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 hybrid network architecture that requires high availability and low latency between its on-premises data center and AWS. The company currently has two Direct Connect connections from different providers terminating at two different AWS Direct Connect locations. Which solution provides the most resilient and high-performance connectivity?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use two Direct Connect connections from different providers at different locations with a VPN backup.
Option B is correct because using two Direct Connect connections from different providers at different locations ensures physical and provider diversity, eliminating single points of failure. Adding a VPN backup provides an additional failover path over the internet, which is essential for maintaining connectivity if both Direct Connect links fail. This design meets the requirements for high availability and low latency by leveraging active/active or active/passive traffic engineering with BGP routing and AS path prepending.
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.
✗
Use a single Direct Connect connection with multiple VLANs.
Why it's wrong here
Single connection and same provider create single points of failure.
✓
Use two Direct Connect connections from different providers at different locations with a VPN backup.
Why this is correct
Provides diverse paths and high availability.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use Site-to-Site VPN over the internet as the primary connection.
Why it's wrong here
VPN lacks dedicated bandwidth and can be less reliable.
✗
Use two Direct Connect connections from the same provider at the same location.
Why it's wrong here
Same location is a single point of failure.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
AWS often tests the misconception that multiple connections from the same provider or location are sufficient for high availability, but the trap here is that true resilience requires both provider and location diversity to protect against provider-specific outages and location-level disasters.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, Direct Connect uses BGP sessions over 802.1Q VLANs to exchange routes, and with multiple connections, you can implement BGP communities and AS path prepending to control traffic flow. In a real-world scenario, if both Direct Connect links are from different providers at different locations, you can configure AWS Direct Connect Gateway to aggregate them and use AWS Transit Gateway for centralized routing, while the VPN backup (using IPsec over the internet) provides a failover path that can be triggered via BGP route withdrawal or floating static routes. The key subtlety is that the VPN backup should use a separate BGP ASN or different prefix advertisements to avoid routing loops.
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
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: Use two Direct Connect connections from different providers at different locations with a VPN backup. — Option B is correct because using two Direct Connect connections from different providers at different locations ensures physical and provider diversity, eliminating single points of failure. Adding a VPN backup provides an additional failover path over the internet, which is essential for maintaining connectivity if both Direct Connect links fail. This design meets the requirements for high availability and low latency by leveraging active/active or active/passive traffic engineering with BGP routing and AS path prepending.
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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Question Discussion
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