ANS-C01 Network Design Practice Question
A company is deploying a multi-tier web application across multiple Availability Zones in a single Region. The web tier must be fault-tolerant and distribute traffic across EC2 instances. The application tier uses an Auto Scaling group of EC2 instances that need to be accessed by the web tier using a static IP address. Which combination of AWS services meets these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers assume a load balancer for the web tier must be a Network Load Balancer for static IPs, but the requirement for static IPs applies to the application tier, not the web tier, and they overlook that ALBs are the standard for Layer 7 web traffic distribution.
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
✓
Application Load Balancer for the web tier and Network Load Balancer for the application tier
The web tier requires fault tolerance and traffic distribution across EC2 instances, which is best handled by an Application Load Balancer (ALB) operating at Layer 7 with path-based routing and health checks. The application tier needs a static IP address for the web tier to access it, which is a key feature of a Network Load Balancer (NLB) — it preserves the client IP and provides static IP addresses per Availability Zone, unlike ALBs which use dynamic IPs. This combination meets both requirements: ALB for web traffic distribution and NLB for static IP access to the application tier.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Classic Load Balancer for the web tier and Application Load Balancer for the application tier
Why it's wrong here
CLB does not offer the advanced features needed for modern web tiers.
- ✓
Application Load Balancer for the web tier and Network Load Balancer for the application tier
Why this is correct
ALB provides content-based routing for web tier; NLB provides static IP for application tier.
- ✗
AWS Global Accelerator for the web tier and Classic Load Balancer for the application tier
Why it's wrong here
Global Accelerator is for multi-Region; CLB is deprecated.
- ✗
Network Load Balancer for the web tier and Application Load Balancer for the application tier
Why it's wrong here
NLB does not support path-based routing typically needed for web tier.
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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.