- A
Provision one Direct Connect connection with a single private VIF, and enable BFD on the VIF to detect failures quickly.
Why wrong: A single VIF is a single point of failure; BFD only helps detect failures but does not provide redundancy.
- B
Provision one Direct Connect connection with two private VIFs, and use a second Direct Connect connection as backup with a single VIF. Configure route tables to prefer the primary.
Why wrong: This design still has a single point of failure at the primary Direct Connect location and does not provide active-active load balancing.
- C
Provision two Direct Connect connections, each with multiple private VIFs, and attach them to the same transit gateway. Use BFD to detect failures and rely on ECMP routing across the VIFs.
This provides active-active connectivity with fast failover via BFD, and ECMP allows load balancing across VIFs.
- D
Provision two Direct Connect connections, each with a single private VIF, and use AWS Site-to-Site VPN as a backup for each.
Why wrong: While having two connections is good, using a single VIF per connection does not leverage ECMP, and VPN backup may have slower failover.
Quick Answer
The correct answer is to provision two Direct Connect connections, each with multiple private VIFs, attached to the same transit gateway, using BFD for failure detection and ECMP for active-active routing. This design achieves high availability by eliminating a single point of failure at the connection level, while BFD provides sub-second link failure detection far faster than default routing protocol timers, and ECMP allows traffic to be load-balanced across all healthy VIFs, ensuring minimal packet loss during failover. On the ANS-C01 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of combining physical diversity (two connections) with logical redundancy (multiple VIFs) and fast convergence protocols; a common trap is assuming a single Direct Connect connection with redundant routers is sufficient, which still leaves a single cable or port as a failure point. Remember the mnemonic “2-BE” for the core requirements: two connections, BFD, and ECMP.
ANS-C01 Network Management and Operations Practice Question
This ANS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of network management and operations. 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 global e-commerce company is migrating to AWS and plans to use a hub-and-spoke topology with AWS Transit Gateway. The network team wants to ensure high availability for the connection between the hub VPC and the on-premises data center using AWS Direct Connect with multiple virtual interfaces (VIFs). They need to be able to fail over quickly with minimal packet loss. Which design should meet these requirements?
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
Provision two Direct Connect connections, each with multiple private VIFs, and attach them to the same transit gateway. Use BFD to detect failures and rely on ECMP routing across the VIFs.
Option C is correct because it provides true high availability and fast failover by using two separate Direct Connect connections, each with multiple private VIFs, attached to the same transit gateway. BFD (Bidirectional Forwarding Detection) enables sub-second failure detection, and ECMP (Equal-Cost Multi-Path) routing across the VIFs allows active-active load balancing, minimizing packet loss during failover. This design eliminates single points of failure and meets the requirement for rapid convergence with minimal disruption.
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 one Direct Connect connection with a single private VIF, and enable BFD on the VIF to detect failures quickly.
Why it's wrong here
A single VIF is a single point of failure; BFD only helps detect failures but does not provide redundancy.
- ✗
Provision one Direct Connect connection with two private VIFs, and use a second Direct Connect connection as backup with a single VIF. Configure route tables to prefer the primary.
Why it's wrong here
This design still has a single point of failure at the primary Direct Connect location and does not provide active-active load balancing.
- ✓
Provision two Direct Connect connections, each with multiple private VIFs, and attach them to the same transit gateway. Use BFD to detect failures and rely on ECMP routing across the VIFs.
Why this is correct
This provides active-active connectivity with fast failover via BFD, and ECMP allows load balancing across VIFs.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Provision two Direct Connect connections, each with a single private VIF, and use AWS Site-to-Site VPN as a backup for each.
Why it's wrong here
While having two connections is good, using a single VIF per connection does not leverage ECMP, and VPN backup may have slower failover.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse multiple VIFs on a single connection with true redundancy, failing to recognize that physical diversity requires separate Direct Connect connections, not just separate logical interfaces.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, BFD operates with timers as low as 50-100 ms for failure detection, far faster than BGP hold timers (default 180 seconds). ECMP across multiple VIFs leverages BGP multipath to distribute traffic equally, but careful route advertisement and AS_PATH prepending may be needed to avoid asymmetric routing. In a real-world scenario, using two Direct Connect connections from different providers or locations (e.g., different AWS Direct Connect locations) ensures physical diversity, protecting against fiber cuts or facility outages.
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 startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this ANS-C01 question test?
Network Management and Operations — This question tests Network Management and Operations — 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, each with multiple private VIFs, and attach them to the same transit gateway. Use BFD to detect failures and rely on ECMP routing across the VIFs. — Option C is correct because it provides true high availability and fast failover by using two separate Direct Connect connections, each with multiple private VIFs, attached to the same transit gateway. BFD (Bidirectional Forwarding Detection) enables sub-second failure detection, and ECMP (Equal-Cost Multi-Path) routing across the VIFs allows active-active load balancing, minimizing packet loss during failover. This design eliminates single points of failure and meets the requirement for rapid convergence with minimal disruption.
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: Jun 11, 2026
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