The answer is to provision two Direct Connect connections at two different Direct Connect locations. This design eliminates any single point of failure because a single Direct Connect location, even with multiple virtual interfaces or VLANs, shares the same physical infrastructure and carrier facility; if that location goes down, all connectivity is lost. By using two separate locations, you achieve true geographic redundancy, allowing traffic to automatically fail over to the healthy connection via BGP routing and AWS’s built-in path selection. On the AWS Certified Advanced Networking Specialty ANS-C01 exam, this concept tests your understanding of resilient hybrid networking—a common trap is assuming that multiple VIFs on one connection provide high availability, but they do not protect against location-level failures. Remember the memory tip: “Two locations, no single point of failure; one location, one point of failure.”
ANS-C01 Network Design Practice Question
This ANS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of network design. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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 connecting an on-premises data center to AWS via AWS Direct Connect. The company requires high availability and wants to avoid a single point of failure. Which design meets these requirements?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Provision two Direct Connect connections at two different Direct Connect locations.
Option D is correct because provisioning two Direct Connect connections at two different Direct Connect locations eliminates any single point of failure. This design ensures that if one connection or location fails, traffic can automatically fail over to the other connection, meeting the high availability requirement. A single Direct Connect connection, regardless of the number of VIFs or VLANs, remains a single point of failure.
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.
✗
Provision a single Direct Connect connection with multiple virtual interfaces (VIFs).
Why it's wrong here
A single connection is a single point of failure, even with multiple VIFs.
✗
Provision one Direct Connect connection with two VLANs to separate production and non-production traffic.
Why it's wrong here
This still relies on a single physical connection.
✗
Use a single Direct Connect connection and a VPN backup over the internet.
Why it's wrong here
While a VPN provides backup, the primary connection is still a single point of failure.
✓
Provision two Direct Connect connections at two different Direct Connect locations.
Why this is correct
Two connections at different locations provide physical diversity and high availability.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
AWS often tests the misconception that multiple VIFs or VLANs on a single Direct Connect connection provide redundancy, but they do not eliminate the physical single point of failure of the connection itself.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
For true high availability with AWS Direct Connect, you should provision two separate connections at two different Direct Connect locations, ideally connecting to two different AWS devices. This allows you to use BGP with AS_PATH prepending or MED attributes to control traffic flow and failover, and you can configure AWS Site-to-Site VPN as a backup for additional resilience. In a real-world scenario, a single Direct Connect location might experience a fiber cut or power outage, so having a second connection at a geographically diverse location ensures continuous connectivity.
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: Provision two Direct Connect connections at two different Direct Connect locations. — Option D is correct because provisioning two Direct Connect connections at two different Direct Connect locations eliminates any single point of failure. This design ensures that if one connection or location fails, traffic can automatically fail over to the other connection, meeting the high availability requirement. A single Direct Connect connection, regardless of the number of VIFs or VLANs, remains a single point of failure.
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.
About these practice questions
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These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company is designing a hybrid network connecting on-premises data centers to AWS via AWS Direct Connect. The company requires high availability with multiple connections. Which design ensures that a failure of a single Direct Connect location does not impact connectivity?
medium
A.Provision a single Direct Connect connection with a large bandwidth.
✓ B.Provision two Direct Connect connections at two different Direct Connect locations.
C.Provision two Direct Connect connections at the same AWS Direct Connect location.
D.Provision one Direct Connect connection and one AWS Site-to-Site VPN as backup.
Why B: Option B is correct because deploying two Direct Connect connections at two different Direct Connect locations ensures that a single location failure (e.g., power outage, fiber cut, or facility issue) does not affect connectivity. This design provides geographic redundancy, meeting the high availability requirement by eliminating a single point of failure at the Direct Connect location level.
Last reviewed: Jun 30, 2026
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