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hardmultiple choiceObjective-mapped

Exhibit

Protocol and traffic notes:
- Transport: TCP over port 9000
- Payload: custom binary messages, not HTTP
- Requirement: preserve source IP address at the target
- Requirement: minimize latency and jitter
- Targets: EC2 instances in private subnets across 3 AZs
- Current proxy layer adds ~12 ms overhead and breaks client IP logging

Based on the exhibit, a trading platform exposes a custom binary TCP protocol to partner systems. The service must preserve the original client source IP for rate limiting, support TLS pass-through to the application, and minimize network latency. The team also wants a simple architecture that can scale across multiple Availability Zones. What load balancing option should the solutions architect choose?

Question 1hardmultiple choice
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Based on the exhibit, a trading platform exposes a custom binary TCP protocol to partner systems. The service must preserve the original client source IP for rate limiting, support TLS pass-through to the application, and minimize network latency. The team also wants a simple architecture that can scale across multiple Availability Zones. What load balancing option should the solutions architect choose?

Full question →

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

Distractor review

Application Load Balancer with path-based routing and HTTP/2 enabled.

ALB is for HTTP/HTTPS traffic and request-level routing, which does not fit a custom TCP binary protocol.

B

Best answer

Network Load Balancer with TCP listeners and target groups in the private subnets.

NLB is designed for ultra-low-latency TCP/UDP workloads and preserves the client source IP to targets. It also supports multi-AZ scale-out and works well when the application is not HTTP-based.

C

Distractor review

Amazon API Gateway REST API integrated directly with the EC2 instances.

API Gateway is an HTTP-based API front door and is not suitable for a raw TCP binary protocol.

D

Distractor review

CloudFront in front of the EC2 instances to cache and terminate the client connections.

CloudFront is for HTTP(S) content delivery and caching, not for direct custom TCP proxying with source IP preservation at the target.

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: Network Load Balancer with TCP listeners and target groups in the private subnets. — The exhibit describes a non-HTTP TCP protocol with strict requirements for low latency and source-IP preservation. Network Load Balancer is the AWS load balancer built for this traffic pattern. It operates at Layer 4, supports TCP listeners, preserves the original client IP to the target, and scales across Availability Zones with low overhead. Those properties match the binary protocol and rate-limiting needs better than any HTTP-centric service. An Application Load Balancer only works at Layer 7 for HTTP/HTTPS and adds request-processing features that are unnecessary here. API Gateway is also HTTP-based and cannot front a raw TCP service. CloudFront is for cacheable web content over HTTP(S), not custom TCP connections, so it cannot satisfy the protocol and source-IP requirements in the exhibit.

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.

Discussion

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