The answer is Amazon Route 53 latency-based routing. This service is the correct choice because it directs user traffic to the AWS region offering the lowest network latency for each end user, based on real-time latency measurements between the user’s location and each region’s resources. When paired with health checks on the Application Load Balancers, Route 53 automatically excludes unhealthy endpoints, ensuring traffic only reaches the nearest healthy ALB. On the AWS Certified Advanced Networking Specialty ANS-C01 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of how to combine Route 53 routing policies with health checks for multi-region architectures—a common design pattern for global applications. A frequent trap is confusing latency-based routing with geolocation routing; remember that latency routing optimizes for speed, not geographic boundaries. Memory tip: think “lowest latency, not location” to distinguish it from geolocation policies.
ANS-C01 Network Implementation Practice Question
This ANS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of network implementation. 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 multi-region architecture with an Application Load Balancer (ALB) in each region. They want to route users to the nearest healthy ALB using latency-based routing. Which AWS service should be used?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Amazon Route 53 latency-based routing
Amazon Route 53 latency-based routing directs user traffic to the AWS region with the lowest network latency for the end user, based on latency measurements between the user and each region's resources. This matches the requirement to route users to the nearest healthy ALB, as Route 53 can evaluate health checks on the ALBs and only route to healthy endpoints.
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.
✓
Amazon Route 53 latency-based routing
Why this is correct
Latency-based routing routes users to the region with the lowest latency.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Amazon CloudWatch
Why it's wrong here
CloudWatch is for monitoring and logging, not for routing.
✗
VPC Traffic Mirroring
Why it's wrong here
Traffic Mirroring is for capturing network traffic, not routing.
✗
AWS Global Accelerator
Why it's wrong here
Global Accelerator uses anycast IPs for static IPs and traffic optimization, but not specifically latency-based routing.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
AWS often tests the distinction between DNS-based latency routing (Route 53) and anycast-based traffic acceleration (Global Accelerator), where candidates mistakenly choose Global Accelerator because it also improves performance, but it does not perform per-request latency-based DNS routing to the nearest healthy ALB.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Route 53 latency-based routing works by maintaining a latency database that measures round-trip time from each DNS resolver to each AWS region. When a DNS query arrives, Route 53 returns the IP of the healthy resource in the region with the lowest latency for that resolver, using a weighted random selection among equally low-latency regions. This is distinct from geoproximity routing, which uses geographic distance rather than actual network latency, and from Global Accelerator, which uses anycast to direct traffic to the nearest edge location and then over the AWS backbone.
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
A healthcare organisation deploys an application with a public-facing web tier and a private database tier. The database subnet has no public IP and only accepts connections from the web tier's security group. Questions like this test whether you can design cloud network isolation using VNets/VPCs, subnets, and security group rules.
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 Implementation — This question tests Network Implementation — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Amazon Route 53 latency-based routing — Amazon Route 53 latency-based routing directs user traffic to the AWS region with the lowest network latency for the end user, based on latency measurements between the user and each region's resources. This matches the requirement to route users to the nearest healthy ALB, as Route 53 can evaluate health checks on the ALBs and only route to healthy endpoints.
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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