Question 1hardmulti select
Full question →hardmulti selectObjective-mapped
A public web application sits behind Amazon CloudFront with an Application Load Balancer as the origin. The security team wants all edge traffic inspected by AWS WAF and also wants to prevent anyone on the internet from reaching the ALB directly. Which two changes should be made? Select two.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
A
Best answer
Associate an AWS WAF web ACL with the CloudFront distribution.
CloudFront supports AWS WAF at the edge, so requests can be inspected and filtered before they reach the origin. This placement stops malicious traffic early and applies the protection globally at the distribution layer.
B
Best answer
Restrict the ALB security group inbound rules to the AWS-managed CloudFront origin-facing prefix list.
Limiting the ALB security group to the CloudFront origin-facing prefix list ensures the load balancer only accepts traffic from CloudFront edge-to-origin connections. That blocks direct client access from the internet while still allowing CloudFront to forward legitimate requests to the application.
C
Distractor review
Place the ALB in private subnets and keep the CloudFront distribution unchanged.
A standard internet-facing CloudFront distribution needs a reachable origin. Simply moving the ALB to private subnets does not provide a valid direct origin path for CloudFront and does not satisfy the requirement by itself.
D
Distractor review
Use an S3 Origin Access Control instead of a security group change.
Origin Access Control is an S3-origin feature and does not apply to an ALB. It cannot restrict traffic to a load balancer origin or replace security group controls.
E
Distractor review
Open the ALB to 0.0.0.0/0 and rely on WAF alone for protection.
WAF can filter requests, but leaving the ALB open to the internet violates the requirement to prevent direct access to the origin. The origin must be restricted at the network layer so only CloudFront can reach it.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: usable hosts are not the same as total addresses
Subnetting questions often tempt you into counting all addresses. In normal IPv4 subnets, the network and broadcast addresses are not usable host addresses.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
Subnetting questions test whether you can identify the network, broadcast address, usable range, mask and correct subnet. Slow down enough to calculate the block size correctly.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- CIDR notation defines the prefix length.
- Block size helps identify subnet boundaries.
- Network and broadcast addresses are not usable hosts in normal IPv4 subnets.
- The required host count determines the smallest suitable subnet.
TExam Day Tips
- Write the block size before choosing the subnet.
- Check whether the question asks for hosts, subnets or a specific address range.
- Do not confuse /24, /25, /26 and /27 host counts.
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More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A team needs to distribute TCP traffic (not HTTP) across multiple services. The services must see the original client source IP for auditing. Which AWS load balancer is the best fit?
Question 2
A team wants to run containerized services with AWS-managed orchestration and autoscaling. They do NOT require Kubernetes compatibility. Which AWS service choice is most appropriate to meet these goals?
Question 3
A solutions architect is designing an S3 bucket for a IoT ingestion API. The objects must never be publicly accessible, even if a developer later adds an overly broad bucket policy. What should the architect configure? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
Question 4
A solutions architect is designing an S3 bucket for a claims portal. The objects must never be publicly accessible, even if a developer later adds an overly broad bucket policy. What should the architect configure?
Question 5
A team wants to delegate IAM management to developers, but must ensure developers can never grant themselves permissions beyond a specific limit. Which AWS mechanism best matches this requirement?
Question 6
A solutions architect is designing an S3 bucket for a healthcare document service. The objects must never be publicly accessible, even if a developer later adds an overly broad bucket policy. What should the architect configure?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SAA-C03 question test?
CIDR notation defines the prefix length.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Associate an AWS WAF web ACL with the CloudFront distribution. — The correct design separates edge filtering from origin restriction. AWS WAF should be associated with CloudFront so traffic is inspected before reaching the origin. The ALB security group should then allow inbound traffic only from the CloudFront origin-facing prefix list, which prevents bypassing CloudFront and reaching the load balancer directly from the internet. Why others are wrong: Moving the ALB into private subnets does not replace a proper CloudFront origin pattern. Origin Access Control is specific to S3 and cannot protect an ALB. Opening the ALB to the public and depending only on WAF would leave the origin directly reachable, which violates the requirement.
What should I do if I get this SAA-C03 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
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