Question 1easymultiple choice
Full question →easymultiple choiceObjective-mapped
A company's security policy requires that the AWS account root user must have multi-factor authentication (MFA) enabled. A SysOps administrator needs to continuously verify compliance and automatically notify the security team if the root user is not configured with MFA. Which AWS service can be used to create a compliance rule for this requirement?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
A
Distractor review
AWS Trusted Advisor
Trusted Advisor includes a check for root MFA, but it only provides a status in the dashboard and does not easily integrate with automatic notifications for compliance violations.
B
Best answer
AWS Config with the managed rule 'root-account-mfa-enabled'
AWS Config continuously evaluates resources against rules. The 'root-account-mfa-enabled' managed rule checks if MFA is enabled on the root user and can trigger custom actions (e.g., SNS notification) when non-compliant.
C
Distractor review
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) Access Analyzer
IAM Access Analyzer analyzes resource-based policies to identify unintended access, not root user MFA configuration.
D
Distractor review
Amazon Inspector
Amazon Inspector is a vulnerability management service that scans workloads for software vulnerabilities and unintended network exposure, not IAM configuration checks.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
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.
- Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
- Underline the problem statement mentally.
- 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.
Related practice questions
Related SOA-C02 practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A company uses Amazon CloudFront to deliver content to a global audience. The origin is an Application Load Balancer in us-east-1. The SysOps administrator wants to reduce costs by minimizing the number of requests that reach the origin server. Which action should the administrator take?
Question 2
A company runs a batch processing application on Amazon EC2 that runs for 2 hours every night. The workload can tolerate interruptions. Which EC2 purchasing option provides the lowest cost for this use case?
Question 3
A SysOps administrator needs to monitor the CPU utilization of an Amazon RDS DB instance and receive an alarm when CPU utilization exceeds 80% for 5 consecutive minutes. Which AWS service should be used to create this alarm?
Question 4
A company runs a critical web application on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The application uses session stickiness (sticky sessions) to maintain user sessions. The SysOps administrator notices that when instances are replaced during a scale-in or failure event, users lose their session data. The administrator needs to preserve session data across instance failures without losing stickiness benefits. What should the administrator do?
Question 5
A company runs a production web application on a single Amazon EC2 instance. The application experiences a predictable and steady workload 24/7. The SysOps administrator wants to minimize compute costs for this instance while ensuring it remains available during the expected workload. Which EC2 purchasing option should the administrator use?
Question 6
A company has a VPC with public and private subnets. The private subnets host application servers that need to make outbound HTTPS connections to the internet. The SysOps administrator must implement a solution that provides outbound internet connectivity while preventing inbound connections from the internet. Additionally, the solution must allow the company to control which domains the application servers can access. Which solution should the administrator implement?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SOA-C02 question test?
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 managed rule 'root-account-mfa-enabled' — AWS Config provides managed rules, including 'root-account-mfa-enabled', which checks whether the root user of an AWS account has MFA enabled. If the rule is non-compliant, AWS Config can trigger an SNS notification. This requires no custom code. AWS Trusted Advisor also checks root MFA but only provides a status in the dashboard, not continuous compliance evaluation and automatic remediation. AWS Security Hub aggregates findings but relies on Config rules for this specific check. IAM Access Analyzer helps with resource policies, not root MFA.
What should I do if I get this SOA-C02 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
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