ANS-C01 Network Implementation Practice Question
A company is deploying a multi-tier web application across multiple Availability Zones in a VPC. The architecture includes public-facing Application Load Balancers, Amazon EC2 instances in private subnets, and an Amazon RDS for MySQL Multi-AZ DB instance. To meet compliance requirements, all traffic between the web tier and database tier must be encrypted and must not traverse the internet. Which TWO actions should the company take to implement this securely? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse VPC endpoints (which are used for AWS services like S3 or DynamoDB) with the need for private connectivity to RDS, but RDS within the same VPC already uses private IPs, and the real focus is on enabling SSL/TLS encryption and using the private DNS endpoint to keep traffic internal.
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
✓
Enable SSL/TLS encryption on the RDS DB instance and configure the web servers to connect using SSL.
Enabling SSL/TLS encryption on the RDS DB instance and configuring the web servers to connect using SSL ensures that all traffic between the web tier and database tier is encrypted in transit. This satisfies the compliance requirement for encrypted traffic without needing external connectivity. Option E is correct because using the RDS endpoint (DNS name) that resolves to a private IP within the same VPC ensures that database traffic remains within the VPC and does not traverse the internet, meeting the compliance requirement for no internet traversal.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Establish an AWS Site-to-Site VPN between the web tier subnets and the database subnet.
Why it's wrong here
Unnecessary for within-VPC traffic.
- ✗
Create a VPC endpoint for Amazon RDS and route database traffic through it.
Why it's wrong here
VPC endpoints are for AWS services like S3, not for RDS within same VPC.
- ✓
Enable SSL/TLS encryption on the RDS DB instance and configure the web servers to connect using SSL.
Why this is correct
Encrypts traffic between web and database tiers.
- ✗
Assign an Elastic IP address to the RDS DB instance to ensure a stable IP for the web tier.
Why it's wrong here
RDS instances do not use Elastic IPs; they use DNS names.
- ✓
Use the RDS endpoint (DNS name) that resolves to a private IP within the same VPC.
Why this is correct
Ensures traffic stays within AWS network, not internet.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.