Static website hosting on S3 in AWS - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

❓ service_behavior

intermediate

How does S3 handle website index documents?

You configure an S3 bucket for static website hosting and set index.html as the index document. What happens when a user visits the root URL of the website?

A S3 returns a 404 error because no specific file is requested.

B S3 returns the <code>index.html</code> file from the root of the bucket as the homepage.

C S3 returns a list of all files in the bucket as a directory listing.

D S3 redirects the user to the AWS Management Console.

💡 Hint

Think about what an index document means for a website.

When you set index.html as the index document, S3 automatically serves this file when the root URL is accessed, acting as the homepage.

❓ security

intermediate

What is required to make an S3 bucket publicly accessible for static website hosting?

You want to host a public static website on S3. Which configuration is necessary to allow anyone on the internet to access the website files?

A Set the bucket policy to allow public read access and disable Block Public Access settings.

B Enable versioning on the bucket and use IAM roles for access.

C Create a VPC endpoint for the bucket and restrict access to the VPC.

D Use AWS KMS encryption and require MFA for access.

💡 Hint

Public website means anyone can read the files without signing in.

To make the bucket publicly accessible, you must allow public read access via bucket policy and disable the Block Public Access settings that prevent public access.

❓ Configuration

advanced

Which S3 bucket policy correctly allows public read access for static website hosting?

Choose the bucket policy JSON that correctly grants public read access to all objects in the bucket named example-bucket.

A

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [{
    "Effect": "Allow",
    "Principal": "*",
    "Action": "s3:ListBucket",
    "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::example-bucket"
  }]
}

B

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [{
    "Effect": "Deny",
    "Principal": "*",
    "Action": "s3:PutObject",
    "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::example-bucket/*"
  }]
}

C

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [{
    "Effect": "Allow",
    "Principal": {"AWS": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/admin"},
    "Action": "s3:GetObject",
    "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::example-bucket/*"
  }]
}

D

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [{
    "Effect": "Allow",
    "Principal": "*",
    "Action": "s3:GetObject",
    "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::example-bucket/*"
  }]
}

💡 Hint

Public read means allowing everyone to get objects, not just listing the bucket.

Option D allows anyone (Principal "*") to perform s3:GetObject on all objects in the bucket, which is required for public website access.

❓ Architecture

advanced

How to configure custom domain with HTTPS for S3 static website hosting?

You want to serve your S3 static website using your own domain with HTTPS. Which AWS service combination is the best practice to achieve this?

A Directly point your domain's DNS to the S3 website endpoint and enable HTTPS on S3.

B Use Route 53 alias record pointing to the S3 bucket and enable HTTPS in the bucket properties.

C Use Amazon CloudFront with an SSL certificate from AWS Certificate Manager and point your domain to CloudFront distribution.

D Create an EC2 instance with a web server to proxy requests to the S3 bucket and install SSL there.

💡 Hint

S3 website endpoints do not support HTTPS directly.

S3 static website endpoints only support HTTP. To serve HTTPS with a custom domain, use CloudFront with an ACM SSL certificate and point your domain to the CloudFront distribution.

✅ Best Practice

expert

What is the recommended way to handle 404 errors on an S3 static website?

You want to show a custom error page when users visit a non-existent page on your S3 static website. How should you configure this?

A Set the <code>error document</code> property in the S3 static website hosting configuration to the custom error page file name.

B Create a Lambda function to intercept 404 errors and redirect to the custom error page.

C Enable versioning on the bucket and upload the error page as the latest version.

D Configure the bucket policy to redirect 404 errors to the custom error page.

💡 Hint

S3 static website hosting has a built-in setting for error documents.

Setting the error document in the static website hosting configuration tells S3 to serve that file when a 404 error occurs.