The answer is to advertise the same BGP prefixes from both on-premises routers, provision two Direct Connect connections at different AWS Direct Connect locations, and configure the on-premises routers to prefer one connection over the other using BGP attributes like AS path prepend or local preference. This design ensures that if one Direct Connect connection fails, traffic automatically fails over to the other, because the same prefixes are advertised from both paths, and BGP will withdraw the failed route, leaving the active path. On the AWS Certified Advanced Networking Specialty ANS-C01 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of Direct Connect high availability design, specifically the need for physical diversity across locations to eliminate single points of failure. A common trap is assuming two connections at the same location provide true HA—they do not, as a facility outage takes both down. Remember the memory tip: “Same prefixes, different places, prepend the path to control the faces.”
ANS-C01 Network Design Practice Question
This ANS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of network design. 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 planning to connect its on-premises data center to AWS using AWS Direct Connect. The company requires high availability and wants to ensure that if one Direct Connect connection fails, traffic automatically fails over to another. Which THREE design elements should be included?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Provision two Direct Connect connections at different AWS Direct Connect locations.
Option A is correct because provisioning two Direct Connect connections at different AWS Direct Connect locations ensures physical diversity. If one location fails, the other connection remains available, providing high availability. This design eliminates a single point of failure at the network edge.
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.
✓
Provision two Direct Connect connections at different AWS Direct Connect locations.
Why this is correct
Provides physical diversity.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use a single customer router with multiple connections to both Direct Connect locations.
Why it's wrong here
Single router is a single point of failure.
✗
Configure a VPN connection as a backup to Direct Connect.
Why it's wrong here
Not necessary; two Direct Connect connections can provide failover.
✓
Use BGP to exchange routes between the on-premises routers and AWS.
Why this is correct
BGP detects path failures and updates routing tables.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Advertise the same BGP prefixes from both on-premises routers.
Why this is correct
Allows AWS to choose the available path.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may think a single router with multiple connections provides sufficient redundancy, but they overlook that the router itself is a single point of failure, which violates high availability principles.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
BGP allows dynamic route advertisement and withdrawal, enabling automatic failover when a Direct Connect connection goes down. By advertising the same BGP prefixes from both on-premises routers, AWS can use BGP path selection (e.g., AS path prepending or local preference) to prefer one connection over the other, and traffic automatically shifts to the remaining connection upon failure. This leverages the BGP convergence process, which typically completes within seconds.
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
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: Provision two Direct Connect connections at different AWS Direct Connect locations. — Option A is correct because provisioning two Direct Connect connections at different AWS Direct Connect locations ensures physical diversity. If one location fails, the other connection remains available, providing high availability. This design eliminates a single point of failure at the network edge.
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.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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 is using AWS Direct Connect to connect its on-premises data center to a VPC. They want to ensure high availability and failover. Which TWO configurations should they implement? (Select TWO.)
medium
✓ A.Configure a Site-to-Site VPN connection as a backup.
B.Create a Direct Connect Gateway and attach multiple VPCs.
C.Use a single Direct Connect connection with two virtual interfaces.
✓ D.Provision a second Direct Connect connection at a different location.
E.Use the same Direct Connect connection with multiple VLANs.
Why A: Options B and D are correct because multiple Direct Connect connections in different locations provide physical diversity, and a VPN backup ensures connectivity if Direct Connect fails. Option A is wrong because a single connection is a single point of failure. Option C is wrong because a second virtual interface on the same connection doesn't help if the connection fails. Option E is wrong because Direct Connect Gateway is for multi-VPC, not high availability.
Variation 2. A company is connecting its on-premises data center to AWS using AWS Direct Connect. The company has two Direct Connect connections and wants to ensure high availability. The on-premises network uses BGP to advertise routes to AWS. Which combination of steps should be taken to achieve the most resilient design? (Choose TWO.)
hard
A.Provision a single private virtual interface and use both connections for link aggregation.
✓ B.Provision two private virtual interfaces, one over each Direct Connect connection.
C.Configure static routes instead of BGP to simplify the design.
D.Use the same BGP ASN for both connections.
✓ E.Advertise the same prefixes from both connections with different BGP communities to influence traffic.
Why B: Option B is correct because provisioning two private virtual interfaces, one over each Direct Connect connection, ensures that if one connection or virtual interface fails, BGP can continue to route traffic over the other. This design provides redundancy at both the physical layer (connections) and the logical layer (virtual interfaces), which is essential for high availability.
Variation 3. A company wants to connect its VPC to an on-premises data center using AWS Direct Connect. The company has two Direct Connect locations in the same AWS region. For high availability, they plan to establish two separate connections. Which configuration ensures that if one connection fails, traffic automatically fails over to the other?
easy
A.Establish one Direct Connect connection and one AWS Site-to-Site VPN connection as backup.
B.Establish two Direct Connect connections from the same Direct Connect location to the same VPC.
✓ C.Establish two Direct Connect connections from different Direct Connect locations to the same VPC, each with a private VIF attached to the same virtual private gateway.
D.Establish a single Direct Connect connection with two virtual interfaces (VIFs) to the same VPC.
Why C: Option C is correct. Two Direct Connect connections from different locations to the same VPC, each with a private VIF attached to the same virtual private gateway, and using BGP with ASN prepending on one path to make it less preferred, provides automatic failover. Option A is wrong because a single connection cannot provide failover. Option B is wrong because two connections to the same DX location are not fully diverse. Option D is wrong because VPN backup is not required; two DX connections can provide HA.
Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
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
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.