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Question 534 of 1,705

Network Design →hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

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 company has a VPC with public and private subnets in two Availability Zones. The private subnets host EC2 instances that need to access the internet for software updates but must not be accessible from the internet. Which combination of resources meets these requirements with the least operational overhead?

Clue words in this question

Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.

Clue: "least"
Why it matters: You want the option with minimum overhead, fewest steps, or lowest impact — not the most feature-rich or comprehensive answer.

A
A VPC endpoint for Amazon S3 in each private subnet
Why wrong: VPC endpoints only provide access to specific AWS services, not general internet.
B
A NAT Gateway in each public subnet, with a route in the private route tables pointing to the NAT Gateway
NAT Gateway is managed and provides outbound internet access.
C
A NAT instance in each public subnet, with a route in the private route tables pointing to the NAT instance
Why wrong: NAT instances require manual patching and management.
D
An Internet Gateway attached to the VPC with a route in the private route tables pointing to the Internet Gateway
Why wrong: An Internet Gateway alone would not allow private instances to access the internet; they need a NAT device.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

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

✓

A NAT Gateway in each public subnet, with a route in the private route tables pointing to the NAT Gateway

A NAT Gateway in each public subnet provides outbound-only internet access for instances in private subnets, with no inbound accessibility from the internet. This solution requires minimal operational overhead because NAT Gateways are fully managed by AWS, automatically handle failover across Availability Zones, and scale up to 45 Gbps without manual intervention. The private route table simply needs a default route (0.0.0.0/0) pointing to the NAT Gateway, which forwards traffic to the Internet Gateway attached to the VPC.

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.

✗
A VPC endpoint for Amazon S3 in each private subnet
Why it's wrong here
VPC endpoints only provide access to specific AWS services, not general internet.
✓
A NAT Gateway in each public subnet, with a route in the private route tables pointing to the NAT Gateway
Why this is correct
NAT Gateway is managed and provides outbound internet access.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "least" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
A NAT instance in each public subnet, with a route in the private route tables pointing to the NAT instance
Why it's wrong here
NAT instances require manual patching and management.
✗
An Internet Gateway attached to the VPC with a route in the private route tables pointing to the Internet Gateway
Why it's wrong here
An Internet Gateway alone would not allow private instances to access the internet; they need a NAT device.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

The ANS-C01 exam often tests the misconception that a VPC endpoint can replace a NAT Gateway for general internet access, but VPC endpoints only work for specific AWS services (like S3 or DynamoDB) and cannot reach arbitrary internet hosts for software updates.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

A NAT Gateway operates at layer 3/4, performing source network address translation (SNAT) by replacing the private source IP with the NAT Gateway's Elastic IP address, and it maintains stateful connection tracking for return traffic. Unlike a NAT instance, which can be a bottleneck if undersized, a NAT Gateway automatically scales up to 45 Gbps and is redundant within an Availability Zone. In a real-world scenario, deploying one NAT Gateway per Availability Zone ensures high availability, as a single NAT Gateway in one AZ would become a single point of failure if that AZ goes down.

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 media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.

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.

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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: A NAT Gateway in each public subnet, with a route in the private route tables pointing to the NAT Gateway — A NAT Gateway in each public subnet provides outbound-only internet access for instances in private subnets, with no inbound accessibility from the internet. This solution requires minimal operational overhead because NAT Gateways are fully managed by AWS, automatically handle failover across Availability Zones, and scale up to 45 Gbps without manual intervention. The private route table simply needs a default route (0.0.0.0/0) pointing to the NAT Gateway, which forwards traffic to the Internet Gateway attached to the VPC.

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.

Are there clue words in this question I should notice?

Yes — watch for: "least". You want the option with minimum overhead, fewest steps, or lowest impact — not the most feature-rich or comprehensive answer.

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.