SOA-C02 VPC Gateway Endpoint Practice Question
A company has a VPC with public and private subnets. An Application Load Balancer (ALB) is in the public subnets, and Amazon EC2 instances are in the private subnets. The SysOps administrator needs to allow the EC2 instances to access an Amazon S3 bucket in the same AWS Region without traversing the internet. Which solution should the administrator implement?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently choose a NAT Gateway or Internet Gateway because they think outbound traffic to AWS services must go through the internet, but Gateway Endpoints provide a private, cost-effective alternative for S3 and DynamoDB access within the same region.
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
✓
A VPC Gateway Endpoint for S3
A VPC Gateway Endpoint for S3 allows EC2 instances in private subnets to access S3 buckets privately using AWS's internal network, without traversing the internet. This endpoint uses prefix lists and route table entries to direct S3 traffic through the AWS backbone, ensuring low latency and no data transfer costs.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
A VPC Gateway Endpoint for S3
Why this is correct
A gateway endpoint attaches to the route table and provides private connectivity to S3 over the AWS network, so instances in private subnets reach the bucket without a NAT gateway, internet gateway or public addressing. This satisfies the no-internet-traversal constraint.
- ✗
A NAT Gateway
Why it's wrong here
A NAT Gateway routes traffic to the internet via an Elastic IP, so S3 requests would still traverse the public internet rather than staying private. It is tempting because NAT Gateways do let private-subnet instances reach AWS services, but the correct mechanism here is an S3 gateway VPC endpoint, which keeps traffic on the AWS network.
- ✗
An Internet Gateway
Why it's wrong here
An internet gateway provides bidirectional public connectivity, so S3 traffic would traverse the internet, contradicting the requirement. It is tempting because it enables outbound access from public subnets, but private instances need a gateway endpoint for private S3 connectivity within the Region.
- ✗
VPC Peering
Why it's wrong here
VPC peering connects two VPCs privately; it does not provide a path to an AWS service such as S3. It is tempting because it avoids the public internet for VPC-to-VPC traffic, but the correct mechanism is a gateway endpoint that routes S3 traffic privately from the route table.
Visual reference
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.