- A
Configure a Network Load Balancer instead of an ALB, and enable cross-zone load balancing.
Why wrong: NLB supports cross-zone load balancing but it is disabled by default; enabling it would work but using ALB is the better choice for HTTP applications.
- B
Use an ALB with a target group that contains instances from only one Availability Zone, and use Route 53 health checks.
Why wrong: This would not distribute traffic across zones.
- C
Deploy one ALB in each Availability Zone and use Route 53 latency-based routing.
Why wrong: This adds complexity and latency-based routing may not failover as quickly as cross-zone load balancing.
- D
Enable cross-zone load balancing on the ALB.
Cross-zone load balancing allows the ALB to distribute traffic across instances in all enabled AZs, providing high availability.
ANS-C01 Network Implementation Practice Question
This ANS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of network implementation. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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 company is deploying a web application across multiple Availability Zones in a VPC. The application needs to be highly available and scale based on traffic. The architecture includes an Application Load Balancer (ALB) in front of EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group. The company wants to ensure that if an Availability Zone fails, the ALB can still route traffic to healthy instances in other zones. What should the network engineer implement to meet this requirement?
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 on the ALB.
Option D is correct because enabling cross-zone load balancing on an Application Load Balancer (ALB) allows it to distribute incoming traffic evenly across all registered targets in all enabled Availability Zones. If an entire Availability Zone fails, the ALB automatically routes traffic only to healthy instances in the remaining zones, ensuring high availability without requiring manual intervention or additional components.
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.
- ✗
Configure a Network Load Balancer instead of an ALB, and enable cross-zone load balancing.
Why it's wrong here
NLB supports cross-zone load balancing but it is disabled by default; enabling it would work but using ALB is the better choice for HTTP applications.
- ✗
Use an ALB with a target group that contains instances from only one Availability Zone, and use Route 53 health checks.
Why it's wrong here
This would not distribute traffic across zones.
- ✗
Deploy one ALB in each Availability Zone and use Route 53 latency-based routing.
Why it's wrong here
This adds complexity and latency-based routing may not failover as quickly as cross-zone load balancing.
- ✓
Enable cross-zone load balancing on the ALB.
Why this is correct
Cross-zone load balancing allows the ALB to distribute traffic across instances in all enabled AZs, providing high availability.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The ANS-C01 exam often tests the misconception that cross-zone load balancing is only relevant for Network Load Balancers or that it must be explicitly enabled for ALBs, when in fact ALBs have it enabled by default and it is the key mechanism for multi-AZ failover.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Cross-zone load balancing on an ALB is enabled by default for new ALBs (since 2018) and distributes traffic to targets across all registered Availability Zones proportionally, not just within the zone of the requesting client. Under the hood, the ALB maintains a single DNS name and uses a distributed set of nodes; when cross-zone balancing is on, each node can forward requests to targets in any zone, effectively decoupling the client's source zone from the target zone. In a real-world scenario, if one zone's EC2 instances become unhealthy, the ALB automatically stops sending traffic to them, and the remaining zones absorb the full load without any DNS changes or additional latency.
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
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
What to study next
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this ANS-C01 question test?
Network Implementation — This question tests Network Implementation — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Enable cross-zone load balancing on the ALB. — Option D is correct because enabling cross-zone load balancing on an Application Load Balancer (ALB) allows it to distribute incoming traffic evenly across all registered targets in all enabled Availability Zones. If an entire Availability Zone fails, the ALB automatically routes traffic only to healthy instances in the remaining zones, ensuring high availability without requiring manual intervention or additional components.
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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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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.
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