ANS-C01 Network Security, Compliance and Governance Practice Question
A company runs a critical application on EC2 instances in a VPC. The application needs to send data to an S3 bucket and an SQS queue, both in the same AWS account. The security team requires that all traffic to these AWS services must stay within the AWS network and not traverse the internet. The VPC has private subnets with no NAT gateway or Internet Gateway. The EC2 instances have an IAM role that grants necessary permissions. The S3 bucket and SQS queue are configured with bucket policies and queue policies that deny all access except from the VPC. However, the application is failing to send data to both S3 and SQS. What should the network engineer do to resolve this issue?
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 gateway endpoint for S3 and an interface endpoint for SQS in the VPC, and update the route tables for S3 and the security groups for SQS
VPC endpoints for S3 (Gateway endpoint) and SQS (Interface endpoint) provide private connectivity within the AWS network, meeting the security requirement. Option D is correct because it creates the necessary endpoints and updates route tables and security groups. For the Gateway endpoint, route tables must be updated to direct S3 traffic through the endpoint. For the Interface endpoint, security groups must allow inbound traffic from the EC2 instances. Option A is wrong because CloudFront is a content delivery service, not a private connectivity solution for S3 or SQS. Option B is wrong because a NAT gateway would route traffic over the internet, violating the requirement. Option C is wrong because Direct Connect is an overkill and does not directly provide VPC endpoint connectivity for S3 and SQS.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Deploy an Amazon CloudFront distribution in front of S3 and use its public endpoint
Why it's wrong here
CloudFront is for content delivery and uses public endpoints; it does not solve private access to SQS.
- ✗
Create a NAT gateway in a public subnet and update the route tables to send traffic to it
Why it's wrong here
NAT gateway would route traffic over the internet, violating the requirement to stay within AWS network.
- ✗
Set up an AWS Direct Connect connection and route traffic through it
Why it's wrong here
Direct Connect provides a dedicated physical link from on-premises to AWS, but the EC2 instances are already inside the VPC and have no internet path. The failure is caused by missing VPC Endpoints (Gateway for S3, Interface for SQS), which Direct Connect does not create. It is tempting because it guarantees private network connectivity from a customer data centre, which would be correct if the application ran on-premises rather than within the VPC.
- ✓
Create a gateway endpoint for S3 and an interface endpoint for SQS in the VPC, and update the route tables for S3 and the security groups for SQS
Why this is correct
Gateway endpoint for S3 uses prefix lists in route tables; interface endpoint for SQS uses ENIs and security groups. Update policies to allow traffic from the VPC endpoints.
Visual reference
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
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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.