ANS-C01 Network Implementation Practice Question
A company is designing a network architecture for a critical application that requires high availability and low latency. The application will be deployed on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group across three Availability Zones in a single region. The instances will communicate with an Amazon RDS database. Which configuration will provide the MOST resilient and performant network connectivity?
⚠ Common exam trap
The ANS-C01 exam often tests the misconception that a Network Load Balancer can be used to distribute traffic to an RDS database, but RDS does not support load balancers for database connections, and the correct approach is to use Multi-AZ cluster endpoints for high availability and read scaling.
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
✓
Create an RDS Multi-AZ cluster with one writer and two reader instances in different AZs, and use the cluster endpoint for writes and reader endpoint for reads.
A Multi-AZ cluster with one writer and two reader instances provides both high availability and low latency. The cluster endpoint automatically routes write traffic to the primary instance, while the reader endpoint distributes read traffic across the reader instances in different Availability Zones, reducing latency and improving resilience. This architecture ensures that if one Availability Zone fails, the database remains available without manual intervention, meeting the critical application's requirements.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Launch a single RDS instance in a public subnet and use Route 53 latency-based routing to direct traffic.
Why it's wrong here
RDS should not be in a public subnet; also single instance is not highly available.
- ✗
Use a Network Load Balancer in front of the RDS instance to distribute connections across Availability Zones.
Why it's wrong here
RDS does not sit behind a Network Load Balancer; it uses its own endpoint and Multi-AZ.
- ✗
Place the RDS instance in a single Availability Zone and use a read replica in another AZ for failover.
Why it's wrong here
A single AZ for the primary instance is a single point of failure; failover to a read replica takes time.
- ✓
Create an RDS Multi-AZ cluster with one writer and two reader instances in different AZs, and use the cluster endpoint for writes and reader endpoint for reads.
Why this is correct
Multi-AZ cluster provides automatic failover and low-latency reads across AZs.
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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.