ANS-C01 Network Design Practice Question
A company is deploying a web application in a VPC with public and private subnets. The web servers in public subnets must be protected from direct internet access, but they need to receive traffic from an Application Load Balancer (ALB). Which architecture should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates assume an internet-facing ALB alone can protect servers in public subnets, but the key requirement is that servers must not be directly accessible from the internet, which necessitates placing them in private subnets and using an internal ALB for internal routing.
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
✓
Internet-facing ALB in public subnets, and internal ALB in private subnets pointing to web servers
It uses an internet-facing ALB in public subnets to receive traffic from the internet, then forwards it to an internal ALB in private subnets, which distributes traffic to web servers in private subnets. This ensures the web servers are not directly accessible from the internet, meeting the security requirement while still allowing traffic from the ALB. The internal ALB uses private IP addresses, keeping the web servers isolated from direct internet access.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Internet-facing ALB in public subnets with web servers also in public subnets
Why it's wrong here
Web servers would be directly accessible from the internet, violating security.
- ✗
Internal Network Load Balancer in private subnets with web servers
Why it's wrong here
NLB does not provide HTTP/HTTPS termination needed for web applications.
- ✓
Internet-facing ALB in public subnets, and internal ALB in private subnets pointing to web servers
Why this is correct
This allows traffic to flow through the internet-facing ALB to the internal ALB, keeping web servers private.
- ✗
Amazon CloudFront with origin pointing to web servers in public subnets
Why it's wrong here
Web servers are still publicly accessible.
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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.