This ANS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of network design. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company has a VPC with a CIDR block of 172.16.0.0/20. They need to create subnets for three tiers: web, application, and database. The web tier must be public and support at least 1000 hosts. The application and database tiers must be private. Which subnet design meets the requirements?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "least"
Why it matters: You want the option with minimum overhead, fewest steps, or lowest impact — not the most feature-rich or comprehensive answer.
Option A is correct because the web tier subnet 172.16.0.0/22 provides 2^(32-22) - 5 = 1024 - 5 = 1019 usable host addresses (AWS reserves 5 IPs per subnet), which meets the requirement of at least 1000 hosts. The application and database subnets use /24 masks, each offering 251 usable hosts, and are private. All subnets fall within the VPC CIDR 172.16.0.0/20 without overlap.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often forget to subtract the 5 reserved AWS IPs from the total subnet size, leading them to incorrectly believe a /23 (512 IPs) can support 1000 hosts, or they overlook the non-overlapping subnet requirement in AWS.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
AWS reserves five IP addresses per subnet (first four and last one) for networking purposes (e.g., VPC router, DNS, broadcast). When calculating subnet capacity, always subtract 5 from the total IP count. The /22 mask (1024 total IPs) is the smallest subnet that can support 1000+ hosts in AWS, as /23 (512 IPs) falls short. Proper subnet sizing is critical for scaling and avoiding re-architecture.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Network Design — This question tests Network Design — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Web: 172.16.0.0/22, App: 172.16.4.0/24, DB: 172.16.5.0/24 — Option A is correct because the web tier subnet 172.16.0.0/22 provides 2^(32-22) - 5 = 1024 - 5 = 1019 usable host addresses (AWS reserves 5 IPs per subnet), which meets the requirement of at least 1000 hosts. The application and database subnets use /24 masks, each offering 251 usable hosts, and are private. All subnets fall within the VPC CIDR 172.16.0.0/20 without overlap.
What should I do if I get this ANS-C01 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "least". You want the option with minimum overhead, fewest steps, or lowest impact — not the most feature-rich or comprehensive answer.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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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.
Question Discussion
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