The correct answer is Transit Gateway with Direct Connect Gateway. This combination works because the Direct Connect Gateway serves as a bridge between your on-premises network and a Transit Gateway, which can then route traffic to multiple VPCs across different AWS accounts using resource shares from AWS RAM. By centralizing the single Direct Connect connection through the Direct Connect Gateway, you avoid provisioning separate connections per account, while the Transit Gateway handles inter-VPC routing and cross-account attachments. On the ANS-C01 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of how to decouple the physical connection from the logical routing layer—a common trap is choosing a simple VPC attachment or a VPN instead, which cannot scale across accounts. Remember the mnemonic: “DxGW bridges the on-prem, TGW bridges the accounts.”
ANS-C01 Network Design Practice Question
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 network engineer is designing a hybrid network with multiple AWS accounts. The company wants to simplify management by using a single AWS Direct Connect connection shared among accounts. Which service should be used to achieve this?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Transit Gateway with Direct Connect Gateway
A Transit Gateway with a Direct Connect Gateway allows you to attach multiple VPCs from different AWS accounts to a single Direct Connect connection. The Direct Connect Gateway acts as a bridge between the on-premises network and the Transit Gateway, which then routes traffic to the appropriate VPCs across accounts. This setup simplifies management by centralizing the Direct Connect connection while supporting multi-account architectures.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✓
Transit Gateway with Direct Connect Gateway
Why this is correct
Transit Gateway with Direct Connect Gateway allows multi-account sharing of a single Direct Connect connection.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
VPC Peering
Why it's wrong here
VPC Peering does not support sharing a Direct Connect connection across accounts.
✗
AWS PrivateLink
Why it's wrong here
PrivateLink is for accessing services, not for sharing Direct Connect.
✗
AWS VPN CloudHub
Why it's wrong here
VPN CloudHub is for VPN-based connectivity, not Direct Connect.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Direct Connect Gateway with a simple VIF or assume VPC Peering can provide transitive routing across multiple accounts, but only Transit Gateway with Direct Connect Gateway supports multi-account sharing of a single Direct Connect connection.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
The Direct Connect Gateway uses a private virtual interface (VIF) to connect to the Transit Gateway, which then uses Transit Gateway attachments to route traffic to VPCs in different accounts. The Transit Gateway supports cross-account sharing via AWS Resource Access Manager (RAM), enabling centralized management without requiring VPC peering or VPN tunnels. In real-world scenarios, this design reduces operational overhead by allowing a single physical connection to serve multiple accounts and Regions, with BGP sessions handling route propagation.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
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
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Network Design — This question tests Network Design — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Transit Gateway with Direct Connect Gateway — A Transit Gateway with a Direct Connect Gateway allows you to attach multiple VPCs from different AWS accounts to a single Direct Connect connection. The Direct Connect Gateway acts as a bridge between the on-premises network and the Transit Gateway, which then routes traffic to the appropriate VPCs across accounts. This setup simplifies management by centralizing the Direct Connect connection while supporting multi-account architectures.
What should I do if I get this ANS-C01 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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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.
Question Discussion
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