ANS-C01 AWS Direct Connect Practice Question
A company is using AWS Direct Connect with a private VIF to connect its on-premises data center to a VPC. The network team wants to monitor the link health and receive alarms if the connection goes down. Which AWS service should they use?
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
✓
Amazon CloudWatch with Direct Connect metrics.
Amazon CloudWatch provides metrics for Direct Connect connections, such as connection state and BGP status, and can trigger alarms. Option B is wrong because Amazon Inspector is for security assessments, not link health monitoring. Option C is wrong because AWS Config tracks configuration changes, not operational status. Option D is wrong because VPC Flow Logs capture IP traffic logs, not link health.
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 CloudWatch with Direct Connect metrics.
Why this is correct
CloudWatch provides metrics like ConnectionState and BGP status for Direct Connect.
- ✗
Amazon Inspector.
Why it's wrong here
Inspector is for vulnerability assessment, not link monitoring.
- ✗
AWS Config.
Why it's wrong here
Config tracks configuration changes, not real-time health.
- ✗
VPC Flow Logs.
Why it's wrong here
Flow logs capture network traffic, not link health.
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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 uses AWS Direct Connect to connect its on-premises network to a VPC. The network team notices intermittent packet loss on the Direct Connect virtual interface (VIF). Which AWS service should be used to monitor the latency and packet loss on the VIF?
easy- A.AWS Health Dashboard
- B.VPC Flow Logs
- ✓ C.AWS CloudWatch
- D.AWS Transit Gateway Network Manager
Why C: CloudWatch provides metrics for Direct Connect including packet loss and latency. VPC Flow Logs capture IP traffic metadata but not latency. AWS Health Dashboard shows service health. Transit Gateway is a network transit hub but not a monitoring service.
Variation 2. A company uses AWS Direct Connect with a private VIF to connect to a VPC. The network team wants to monitor the bandwidth utilization of the Direct Connect connection in real time. Which AWS service should be used?
medium- A.AWS CloudTrail
- B.VPC Flow Logs
- C.AWS Config
- ✓ D.Amazon CloudWatch
Why D: CloudWatch provides metrics for Direct Connect connections including bandwidth utilization. Option A is incorrect because CloudTrail logs API calls. Option B is incorrect because VPC Flow Logs capture traffic per interface, not aggregate bandwidth. Option C is incorrect because AWS Config records configuration changes.
Variation 3. A company uses AWS Direct Connect with a private VIF to connect to their VPC. They want to monitor the network latency between their on-premises router and the AWS Direct Connect location. Which AWS service should they use?
easy- ✓ A.AWS Direct Connect metrics in CloudWatch
- B.AWS X-Ray
- C.VPC Flow Logs
- D.Amazon CloudWatch Synthetics
Why A: AWS Direct Connect publishes metrics such as latency (round-trip time) and BGP session state to CloudWatch. These metrics can be used to monitor network latency between on-premises and the Direct Connect location. Option B is incorrect because AWS X-Ray is for tracing application requests, not network infrastructure latency. Option C is incorrect because VPC Flow Logs capture IP traffic metadata (e.g., sources, destinations, ports), not latency. Option D is incorrect because CloudWatch Synthetics monitors endpoint availability and response times via canaries, not Direct Connect link latency.
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.