- A
AWS Config rules
Why wrong: AWS Config is for compliance monitoring, not access management.
- B
Service control policies (SCPs)
Why wrong: SCPs are for setting permission boundaries, not fine-grained permissions.
- C
IAM roles with cross-account trust policies
IAM roles allow fine-grained permissions and can be assumed across accounts.
- D
AWS Single Sign-On (SSO)
Why wrong: SSO is for user access, not for defining fine-grained permissions.
Question 1,407 of 1,546
Cross-Account IAM Roles for Fine-Grained Permissions in AWS Organizations
This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of security and compliance. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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.
An organization wants to centrally manage access to multiple AWS accounts in an AWS Organizations setup. Which AWS service should the SysOps administrator use to define and enforce fine-grained permissions across accounts?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
IAM roles with cross-account trust policies
Option C is correct because IAM roles with cross-account trust policies allow a SysOps administrator to define fine-grained permissions centrally in a single AWS account (the management or security account) and then grant access to users or services in other accounts by assuming the role. This approach uses AWS Security Token Service (STS) to issue temporary credentials, enabling precise control over actions and resources across accounts without duplicating IAM users or policies.
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 rules
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config is for compliance monitoring, not access management.
- ✗
Service control policies (SCPs)
Why it's wrong here
SCPs are for setting permission boundaries, not fine-grained permissions.
- ✓
IAM roles with cross-account trust policies
Why this is correct
IAM roles allow fine-grained permissions and can be assumed across accounts.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
AWS Single Sign-On (SSO)
Why it's wrong here
SSO is for user access, not for defining fine-grained permissions.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Service Control Policies (SCPs) with fine-grained permission enforcement, but SCPs only set guardrails and cannot grant cross-account access or define granular user-level permissions, which is the core requirement of this question.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, cross-account IAM roles use a trust policy in the target account that specifies the source account's ARN as a principal, and the source account's IAM user/role must have an inline or attached policy allowing the `sts:AssumeRole` action. A real-world scenario is a central security team that creates a 'ReadOnlyAccess' role in each member account with a trust policy pointing to the management account, then grants specific IAM users in the management account permission to assume that role, enabling read-only operations across the organization without managing individual credentials.
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 company's IT admin needs to give a contractor read-only access to production logs without sharing account credentials. Using role-based access control (RBAC) and temporary scoped permissions — not a permanent shared password — is the correct pattern. Questions like this test whether you can apply least-privilege access across cloud identity services.
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.
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Security and Compliance — study guide chapter
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SOA-C02 question test?
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: IAM roles with cross-account trust policies — Option C is correct because IAM roles with cross-account trust policies allow a SysOps administrator to define fine-grained permissions centrally in a single AWS account (the management or security account) and then grant access to users or services in other accounts by assuming the role. This approach uses AWS Security Token Service (STS) to issue temporary credentials, enabling precise control over actions and resources across accounts without duplicating IAM users or policies.
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.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 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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