- A
Configure the target group's deregistration delay to a low value to quickly remove unhealthy targets.
A low deregistration delay ensures that unhealthy instances are removed quickly, preventing them from receiving traffic.
- B
Use a single subnet for the ALB to reduce complexity.
Why wrong: Using a single subnet defeats high availability; the ALB should be in multiple subnets across AZs.
- C
Use a Network Load Balancer instead of an ALB to improve throughput.
Why wrong: NLB does not support path-based routing, which is likely needed for the web application.
- D
Enable cross-zone load balancing on the ALB.
Cross-zone load balancing distributes traffic evenly across all registered instances in all enabled Availability Zones.
- E
Disable deletion protection on the ALB to allow automatic replacement.
Why wrong: Deletion protection prevents accidental deletion but does not affect scaling.
Quick Answer
The correct answer is to enable cross-zone load balancing on the ALB and configure a low deregistration delay on the target group. Cross-zone load balancing ensures that traffic is distributed evenly across all healthy targets in every Availability Zone, which maximizes resource utilization and allows the ALB to automatically scale by leveraging capacity from multiple zones during traffic spikes. A low deregistration delay, typically set to a few seconds, forces the ALB to quickly stop sending new requests to unhealthy or terminating targets, reducing failed requests by draining in-flight traffic faster. On the AWS Certified Advanced Networking Specialty ANS-C01 exam, this pairing tests your understanding of how ALB high availability relies on both distribution logic and graceful connection termination—a common trap is focusing only on scaling policies while ignoring the deregistration setting. Remember the mnemonic “Spread and Shed”: cross-zone spreads traffic across zones, while a low deregistration delay sheds unhealthy targets quickly.
ANS-C01 Network Design Practice Question
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 is designing a highly available architecture for a web application using an Application Load Balancer (ALB) in a VPC. They need to ensure that the application can handle a sudden increase in traffic and that the ALB can scale automatically. Which TWO actions should they take? (Choose two.)
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
Configure the target group's deregistration delay to a low value to quickly remove unhealthy targets.
Option A is correct because configuring a low deregistration delay on the target group allows the ALB to quickly stop sending traffic to unhealthy targets, reducing the risk of failed requests during traffic spikes. This setting controls how long the ALB waits for in-flight requests to complete before deregistering a target, and a lower value accelerates the removal of unhealthy instances to maintain application responsiveness. Option D is correct because enabling cross-zone load balancing distributes incoming traffic evenly across all healthy targets in all Availability Zones, maximizing resource utilization and ensuring the ALB can scale automatically by leveraging capacity from multiple zones.
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.
- ✓
Configure the target group's deregistration delay to a low value to quickly remove unhealthy targets.
Why this is correct
A low deregistration delay ensures that unhealthy instances are removed quickly, preventing them from receiving traffic.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Use a single subnet for the ALB to reduce complexity.
Why it's wrong here
Using a single subnet defeats high availability; the ALB should be in multiple subnets across AZs.
- ✗
Use a Network Load Balancer instead of an ALB to improve throughput.
Why it's wrong here
NLB does not support path-based routing, which is likely needed for the web application.
- ✓
Enable cross-zone load balancing on the ALB.
Why this is correct
Cross-zone load balancing distributes traffic evenly across all registered instances in all enabled Availability Zones.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Disable deletion protection on the ALB to allow automatic replacement.
Why it's wrong here
Deletion protection prevents accidental deletion but does not affect scaling.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
AWS often tests the misconception that enabling cross-zone load balancing is optional or unnecessary for high availability, when in fact it is a critical feature for distributing traffic evenly and supporting automatic scaling across zones.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
The deregistration delay is configured on the target group and defaults to 300 seconds; setting it too low (e.g., 5 seconds) can cause in-flight requests to be dropped, so it must be balanced against application requirements. Cross-zone load balancing is enabled by default on ALBs but can be disabled; when enabled, it ensures that each load balancer node distributes traffic across all registered targets in all enabled Availability Zones, improving fault tolerance and scaling efficiency. Under the hood, the ALB automatically scales its capacity based on the number of active connections and request rate, but cross-zone balancing prevents uneven load distribution that could trigger premature scaling limits.
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
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
What to study next
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this ANS-C01 question test?
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: Configure the target group's deregistration delay to a low value to quickly remove unhealthy targets. — Option A is correct because configuring a low deregistration delay on the target group allows the ALB to quickly stop sending traffic to unhealthy targets, reducing the risk of failed requests during traffic spikes. This setting controls how long the ALB waits for in-flight requests to complete before deregistering a target, and a lower value accelerates the removal of unhealthy instances to maintain application responsiveness. Option D is correct because enabling cross-zone load balancing distributes incoming traffic evenly across all healthy targets in all Availability Zones, maximizing resource utilization and ensuring the ALB can scale automatically by leveraging capacity from multiple zones.
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.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 30, 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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