Question 47 of 1,621
ANS-C01 Network Design Practice Question
A company has a VPC with a CIDR block of 172.16.0.0/16. They have a public subnet (172.16.1.0/24) and a private subnet (172.16.2.0/24). They have an internet gateway attached to the public subnet. They launch an EC2 instance in the public subnet with a public IP address. The instance is running a web server on port 80. They also launch an EC2 instance in the private subnet that needs to download updates from the internet. The private subnet does not have a route to the internet. The company wants to provide internet access to the private instance in a secure and cost-effective manner. Which solution should they implement?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse a NAT Gateway with a NAT instance or assume a VPC Gateway Endpoint can provide general internet access, but the key distinction is that a NAT Gateway is a managed service for outbound-only internet access, while Gateway Endpoints are specific to AWS services like S3 and DynamoDB.
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
✓
Create a NAT Gateway in the public subnet and add a route in the private subnet's route table pointing to the NAT Gateway
A NAT Gateway in the public subnet allows instances in the private subnet to initiate outbound connections to the internet (e.g., for downloading updates) while preventing inbound connections from the internet. The private subnet's route table must have a default route (0.0.0.0/0) pointing to the NAT Gateway. This is secure because the NAT Gateway uses Elastic IPs and does not accept unsolicited inbound traffic, and it is cost-effective as it is a managed service with no maintenance overhead.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Create a NAT Gateway in the public subnet and add a route in the private subnet's route table pointing to the NAT Gateway
Why this is correct
NAT Gateway provides outbound internet access for private instances.
- ✗
Create a VPC Gateway Endpoint for S3 and configure the private instance to use it
Why it's wrong here
Gateway Endpoint only provides access to S3, not general internet.
- ✗
Create a forward proxy server in the public subnet and configure the private instance to use it
Why it's wrong here
Proxy server adds complexity and cost.
- ✗
Create a NAT instance in the public subnet and configure the private instance to use it
Why it's wrong here
NAT instance is less reliable and requires management.
Visual reference
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
This ANS-C01 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 ANS-C01 exam.
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