This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of monitoring, logging, and remediation. 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 wants to ensure that all IAM user changes are logged and that an alert is sent when a new IAM user is created. Which services should be used together to achieve this? (Select THREE.)
Amazon CloudWatch Logs
CloudTrail logs can be streamed to CloudWatch Logs.
AWS Config
Why wrong: Config records resource configurations, not API calls.
Amazon CloudWatch Alarms
A metric filter on the log group can trigger an alarm.
Amazon S3
Why wrong: S3 can store logs but does not provide alerting.
AWS CloudTrail
CloudTrail records IAM CreateUser events.
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 receive and store log events from AWS CloudTrail, which records all IAM user changes including user creation. By sending CloudTrail logs to CloudWatch Logs, you can then create metric filters to detect specific API calls like 'CreateUser' and trigger CloudWatch Alarms to send notifications via SNS.
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
CloudTrail logs can be streamed to CloudWatch Logs.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
AWS Config
Why it's wrong here
Config records resource configurations, not API calls.
Amazon CloudWatch Alarms
Why this is correct
A metric filter on the log group can trigger an alarm.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Amazon S3
Why it's wrong here
S3 can store logs but does not provide alerting.
AWS CloudTrail
Why this is correct
CloudTrail records IAM CreateUser events.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often select AWS Config thinking it monitors API activity, but Config is designed for compliance and configuration auditing, not for real-time event logging and alerting on specific API calls.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, CloudTrail delivers management event logs (including IAM CreateUser) to CloudWatch Logs via a trail configuration. You then define a metric filter in CloudWatch Logs with a pattern like '{ ($.eventName = "CreateUser") }' to count occurrences, and attach a CloudWatch Alarm to that metric with a threshold of >=1 to trigger an SNS notification. This integration ensures near-real-time alerting without polling S3 buckets.
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
Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation — This question tests Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Amazon CloudWatch Logs — Amazon CloudWatch Logs is correct because it can receive and store log events from AWS CloudTrail, which records all IAM user changes including user creation. By sending CloudTrail logs to CloudWatch Logs, you can then create metric filters to detect specific API calls like 'CreateUser' and trigger CloudWatch Alarms to send notifications via SNS.
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 SOA-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 SOA-C02 exam.
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