ANS-C01 Network Design Practice Question
A company is designing a network for a critical application that requires low latency between EC2 instances. The instances are in the same AWS Region but different Availability Zones. Which configuration will provide the lowest latency?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often assume inter-AZ latency is negligible or that services like ALB or VPC peering are designed for low-latency scenarios, but the question specifically asks for the lowest latency, which requires physical co-location within a single AZ using a placement group.
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
✓
Launch instances in the same placement group within a single Availability Zone
Placing EC2 instances within the same placement group in a single Availability Zone ensures they are in close physical proximity, often on the same rack or within the same cluster, which minimizes network hops and achieves the lowest possible latency (typically under 1 ms). This configuration is specifically designed for low-latency, high-throughput workloads like HPC or real-time data processing.
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 an Application Load Balancer to distribute traffic
Why it's wrong here
Load balancers add latency.
- ✓
Launch instances in the same placement group within a single Availability Zone
Why this is correct
Placement groups provide low latency by placing instances close together.
- ✗
Use Direct Connect to connect the VPCs
Why it's wrong here
Direct Connect is for on-premises, not VPC-to-VPC.
- ✗
Use VPC peering to connect the VPCs
Why it's wrong here
VPC peering does not reduce latency; instances are in different 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.