- A
Configure a NAT gateway in the firewall subnet and route all traffic through it.
Why wrong: NAT gateway only handles outbound traffic from private subnets; inbound traffic is not routed through it.
- B
Use a Gateway Load Balancer with a Gateway Load Balancer endpoint in each subnet.
Gateway Load Balancer transparently forwards traffic to the firewall appliance and supports scaling.
- C
Use an Application Load Balancer in front of the firewall.
Why wrong: ALB is a layer 7 load balancer and does not support transparent traffic inspection routing.
- D
Create a transit gateway and route traffic through the firewall subnet.
Why wrong: Transit gateway is for inter-VPC routing, not for traffic inspection routing within a VPC.
Question 913 of 1,748
SCS-C02 Infrastructure Security Practice Question
This SCS-C02 practice question tests your understanding of infrastructure security. 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 security engineer needs to ensure that all traffic to an EC2 instance in a VPC is inspected by a network firewall appliance. The firewall is deployed in a separate subnet. What is the MOST secure and scalable way to route traffic through the firewall?
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
✓
Use a Gateway Load Balancer with a Gateway Load Balancer endpoint in each subnet.
Option B is correct because a Gateway Load Balancer (GWLB) with a Gateway Load Balancer endpoint in each subnet provides transparent, scalable, and highly available traffic inspection. GWLB operates at Layer 3 (IP packets) and uses GENEVE encapsulation to forward traffic to the firewall appliance without modifying the source/destination IP addresses, ensuring all traffic to the EC2 instance is inspected. This architecture scales horizontally by adding more firewall instances behind the GWLB and avoids single points of failure.
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.
- ✗
Configure a NAT gateway in the firewall subnet and route all traffic through it.
- ✓
Use a Gateway Load Balancer with a Gateway Load Balancer endpoint in each subnet.
Why this is correct
Gateway Load Balancer transparently forwards traffic to the firewall appliance and supports scaling.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Use an Application Load Balancer in front of the firewall.
Why it's wrong here
ALB is a layer 7 load balancer and does not support transparent traffic inspection routing.
- ✗
Create a transit gateway and route traffic through the firewall subnet.
Why it's wrong here
Transit gateway is for inter-VPC routing, not for traffic inspection routing within a VPC.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Gateway Load Balancer with a traditional load balancer (ALB/NLB) or assume a NAT gateway can inspect inbound traffic, but GWLB is the only AWS service designed specifically for transparent, scalable, and highly available traffic inspection at the network layer.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Gateway Load Balancer uses the GENEVE protocol (UDP port 6081) to encapsulate packets, preserving the original packet headers while adding metadata for the firewall appliance. This allows the firewall to inspect traffic without NAT or proxy overhead. In a real-world scenario, GWLB endpoints are deployed in each subnet as VPC endpoints (e.g., com.amazonaws.vpce.<region>.<service-name>), and route tables are updated with a single entry pointing to the endpoint ID, enabling automatic failover and load distribution across multiple firewall instances.
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
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
Visual reference
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SCS-C02 question test?
Infrastructure Security — This question tests Infrastructure Security — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use a Gateway Load Balancer with a Gateway Load Balancer endpoint in each subnet. — Option B is correct because a Gateway Load Balancer (GWLB) with a Gateway Load Balancer endpoint in each subnet provides transparent, scalable, and highly available traffic inspection. GWLB operates at Layer 3 (IP packets) and uses GENEVE encapsulation to forward traffic to the firewall appliance without modifying the source/destination IP addresses, ensuring all traffic to the EC2 instance is inspected. This architecture scales horizontally by adding more firewall instances behind the GWLB and avoids single points of failure.
What should I do if I get this SCS-C02 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: Jul 4, 2026
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