ANS-C01 Network Design Practice Question
A company wants to monitor network traffic in their VPC for troubleshooting and security analysis. They need to capture IP traffic information, including source/destination IPs, ports, and protocol, but not the packet payload. Which AWS service should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse VPC Flow Logs (metadata only) with AWS Traffic Mirroring (full packet capture), assuming both provide payload data, but the question explicitly excludes payload capture.
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
✓
VPC Flow Logs.
VPC Flow Logs capture metadata about IP traffic in a VPC, including source/destination IPs, ports, protocol, and packet counts, but never the payload. This meets the requirement for troubleshooting and security analysis without the overhead or privacy concerns of full packet capture.
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 Logs.
Why it's wrong here
CloudWatch Logs is a destination for logs, not a capture service.
- ✗
AWS Network Firewall.
Why it's wrong here
Network Firewall is for filtering, not for capturing metadata logs.
- ✓
VPC Flow Logs.
Why this is correct
VPC Flow Logs capture metadata without payload.
- ✗
AWS Traffic Mirroring.
Why it's wrong here
Traffic Mirroring copies full packets, which includes payload, and is more for deep analysis.
Go deeper
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way 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 has a VPC with multiple subnets. They want to monitor all network traffic to and from an EC2 instance for troubleshooting. Which AWS service should they use?
medium- A.Amazon Inspector
- B.AWS Config
- ✓ C.VPC Flow Logs
- D.AWS CloudTrail
Why C: VPC Flow Logs capture IP traffic information for network interfaces in a VPC, including metadata such as source/destination IPs, ports, protocols, and packet accept/reject decisions. This makes it the correct service for monitoring all network traffic to and from an EC2 instance for troubleshooting purposes.
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.