- A
Use VPC peering to connect all VPCs to the shared services VPC and route traffic through the firewall.
Why wrong: VPC peering is not transitive and does not scale well for many VPCs.
- B
Create a Transit Gateway with separate route tables for each VPC and a shared route table for the inspection VPC. Use Gateway Load Balancer to distribute traffic to a fleet of firewall instances.
This design is scalable and highly available, with Gateway Load Balancer for inspection and Transit Gateway for routing.
- C
Attach all VPCs to a Transit Gateway and configure a Network Load Balancer in the shared services VPC to distribute traffic to firewall instances.
Why wrong: Network Load Balancer does not support packet inspection; a Gateway Load Balancer is needed.
- D
Attach all VPCs to a Transit Gateway and use a single firewall instance with elastic network interfaces in each VPC.
Why wrong: Single firewall instance is not highly available.
Quick Answer
The answer is to create a Transit Gateway with separate route tables for each VPC and a shared route table for the inspection VPC, using a Gateway Load Balancer to distribute traffic to a fleet of firewall instances. This design is correct because it leverages Transit Gateway centralized inspection with separate route tables to steer all inter-VPC traffic into a shared services VPC, while the Gateway Load Balancer provides horizontal scalability and high availability by transparently distributing flows across multiple firewall appliances using the GENEVE protocol. On the AWS Certified Advanced Networking Specialty ANS-C01 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of how to combine Transit Gateway route tables with Gateway Load Balancer for scalable, fault-tolerant traffic inspection, avoiding common traps like relying on a single firewall instance or using VPC peering meshes. A key memory tip: think of the inspection VPC as a “security hub” with its own route table, and the Gateway Load Balancer as the “traffic distributor” that keeps no single point of failure.
ANS-C01 Network Security, Compliance and Governance Practice Question
This ANS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of network security, compliance and governance. 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 network security architecture for a multi-account environment using AWS Transit Gateway. The security team needs to centralize inspection of all traffic between VPCs using a third-party firewall appliance in a shared services VPC. What is the most scalable and highly available design?
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 a Transit Gateway with separate route tables for each VPC and a shared route table for the inspection VPC. Use Gateway Load Balancer to distribute traffic to a fleet of firewall instances.
Option B is correct because it combines AWS Transit Gateway with separate route tables per VPC and a shared inspection route table, enabling centralized traffic steering to a fleet of firewall instances behind a Gateway Load Balancer (GWLB). GWLB transparently distributes traffic across multiple firewall instances at the network layer (GENEVE protocol), providing both horizontal scalability and high availability without introducing a single point of failure or requiring complex VPC peering meshes.
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 VPC peering to connect all VPCs to the shared services VPC and route traffic through the firewall.
Why it's wrong here
VPC peering is not transitive and does not scale well for many VPCs.
- ✓
Create a Transit Gateway with separate route tables for each VPC and a shared route table for the inspection VPC. Use Gateway Load Balancer to distribute traffic to a fleet of firewall instances.
Why this is correct
This design is scalable and highly available, with Gateway Load Balancer for inspection and Transit Gateway for routing.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Attach all VPCs to a Transit Gateway and configure a Network Load Balancer in the shared services VPC to distribute traffic to firewall instances.
Why it's wrong here
Network Load Balancer does not support packet inspection; a Gateway Load Balancer is needed.
- ✗
Attach all VPCs to a Transit Gateway and use a single firewall instance with elastic network interfaces in each VPC.
Why it's wrong here
Single firewall instance is not highly available.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Network Load Balancer (NLB) with Gateway Load Balancer (GWLB), assuming NLB can transparently inspect traffic, but GWLB is the only AWS load balancer designed for inline traffic inspection with third-party appliances.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Gateway Load Balancer uses the GENEVE protocol (port 6081) to encapsulate traffic between the transit gateway and firewall appliances, preserving the original packet headers for stateful inspection. The transit gateway's separate route tables allow granular control: each VPC route table points to the inspection VPC for inter-VPC traffic, while the inspection route table uses a default route pointing to the GWLB endpoint, enabling symmetric routing and automatic failover if a firewall instance becomes unhealthy.
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.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this ANS-C01 question test?
Network Security, Compliance and Governance — This question tests Network Security, Compliance and Governance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Create a Transit Gateway with separate route tables for each VPC and a shared route table for the inspection VPC. Use Gateway Load Balancer to distribute traffic to a fleet of firewall instances. — Option B is correct because it combines AWS Transit Gateway with separate route tables per VPC and a shared inspection route table, enabling centralized traffic steering to a fleet of firewall instances behind a Gateway Load Balancer (GWLB). GWLB transparently distributes traffic across multiple firewall instances at the network layer (GENEVE protocol), providing both horizontal scalability and high availability without introducing a single point of failure or requiring complex VPC peering meshes.
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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Same concept, more angles
3 more ways this is tested on ANS-C01
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 network security architecture for a multi-account environment using AWS Transit Gateway. The company requires that all traffic between VPCs must be inspected by a centralized security appliance in a shared services VPC. The security appliance must receive traffic for both directions (ingress and egress). Which THREE components are required to achieve this? (Choose THREE.)
hard- ✓ A.A shared services VPC containing the security appliances.
- ✓ B.VPC attachments to the Transit Gateway for each VPC.
- C.VPC peering connections between each spoke VPC and the shared services VPC.
- ✓ D.Transit Gateway route tables that route traffic between VPCs through the security appliances.
- E.NAT gateways in each spoke VPC for outbound traffic.
Why A: Option A is correct because the shared services VPC hosts the centralized security appliances (e.g., firewalls, intrusion detection systems) that must inspect all inter-VPC traffic. This VPC acts as a hub for traffic inspection, ensuring that both ingress and egress traffic flows through the appliances before reaching its destination.
Variation 2. A company is designing a network security architecture for a multi-account AWS environment. They need to centrally inspect and filter traffic between VPCs using a third-party firewall appliance. Which AWS service should they use to route traffic through the inspection VPC?
easy- A.VPC Peering
- B.AWS Direct Connect
- ✓ C.AWS Transit Gateway
- D.VPC Endpoints
Why C: Option B is correct because AWS Transit Gateway with a central inspection VPC allows routing traffic through a firewall appliance. Option A is wrong because VPC Peering does not support transitive routing. Option C is wrong because Direct Connect is for on-premises connectivity. Option D is wrong because VPC Endpoints are for private access to AWS services, not inter-VPC traffic.
Variation 3. A company is designing a network security architecture for a multi-account AWS environment using AWS Transit Gateway. They need to ensure that all traffic between VPCs must be inspected by a centralized security appliance (e.g., firewall) in a shared services VPC. Which routing design meets this requirement?
hard- A.Attach all VPCs to a single route table and enable VPC peering for inspection VPC.
- B.Use a centralized NAT gateway in the inspection VPC and configure all spokes to route traffic through it.
- ✓ C.Attach the inspection VPC and all spoke VPCs to the same Transit Gateway route table, and add a static route for the spoke VPC CIDRs pointing to the inspection VPC attachment, with blackhole routes for the same CIDRs.
- D.Create separate route tables for each VPC attachment and propagate routes from all VPCs.
Why C: Option C is correct because by attaching both the inspection VPC and the spoke VPCs to the same route table with blackhole routes, traffic between spokes is forced to go through the inspection VPC. Option A is incorrect because it uses separate route tables, which would allow direct routing. Option B allows direct traffic. Option D is not a standard practice.
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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