ANS-C01 Network Design Practice Question
A solutions architect needs to design a highly available web application that uses an Application Load Balancer (ALB) and spans multiple Availability Zones (AZs) in a single region. The application must be able to handle a sudden increase in traffic without manual intervention. Which feature should the architect enable on the ALB to meet this requirement?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse cross-zone load balancing with auto scaling, but cross-zone load balancing is a feature of the ALB itself that distributes existing traffic more evenly, whereas auto scaling handles capacity changes; the question specifically asks for a feature to handle sudden traffic increase without manual intervention, and cross-zone load balancing ensures the ALB can use all available capacity across AZs immediately.
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
✓
Enable cross-zone load balancing
Cross-zone load balancing distributes incoming traffic evenly across all registered targets in all enabled Availability Zones, rather than sending traffic only to targets in the same AZ as the load balancer node. This ensures that if one AZ receives more traffic than another, the ALB can still balance the load across all healthy instances, allowing the application to handle sudden traffic spikes without manual scaling intervention.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable connection draining
Why it's wrong here
Connection draining ensures existing connections complete before deregistration, but does not help with traffic spikes.
- ✗
Enable sticky sessions
Why it's wrong here
Sticky sessions bind a user's session to a specific target, but do not help distribute traffic spikes evenly.
- ✓
Enable cross-zone load balancing
Why this is correct
Cross-zone load balancing distributes traffic evenly across instances in all AZs, allowing the ALB to handle spikes by using all healthy instances effectively.
- ✗
Enable deletion protection
Why it's wrong here
Deletion protection prevents the ALB from being deleted accidentally; it does not affect traffic handling.
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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.