This ANS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of network design. 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 needs to resolve DNS names for their EC2 instances using custom domain names like "app.example.com". Which AWS service should they use?
AWS Cloud Map
Why wrong: Service discovery, not DNS resolution for custom domains.
AWS Directory Service
Why wrong: For Microsoft AD.
Amazon Route 53
Managed DNS service.
Amazon Cognito
Why wrong: Identity platform.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Amazon Route 53
Amazon Route 53 is a scalable DNS web service that can resolve custom domain names like 'app.example.com' to EC2 instance IP addresses. It supports private hosted zones for VPCs, enabling DNS resolution for internal resources without exposing them to the internet, and integrates with EC2 via alias records or health checks.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
AWS Cloud Map
Why it's wrong here
Service discovery, not DNS resolution for custom domains.
AWS Directory Service
Why it's wrong here
For Microsoft AD.
Amazon Route 53
Why this is correct
Managed DNS service.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Amazon Cognito
Why it's wrong here
Identity platform.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates confuse AWS Cloud Map's service discovery capabilities with DNS resolution, but Cloud Map is designed for dynamic service endpoints (e.g., ECS tasks) and does not natively resolve arbitrary custom domain names like 'app.example.com' without Route 53.
Detailed technical explanation
Route 53 private hosted zones allow DNS resolution within VPCs using custom domain names without public exposure, leveraging RFC 1918 addresses and VPC DNS settings. Alias records can map custom names to AWS resources like ELBs or EC2 instances with a CNAME-like behavior but without the CNAME restriction at the zone apex. In real-world scenarios, you might combine Route 53 with a split-view DNS (public and private zones) to resolve 'app.example.com' differently inside and outside the VPC.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A healthcare organisation deploys an application with a public-facing web tier and a private database tier. The database subnet has no public IP and only accepts connections from the web tier's security group. Questions like this test whether you can design cloud network isolation using VNets/VPCs, subnets, and security group rules.
What to study next
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FAQ
Network Design — This question tests Network Design — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Amazon Route 53 — Amazon Route 53 is a scalable DNS web service that can resolve custom domain names like 'app.example.com' to EC2 instance IP addresses. It supports private hosted zones for VPCs, enabling DNS resolution for internal resources without exposing them to the internet, and integrates with EC2 via alias records or health checks.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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.
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