SAA-C03 Design Cost-Optimized Architectures Practice Question
A dev sandbox currently uses two NAT gateways in each of three Availability Zones, but only one private subnet per AZ needs outbound internet access. What should the architect review first? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently assume more NAT gateways are always better for high availability, but the question asks for a cost-optimization review first, and the current setup is over-provisioned for the stated requirement.
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
✓
Whether one NAT gateway per AZ is sufficient for the required private subnets
The question asks what the architect should review first to optimize costs while maintaining functionality. Using two NAT gateways per AZ when only one private subnet per AZ needs outbound internet access is redundant; a single NAT gateway per AZ can handle the traffic for all private subnets in that AZ. The design must avoid custom operational scripts, so the simplest review is to check if one NAT gateway per AZ is sufficient, which would reduce costs without breaking connectivity.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Disabling route tables
Why it's wrong here
Route tables are required for subnet routing.
- ✗
Replacing every NAT gateway with an internet gateway attached to private subnets
Why it's wrong here
Private subnets cannot use an internet gateway directly without public IP routing.
- ✗
Moving all workloads to public subnets
Why it's wrong here
This weakens security posture and is not a cost-first best practice.
- ✓
Whether one NAT gateway per AZ is sufficient for the required private subnets
Why this is correct
NAT gateways are normally deployed per AZ for resilience; duplicate NAT gateways in the same AZ may be unnecessary.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SAA-C03 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 SAA-C03 exam.