- A
Attach a NAT Gateway to the public subnet and add a route to the NAT Gateway in the private subnet's route table
NAT Gateway enables outbound internet access from private subnets and does not allow inbound connections.
- B
Launch a NAT instance in the public subnet and add a route in the private subnet's route table
Why wrong: A NAT instance can work but is less reliable and more effort to manage than a NAT Gateway.
- C
Use a VPC endpoint for Amazon S3 and route patch traffic through it
Why wrong: VPC endpoints only provide access to AWS services, not to general internet resources.
- D
Add a route to the internet gateway in the private subnet's route table
Why wrong: Instances in private subnets do not have public IPs, so traffic to the internet gateway would fail.
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 has a VPC with public and private subnets. An Amazon EC2 instance in a private subnet needs to download patches from the internet. The company wants to ensure that the instance cannot be directly initiated from the internet. Which design should be used?
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
Attach a NAT Gateway to the public subnet and add a route to the NAT Gateway in the private subnet's route table
A NAT Gateway in a public subnet allows outbound internet traffic from private subnets while preventing unsolicited inbound connections. Adding a route in the private subnet's route table pointing to the NAT Gateway enables the EC2 instance to download patches without being directly reachable from the internet.
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.
- ✓
Attach a NAT Gateway to the public subnet and add a route to the NAT Gateway in the private subnet's route table
- ✗
Launch a NAT instance in the public subnet and add a route in the private subnet's route table
- ✗
Use a VPC endpoint for Amazon S3 and route patch traffic through it
Why it's wrong here
VPC endpoints only provide access to AWS services, not to general internet resources.
- ✗
Add a route to the internet gateway in the private subnet's route table
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The ANS-C01 exam often tests the misconception that a NAT instance is equivalent to a NAT Gateway, but the exam emphasizes that a NAT Gateway is a managed service with automatic scaling and higher availability, making it the preferred design for production workloads.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
A NAT Gateway uses Elastic IP addresses and performs port address translation (PAT) to map private IPs to the public IP, enabling outbound traffic while dropping unsolicited inbound SYN packets. Under the hood, the NAT Gateway is deployed in a specific Availability Zone and can handle up to 45 Gbps of throughput, scaling automatically. In real-world scenarios, using a NAT Gateway over a NAT instance ensures high availability across multiple AZs by deploying one per AZ and configuring route tables accordingly.
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
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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: Attach a NAT Gateway to the public subnet and add a route to the NAT Gateway in the private subnet's route table — A NAT Gateway in a public subnet allows outbound internet traffic from private subnets while preventing unsolicited inbound connections. Adding a route in the private subnet's route table pointing to the NAT Gateway enables the EC2 instance to download patches without being directly reachable from the internet.
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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