ANS-C01 Network Design Practice Question
A company wants to design a highly available architecture for a web application that runs on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group across multiple Availability Zones. The application must be able to handle sudden traffic spikes. Which load balancing solution provides the best combination of high availability, automatic scaling, and SSL offloading?
⚠ Common exam trap
The ANS-C01 exam often tests the misconception that a Network Load Balancer (NLB) is always the best for high availability and scaling, but candidates forget that SSL offloading is a Layer 7 function that only the Application Load Balancer (or Classic Load Balancer with limited support) can perform natively.
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
✓
Application Load Balancer
The Application Load Balancer (ALB) is the correct choice because it operates at Layer 7, supports content-based routing, integrates natively with Auto Scaling groups for automatic scaling, and provides SSL offloading (TLS termination) at the load balancer. This combination ensures high availability across multiple Availability Zones while handling sudden traffic spikes through elastic scaling of both the ALB and the backend EC2 instances.
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 CloudFront with an origin pointing to the Auto Scaling group
Why it's wrong here
CloudFront is not a load balancer; it caches content at edge locations.
- ✗
Network Load Balancer
Why it's wrong here
NLB does not offload SSL at the load balancer level.
- ✓
Application Load Balancer
Why this is correct
ALB provides SSL termination, health checks, and integrates with Auto Scaling.
- ✗
Classic Load Balancer
Why it's wrong here
Classic Load Balancer is legacy and lacks advanced features.
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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.