VA-003 Create Vault policies Practice Question
Exhibit
path "secret/data/team-a/*" {
capabilities = ["read", "list"]
}
path "secret/data/team-a/admin" {
capabilities = ["deny"]
}Refer to the exhibit. A user with this policy attempts to read the secret at path "secret/data/team-a/admin". What will happen?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often mistakenly think Vault uses a first-match or most-specific-path-wins model, similar to firewall rules, when in fact deny always overrides allow regardless of path specificity.
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
✓
The read is denied because the deny policy takes precedence.
The deny policy takes precedence over any allow policy in Vault, regardless of the path specificity. Even though the first path grants read access to 'secret/data/team-a/*', the second path explicitly denies all capabilities (including read) on 'secret/data/team-a/admin', which is a more specific path. Vault's policy evaluation uses a deny-overrides model, so the deny action blocks the read operation.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The read fails because the path does not exist.
Why it's wrong here
The path exists; the failure is due to policy denail.
- ✗
The read succeeds because the first path grants read.
Why it's wrong here
The deny overrides the grant, so read fails.
- ✗
The read succeeds because deny only applies to write operations.
Why it's wrong here
Deny applies to all operations, not just writes.
- ✓
The read is denied because the deny policy takes precedence.
Why this is correct
Deny always takes precedence over other capabilities.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This VA-003 practice question is part of Courseiva's free HashiCorp 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 VA-003 exam.