ANS-C01 Network Design Practice Question
A large e-commerce company is designing a network for a new microservices architecture. They have hundreds of microservices running on Amazon ECS with Fargate launch type. The services need to communicate with each other and with external APIs. The company wants to minimize network latency and maximize security. They also need to ensure that traffic between services does not leave the VPC. The network engineer is considering using AWS PrivateLink to allow services to communicate via VPC endpoints. However, they are concerned about the cost of creating an endpoint for each service. Which design should the network engineer recommend?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse PrivateLink (designed for external service access) with internal service mesh solutions, assuming VPC endpoints are the only way to keep traffic private, while overlooking App Mesh as a cost-effective, VPC-contained alternative for microservice communication.
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
✓
Use AWS App Mesh to enable service-to-service communication within the VPC
AWS App Mesh provides a service mesh that enables secure, low-latency communication between microservices within the same VPC using Envoy sidecar proxies. It handles service discovery, traffic routing, and encryption (mTLS) without requiring VPC endpoints or public IPs, keeping all traffic within the VPC and minimizing cost. This directly addresses the requirement for hundreds of services to communicate privately and efficiently.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use a Transit Gateway to connect all services
Why it's wrong here
Transit Gateway is for connecting VPCs, not services within a VPC.
- ✓
Use AWS App Mesh to enable service-to-service communication within the VPC
Why this is correct
Service Mesh provides secure and low-latency communication without VPC endpoints.
- ✗
Assign public IP addresses to the Fargate tasks and use security groups
Why it's wrong here
Public IPs may route traffic through the internet and reduce security.
- ✗
Create a VPC endpoint for each microservice and use PrivateLink
Why it's wrong here
Too many endpoints increase cost and management overhead.
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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.