The answer is Amazon Route 53 with latency-based routing and health checks. This combination is correct because latency-based routing directs user traffic to the AWS Region that provides the lowest network latency, while integrated health checks continuously monitor the health of each Application Load Balancer endpoint and automatically reroute traffic away from an unhealthy Region, enabling true active-active failover across multiple Regions. On the AWS Certified Advanced Networking Specialty ANS-C01 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of how to implement multi-region active-active architectures using DNS-based routing policies, and a common trap is confusing Global Accelerator’s anycast approach with Route 53’s latency-based routing—Global Accelerator optimizes the network path but does not perform latency-based DNS routing to the closest healthy Region in the same way. A useful memory tip: think of latency-based routing as “the DNS that picks the fastest lane,” and health checks as the “automatic exit ramp” when a lane is closed.
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 is designing a multi-Region architecture with active-active failover for a web application. The application uses Application Load Balancers (ALBs) in two AWS Regions. Traffic must be routed to the closest healthy Region with automatic failover. Which AWS service should be used to route traffic?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Amazon Route 53 with latency-based routing and health checks
Option C is correct because Amazon Route 53 latency-based routing routes traffic to the Region with the lowest latency, and health checks enable automatic failover. Option A is wrong because Global Accelerator uses anycast IPs and does not provide latency-based routing with health checks in the same way. Option B is wrong because CloudFront is a CDN, not for active-active load balancing across Regions. Option D is wrong because Network Load Balancer operates within a single Region.
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.
✗
Network Load Balancer with cross-zone load balancing
Why it's wrong here
NLB operates within a single Region and cannot route traffic across Regions.
✗
Amazon CloudFront with multiple origins
Why it's wrong here
CloudFront is a content delivery network, not designed for active-active load balancing with health-check-based failover.
✓
Amazon Route 53 with latency-based routing and health checks
Why this is correct
Route 53 latency routing directs traffic to the Region with the lowest latency, and health checks automatically fail over to the next best Region.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
AWS Global Accelerator
Why it's wrong here
Global Accelerator uses anycast IPs and endpoint weights, not latency-based DNS routing.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
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.
Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
→Underline the problem statement mentally.
→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 healthcare organisation deploys an application with a public-facing web tier and a private database tier. The database subnet has no public IP and only accepts connections from the web tier's security group. Questions like this test whether you can design cloud network isolation using VNets/VPCs, subnets, and security group rules.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which ANS-C01 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
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: Amazon Route 53 with latency-based routing and health checks — Option C is correct because Amazon Route 53 latency-based routing routes traffic to the Region with the lowest latency, and health checks enable automatic failover. Option A is wrong because Global Accelerator uses anycast IPs and does not provide latency-based routing with health checks in the same way. Option B is wrong because CloudFront is a CDN, not for active-active load balancing across Regions. Option D is wrong because Network Load Balancer operates within a single Region.
What should I do if I get this ANS-C01 question wrong?
Identify which ANS-C01 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
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 designing a multi-region active-active architecture with an Application Load Balancer in each region. Which service can route traffic to the closest ALB based on latency?
Why B: Amazon Route 53 latency-based routing directs traffic to the AWS region that provides the lowest latency for the end user, based on historical latency measurements between the user's ISP and each region. This makes it the correct choice for routing users to the closest Application Load Balancer in a multi-region active-active architecture.
Variation 2. A company is designing a multi-Region Active-Active architecture with an Application Load Balancer (ALB) in us-east-1 and us-west-2. They want to route users to the nearest healthy endpoint using a custom domain name. Which AWS service should they use to accomplish this with the lowest latency and minimal operational overhead?
medium
✓ A.Use Amazon Route 53 latency-based routing with health checks.
B.Use Amazon Route 53 geolocation routing policy.
C.Use AWS Global Accelerator with endpoint groups in each region.
D.Use Amazon Route 53 weighted routing policy.
Why A: Amazon Route 53 latency-based routing directs user traffic to the AWS region that provides the lowest latency for the end user, based on latency measurements between DNS resolvers and AWS endpoints. Combined with health checks, it automatically routes users away from unhealthy ALBs, meeting the requirement for nearest healthy endpoint with minimal operational overhead since it is a fully managed DNS service with no additional infrastructure to deploy.
Variation 3. A company is designing a multi-region active-active architecture with Amazon Route 53. The application is deployed behind Application Load Balancers (ALBs) in us-east-1 and eu-west-1. The company wants to minimize latency for users and provide automatic failover. Which routing policy should be used?
medium
A.Failover routing policy
B.Geolocation routing policy
✓ C.Latency-based routing policy
D.Weighted routing policy
Why C: Latency-based routing directs traffic to the region with the lowest latency for the end user. If one endpoint becomes unhealthy, Route 53 automatically routes to the other, providing failover. Weighted routing requires manual weight adjustments. Failover routing is active-passive. Geolocation routing is based on user location but does not provide automatic failover.
Variation 4. A company is designing a multi-region architecture with an active-active setup. They need to route traffic to the nearest healthy endpoint. Which AWS service should they use?
medium
A.Application Load Balancer (ALB)
✓ B.Amazon Route 53 latency-based routing
C.AWS Global Accelerator
D.Amazon CloudFront
Why B: Option B is correct because Amazon Route 53 latency-based routing directs traffic based on the lowest latency to the nearest healthy endpoint. Option A is wrong because Application Load Balancer is regional. Option C is wrong because Global Accelerator uses Anycast IPs but does not use latency-based routing by default. Option D is wrong because CloudFront is a CDN, not for routing to application endpoints.
Last reviewed: Jun 20, 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.