compliance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: AWS Config with the 'required-tags' managed rule and Amazon SNS — AWS Config's 'required-tags' managed rule continuously evaluates EC2 instances against the specified tag key and allowed values, triggering an SNS notification when non-compliant resources are detected. This provides automated detection and alerting with minimal operational overhead, as it requires no custom code or infrastructure management.
What should I do if I get this SOA-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: "least". You want the option with minimum overhead, fewest steps, or lowest impact — not the most feature-rich or comprehensive answer.
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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