How many cs can you find in:
Q: Password protect nginx without root access I have non-root ssh access to a server running nginx. How can I password protect a directory (similar to .htaccess with Apache) without having root access to the configuration files in /etc/nginx/?

A: Short answer: You cant. nginx has no equivalent to the user configuration with .htaccess files because  the devs decided this is wrong and havent heard of the possibility to make this optional. 
 https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/topics/examples/likeapache-htaccess/

user
There are twenty-seven "c"s in the text you provided.
assistant