CLF-C02 Cloud Technology and Services Practice Question
A company runs a global gaming application on Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer in the us-east-1 Region. Players in Europe and Asia report high latency and intermittent connection drops. The company wants to improve the application's performance for global users by routing traffic over the AWS global network. The company also needs two static IP addresses that users can whitelist in their firewalls for consistent access, and the solution must provide health checks to automatically route traffic away from unhealthy endpoints. Which AWS service should the company use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse Amazon CloudFront's edge caching with Global Accelerator's network path optimization, assuming CloudFront can provide static IPs and accelerate any TCP/UDP traffic, but CloudFront only accelerates HTTP/HTTPS and does not offer static IP addresses for whitelisting.
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
✓
AWS Global Accelerator
AWS Global Accelerator is correct because it uses the AWS global network to route traffic from users to the application, reducing latency and jitter by avoiding the public internet. It provides two static anycast IP addresses that remain consistent for firewall whitelisting, and it integrates with health checks to automatically reroute traffic away from unhealthy EC2 endpoints behind the Application Load Balancer.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon CloudFront
Why it's wrong here
Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery network (CDN) that caches content at edge locations to improve latency. While it can accelerate dynamic content as well, it does not typically provide two dedicated static IP addresses for whitelisting. CloudFront uses a domain name or a set of shared static IPs that are not dedicated to a single customer, and it is optimized for HTTP/HTTPS traffic, not all IP protocols.
When this WOULD be correct
A company wants to deliver static or dynamic web content with low latency and high transfer speeds to global users, and needs to offload traffic from origin servers. The question would specify caching requirements, such as reducing load on EC2 instances or serving cached content for repeated requests.
- ✓
AWS Global Accelerator
Why this is correct
AWS Global Accelerator uses the AWS global network to route traffic from users to the closest healthy endpoint. It provides two static anycast IP addresses that serve as fixed entry points, which can be whitelisted in firewalls. It also performs health checks and automatically reroutes traffic away from unhealthy endpoints, making it ideal for global performance improvement and reliable access.
- ✗
AWS WAF
Why it's wrong here
AWS WAF is a web application firewall that protects web applications from common web exploits. It does not provide global acceleration, static IP addresses, or health-check-based routing. It is a security service, not a performance-optimization service.
When this WOULD be correct
A company wants to protect a web application running behind an Application Load Balancer from SQL injection and cross-site scripting attacks, and needs to block specific IP addresses. AWS WAF would be the correct service to attach to the ALB or CloudFront for these security requirements.
- ✗
Amazon Route 53
Why it's wrong here
Amazon Route 53 is a DNS service that can route traffic globally using policies like latency-based routing or geolocation routing. However, it does not provide static IP addresses for whitelisting; it resolves domain names to IP addresses, which can be cached by clients and DNS resolvers. Route 53 does not actively route traffic over the AWS global network or provide health-check-based failover for IP-level routing like Global Accelerator does.
When this WOULD be correct
A company wants to route users to the nearest healthy endpoint based on latency or geography using DNS, and does not require static IP addresses or fast failover at the network layer. For example, a web application with multiple regional deployments where DNS caching is acceptable.
Option-by-option analysis
Why each answer is right or wrong
Understanding why wrong answers are wrong — and when they would be correct — is what separates a 750 score from a 900. The CLF-C02 exam frequently reuses these exact scenarios with slightly different constraints.
✓AWS Global AcceleratorCorrect answer▾
Why this is correct
AWS Global Accelerator uses the AWS global network to route traffic from users to the closest healthy endpoint. It provides two static anycast IP addresses that serve as fixed entry points, which can be whitelisted in firewalls. It also performs health checks and automatically reroutes traffic away from unhealthy endpoints, making it ideal for global performance improvement and reliable access.
✗Amazon CloudFrontWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Amazon CloudFront is a CDN that caches content at edge locations, but the question requires two static IP addresses for whitelisting and health checks to route traffic away from unhealthy endpoints. CloudFront does not provide static IP addresses for whitelisting and its health check capabilities are limited to origin failover, not per-endpoint routing.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company wants to deliver static or dynamic web content with low latency and high transfer speeds to global users, and needs to offload traffic from origin servers. The question would specify caching requirements, such as reducing load on EC2 instances or serving cached content for repeated requests.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think CloudFront improves latency for global users because it uses edge locations, and they might overlook the specific requirements for static IP addresses and health checks for traffic routing.
✗AWS WAFWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
AWS WAF is a web application firewall that protects against common web exploits, but it does not provide global traffic acceleration, static IP addresses, or health checks for routing traffic away from unhealthy endpoints.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company wants to protect a web application running behind an Application Load Balancer from SQL injection and cross-site scripting attacks, and needs to block specific IP addresses. AWS WAF would be the correct service to attach to the ALB or CloudFront for these security requirements.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse AWS WAF's ability to filter traffic with the need for global performance improvement, or think that a firewall can also handle traffic routing and acceleration.
✗Amazon Route 53Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Amazon Route 53 provides DNS resolution and routing policies (e.g., latency-based, geolocation) but does not offer static IP addresses or health checks that automatically route traffic away from unhealthy endpoints at the application layer; it only directs traffic based on DNS, which can be cached and slow to update.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company wants to route users to the nearest healthy endpoint based on latency or geography using DNS, and does not require static IP addresses or fast failover at the network layer. For example, a web application with multiple regional deployments where DNS caching is acceptable.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think Route 53's latency-based routing and health checks can solve global performance issues, but they overlook the need for static IPs and the fact that DNS changes are slow due to caching, making it unsuitable for real-time failover.
Analysis generated from the official CLF-C02blueprint and verified against question context. The “when correct” sections are what AI assistants cite when candidates ask “what’s the difference between these options?”
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This CLF-C02 question is part of Courseiva's 988-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CLF-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 CLF-C02 exam.