By Natasha Davis 
Mastering AWS Exam questions requires more than memorizing facts—it demands practical problem-solving skills. At Exam Practice, we’ve analyzed thousands of responses to pinpoint the 10 most commonly missed AWS Exam questions by candidates in 2025. These tricky questions often trip up even experienced learners due to complex wording, close answer choices, or subtle AWS service differences. In this article, we’ll break down each question, explain why it’s missed, and show you how to solve it with confidence.
Why These AWS Exam Questions Are Frequently Missed
The most missed AWS Exam questions often involve services that are easily confused, such as IAM vs. Cognito, or S3 storage classes. Others require understanding of specific configurations, cost models, or best practices. Many test-takers fail these questions due to rushing, second-guessing, or insufficient practice with real-world AWS use cases.
Let’s dive into the top 10 most missed AWS Exam questions—and how to approach them correctly.
1. Which AWS service is best for decoupling components in a microservices architecture?
A. AWS Lambda
B. Amazon SQS
C. Amazon EC2
D. AWS Step Functions
Answer: B. Amazon SQS
Why it’s missed: Many confuse Step Functions with SQS, but AWS Exam questions test for decoupling specifically—SQS handles message queuing.
2. You need to host a static website. Which AWS service should you use?
A. EC2
B. Amazon S3
C. Elastic Beanstalk
D. CloudFront
Answer: B. Amazon S3
Why it’s missed: CloudFront is often selected, but AWS Exam questions like this target basic hosting. S3 supports static websites directly.
3. Which tool helps detect unexpected activity like cryptocurrency mining in your AWS environment?
A. AWS Shield
B. AWS Inspector
C. Amazon GuardDuty
D. AWS Config
Answer: C. Amazon GuardDuty
Why it’s missed: AWS Exam questions involving security services are tough due to overlapping capabilities. GuardDuty focuses on anomaly detection.
4. How can you reduce S3 storage costs for data accessed once a quarter?
A. Use S3 Standard
B. Use S3 Glacier Deep Archive
C. Use S3 Intelligent-Tiering
D. Use S3 Standard-IA
Answer: D. S3 Standard-IA
Why it’s missed: Candidates often jump to Glacier, but AWS Exam questions expect cost-effective accessibility. Standard-IA is cheaper with faster retrieval.
5. Which service allows you to automate infrastructure as code?
A. AWS CloudTrail
B. AWS CloudFormation
C. AWS OpsWorks
D. AWS Config
Answer: B. AWS CloudFormation
Why it’s missed: CloudTrail is often confused here, but AWS Exam questions like this test for deployment automation—CloudFormation is the right tool.
6. A company wants to prevent public access to an S3 bucket. What should they do first?
A. Encrypt the data
B. Enable versioning
C. Block public access settings
D. Apply an S3 bucket policy
Answer: C. Block public access settings
Why it’s missed: People often go straight to policies, but AWS Exam questions are tricky—global block settings override policies.
7. Which AWS service manages distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection?
A. AWS WAF
B. AWS Shield
C. AWS Firewall Manager
D. AWS Inspector
Answer: B. AWS Shield
Why it’s missed: WAF and Shield are easily mixed up. AWS Exam questions on DDoS specifically refer to Shield.
8. You need to run containerized applications without managing servers. Which service should you use?
A. Amazon ECS
B. AWS Lambda
C. AWS Fargate
D. AWS EC2
Answer: C. AWS Fargate
Why it’s missed: ECS is a common trap, but AWS Exam questions that mention no server management imply Fargate.
9. Which service lets you define who can access specific AWS resources?
A. Amazon Cognito
B. IAM
C. AWS KMS
D. AWS SSO
Answer: B. IAM
Why it’s missed: Cognito is for user identity outside AWS. AWS Exam questions about AWS resource permissions point to IAM.
10. What should you use to grant temporary access to an object in S3 without making it public?
A. IAM Role
B. Access Keys
C. Pre-signed URL
D. Bucket Policy
Answer: C. Pre-signed URL
Why it’s missed: Roles and policies seem logical, but AWS Exam questions testing temporary access to a single object always point to pre-signed URLs.
Conclusion
Understanding why you miss certain AWS Exam questions is just as important as practicing them. These ten questions highlight the complexity and nuance of the AWS exam format, where small differences can change the entire answer. By focusing on high-quality explanations and practicing frequently missed AWS Exam questions, you can sharpen your decision-making, reduce errors, and build the confidence needed to succeed. At Exam Practice, we help you go beyond memorization—our platform is designed to help you truly understand the AWS ecosystem through scenario-based learning and up-to-date AWS Exam questions tailored for 2025 and beyond.