- A
Subnets in at least two Availability Zones
Provides AZ redundancy.
- B
A single VPN connection to on-premises
Why wrong: Single point of failure.
- C
A NAT gateway in each Availability Zone
Ensures outbound connectivity during AZ failure.
- D
VPC peering with a backup VPC
Why wrong: Not essential for single VPC high availability.
- E
An internet gateway attached to the VPC
Required for public internet access.
Question 935 of 1,705
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 designing a VPC for a web application that requires high availability. The application will be deployed across multiple Availability Zones. Which THREE components are essential for a highly available network design? (Choose THREE.)
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
✓
Subnets in at least two Availability Zones
Deploying subnets in at least two Availability Zones (AZs) ensures that if one AZ fails, the application can continue serving traffic from the other AZ. This is the foundational principle of high availability in AWS, as it provides fault isolation at the data center level. Without multi-AZ subnets, a single AZ failure would cause a complete outage.
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.
- ✓
Subnets in at least two Availability Zones
Why this is correct
Provides AZ redundancy.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
A single VPN connection to on-premises
Why it's wrong here
Single point of failure.
- ✓
A NAT gateway in each Availability Zone
Why this is correct
Ensures outbound connectivity during AZ failure.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
VPC peering with a backup VPC
Why it's wrong here
Not essential for single VPC high availability.
- ✓
An internet gateway attached to the VPC
Why this is correct
Required for public internet access.
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 a single VPN connection or VPC peering provides high availability, but in reality, these are single points of failure unless explicitly designed with redundancy (e.g., multiple VPN tunnels or multi-region peering).
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
An Internet Gateway (IGW) is a horizontally scaled, redundant, and highly available VPC component that allows communication between the VPC and the internet. It does not introduce a single point of failure because AWS manages its availability across multiple AZs. For outbound-only traffic, a NAT Gateway is also AZ-resilient only if deployed in each AZ, as it is tied to a specific AZ and will fail if that AZ fails.
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.
Visual reference
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 — study guide chapter
Learn the concepts, then practise the questions
- →
Network Design practice questions
Targeted practice on this topic area only
- →
All ANS-C01 questions
1,705 questions across all exam domains
- →
AWS Certified Advanced Networking Specialty ANS-C01 study guide
Full concept coverage aligned to exam objectives
- →
ANS-C01 practice test guide
How to use practice tests most effectively before exam day
Related practice questions
Related ANS-C01 practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
Network Management and Operations practice questions
Practise ANS-C01 questions linked to Network Management and Operations.
Network Security, Compliance and Governance practice questions
Practise ANS-C01 questions linked to Network Security, Compliance and Governance.
Network Design practice questions
Practise ANS-C01 questions linked to Network Design.
Network Implementation practice questions
Practise ANS-C01 questions linked to Network Implementation.
ANS-C01 fundamentals practice questions
Practise ANS-C01 questions linked to ANS-C01 fundamentals.
ANS-C01 scenario practice questions
Practise ANS-C01 questions linked to ANS-C01 scenario.
ANS-C01 troubleshooting practice questions
Practise ANS-C01 questions linked to ANS-C01 troubleshooting.
Practice this exam
Start a free ANS-C01 practice session
Short sessions build daily habit. Longer sessions build exam-day stamina. Try a timed session to simulate real conditions.
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this ANS-C01 question test?
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: Subnets in at least two Availability Zones — Deploying subnets in at least two Availability Zones (AZs) ensures that if one AZ fails, the application can continue serving traffic from the other AZ. This is the foundational principle of high availability in AWS, as it provides fault isolation at the data center level. Without multi-AZ subnets, a single AZ failure would cause a complete outage.
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 →
Keep practising
More ANS-C01 practice questions
- A financial services company has a VPC with a public subnet and a private subnet. EC2 instances in the private subnet ne…
- A company is designing a network security architecture for a multi-account environment using AWS Transit Gateway. The se…
- A company is using AWS Direct Connect to connect its on-premises network to AWS. The company wants to encrypt all traffi…
- A company uses AWS Transit Gateway to connect multiple VPCs and on-premises networks via AWS Site-to-Site VPN. The secur…
- A company runs a web application on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The application must be acc…
- A global e-commerce company uses a hub-and-spoke network topology with a transit VPC in us-east-1. Each spoke VPC has an…
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.
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.