The answer is a NAT Gateway in a public subnet, an Internet Gateway attached to the VPC, and a route table in the private subnet with a default route to the NAT Gateway. These three components work together because the Internet Gateway provides the VPC’s connection to the public internet, the NAT Gateway (placed in a public subnet) translates private IPs to the public IP of the gateway for outbound traffic, and the private subnet’s route table directs all non-local traffic (0.0.0.0/0) to that NAT Gateway, enabling software updates without exposing instances to inbound connections. On the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate SOA-C02 exam, this question tests your understanding of VPC networking fundamentals and the distinction between NAT Gateways, VPNs, and VPC Gateway Endpoints—a common trap is confusing a VPC Endpoint (for S3 or DynamoDB) with general internet access. Remember the mnemonic: “IGW for the door, NAT for the floor, route to the core.”
SOA-C02 Networking and Content Delivery Practice Question
This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of networking and content delivery. 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 SysOps administrator is designing a VPC with public and private subnets. The private subnets need to access the internet for software updates. Which THREE components are required to achieve this?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
An Internet Gateway attached to the VPC
Option A, Option D, and Option E are correct. A NAT Gateway in a public subnet, an Internet Gateway attached to the VPC, and a route table in the private subnet with a default route to the NAT Gateway are all required. Option B is wrong because a VPN is not needed. Option C is wrong because a VPC Gateway Endpoint is for specific services like S3, not general internet access.
Key principle: Count usable hosts — not total addresses — and remember that the network and broadcast addresses are not available to hosts in standard IPv4 subnets.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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.
Detailed technical explanation
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.
Key takeaway
Count usable hosts — not total addresses — and remember that the network and broadcast addresses are not available to hosts in standard IPv4 subnets.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Review block sizes, usable host formulas (2^n − 2), and how to find network and broadcast addresses for /24 through /30. Then practise related SOA-C02 subnetting questions on CIDR, address ranges, and subnet selection.
Networking and Content Delivery — This question tests Networking and Content Delivery — CIDR notation defines the prefix length..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: An Internet Gateway attached to the VPC — Option A, Option D, and Option E are correct. A NAT Gateway in a public subnet, an Internet Gateway attached to the VPC, and a route table in the private subnet with a default route to the NAT Gateway are all required. Option B is wrong because a VPN is not needed. Option C is wrong because a VPC Gateway Endpoint is for specific services like S3, not general internet access.
What should I do if I get this SOA-C02 question wrong?
Review block sizes, usable host formulas (2^n − 2), and how to find network and broadcast addresses for /24 through /30. Then practise related SOA-C02 subnetting questions on CIDR, address ranges, and subnet selection.
What is the key concept behind this question?
CIDR notation defines the prefix length.
About these practice questions
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These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A SysOps administrator needs to design a VPC with public and private subnets for a web application. Which TWO components are required to allow instances in the private subnet to access the internet?
medium
✓ A.NAT gateway in a public subnet
✓ B.Route table entry in the private subnet routing 0.0.0.0/0 to the NAT gateway
C.VPC endpoint for S3
D.Internet gateway attached to the VPC
E.Virtual private gateway
Why A: Options B and D are correct. A NAT gateway (or NAT instance) in a public subnet and a route table entry pointing to it allow private instances to access the internet. Option A is wrong because internet gateway is for public subnets. Option C is wrong because VPC endpoints are for accessing AWS services privately. Option E is wrong because VPN is for hybrid connectivity.
Variation 2. A SysOps administrator is troubleshooting an issue where an EC2 instance in a private subnet cannot connect to the internet via a NAT Gateway. Which TWO components must be correctly configured for this to work? (Select TWO.)
easy
A.The network ACL for the private subnet must have a rule allowing inbound traffic from the NAT Gateway.
✓ B.The NAT Gateway must be placed in a public subnet with a route to an Internet Gateway.
✓ C.The route table for the private subnet must have a default route (0.0.0.0/0) pointing to the NAT Gateway.
D.The EC2 instance must have a public IP address.
E.The security group for the EC2 instance must allow inbound traffic on port 80.
Why B: The NAT Gateway must reside in a public subnet because it needs a direct route to an Internet Gateway (IGW) to translate private IP addresses to the NAT Gateway's Elastic IP for outbound internet traffic. Without this placement and route, the NAT Gateway cannot forward traffic to the internet, breaking connectivity for instances in private subnets.
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This SOA-C02 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 SOA-C02 exam.
Question Discussion
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