This ANS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of network design. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. 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 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?
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
Option B is correct because 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.
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 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.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
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.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that 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.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Placement groups use a low-latency, non-blocking network fabric with 10 Gbps or 25 Gbps per-flow bandwidth, and they leverage the AWS Nitro System to bypass the hypervisor for network traffic. In a cluster placement group, all instances are logically grouped within a single AZ, ensuring they are connected via a single network switch or a small set of switches, which reduces jitter and packet loss. This is critical for applications like financial trading or real-time rendering where microsecond-level latency differences matter.
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: Launch instances in the same placement group within a single Availability Zone — Option B is correct because 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.
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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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.
Question Discussion
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