A company runs a web application on a fleet of Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The application serves dynamic content that changes frequently, but also serves static assets (CSS, JavaScript, images) that change rarely. The company wants to improve the overall performance and reduce the load on the EC2 instances by caching the static assets at edge locations while still routing dynamic requests to the ALB. Which combination of AWS services should the company use?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
Best answer
Use Amazon CloudFront with the ALB as the origin, and configure CloudFront to cache the static assets while forwarding dynamic requests to the ALB.
CloudFront acts as a CDN and can be configured with multiple cache behaviors. Static assets are cached at edge locations, reducing the load on the ALB and EC2 instances. Dynamic requests are forwarded to the ALB as needed. This directly meets the company's requirements.
Distractor review
Use Amazon Route 53 with latency-based routing to direct users to the closest ALB endpoint.
Latency-based routing improves performance by directing users to the region with the lowest latency, but it does not cache content. All requests still reach the ALB and EC2 instances, so the load on the instances is not reduced.
Distractor review
Use Amazon S3 to host the entire application, and use the ALB to route traffic to the S3 bucket.
Amazon S3 is a static storage service and cannot run dynamic application logic (e.g., server-side processing, database queries). The application requires dynamic content, so S3 alone is not suitable. Additionally, this setup does not reduce load on EC2 instances.
Distractor review
Use AWS Global Accelerator to distribute traffic across multiple ALBs in different AWS Regions.
Global Accelerator improves performance by using the AWS global network to route traffic to the nearest healthy endpoint, but it does not cache content. All requests still reach the ALB and EC2 instances, so the load is not reduced.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
- PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
- Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
- NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
- Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
- Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
- Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
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More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A developer needs to launch a test server for a new application prototype. The developer logs into the AWS Management Console, selects an Amazon EC2 instance type, configures the security group, and starts the instance. The instance is running within two minutes, and the developer did not need to submit a formal request to the company's IT procurement team or wait for approval from a cloud administrator. Which essential characteristic of cloud computing does this scenario best demonstrate?
Question 2
A solutions architect is planning a new web application on AWS. The workload will include 3 Amazon EC2 instances (t3.medium) running 24/7, an Application Load Balancer, and an Amazon RDS for MySQL db.t3.small database. The architect needs to estimate the monthly cost for the first year, considering different purchasing options (On-Demand, 1-year All Upfront Reserved Instance, and Compute Savings Plan). Which AWS tool should the architect use to create this estimate?
Question 3
A company's development team frequently needs temporary test environments. A developer can log into the AWS Management Console, select an Amazon EC2 instance type, configure storage, and launch the instance within minutes without any interaction with the IT infrastructure team. This capability is an example of which essential characteristic of cloud computing?
Question 4
A company's finance team needs to analyze AWS spending in detail. They require a report that includes hourly cost data for each AWS service, each individual resource (e.g., a specific EC2 instance), and any cost allocation tags applied. The team plans to export this data to an Amazon S3 bucket and then import it into a custom business intelligence (BI) analytics dashboard. Which AWS tool should the finance team use to generate this level of detailed cost data?
Question 5
A company uses AWS for its development environment. The finance team wants to set a monthly budget of $10,000. They want to receive an email notification when the actual costs reach 80% of the budget ($8,000) and again when costs exceed the budget. The team needs a managed AWS service that can automatically send these alerts without requiring custom code or third-party tools. Which AWS service should the team use?
Question 6
A company uses AWS Organizations to manage multiple accounts. The security team needs to enforce a policy that restricts SSH access (port 22) from the internet (0.0.0.0/0) in all VPCs across all accounts. The team wants to centrally define the allowed rules and automatically apply them to newly created VPCs and security groups, while also automatically remediating any existing non-compliant security groups. Which AWS service should the team use?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this CLF-C02 question test?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use Amazon CloudFront with the ALB as the origin, and configure CloudFront to cache the static assets while forwarding dynamic requests to the ALB. — Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery network (CDN) that can cache content at edge locations close to users. By configuring CloudFront with the ALB as the origin, you can define cache behaviors to cache static assets (e.g., images, CSS) for longer periods while forwarding dynamic requests (e.g., API calls, personalized content) to the ALB. This reduces the number of requests reaching the EC2 instances, lowering the load and improving response times for users. The other options do not provide caching: Route 53 latency-based routing only routes traffic but does not cache, S3 cannot host a dynamic application, and Global Accelerator optimizes network path but does not cache content.
What should I do if I get this CLF-C02 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
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