Question 1mediummultiple choice
Full question →mediummultiple choiceObjective-mapped
A company has an on-premises data center connected to AWS via an AWS Direct Connect private virtual interface (VIF). The SysOps administrator needs to ensure that all traffic between the on-premises network and Amazon S3 in the same AWS Region stays within the AWS network and does not traverse the internet. Which solution should the administrator implement?
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
Use a Direct Connect gateway and a public VIF with a route to S3 prefix lists
A public VIF provides connectivity to AWS public services over the internet edge; traffic does not stay entirely private as it goes through the AWS public endpoints.
B
Best answer
Use a Direct Connect gateway and a private VIF with VPC endpoints for S3
VPC Gateway Endpoints for S3 allow private connectivity from within the VPC. Combined with a private VIF, traffic to S3 stays within the AWS network without internet.
C
Distractor review
Use a VPN connection over Direct Connect to access S3
A VPN over Direct Connect adds unnecessary complexity and encryption overhead. VPC endpoints are simpler and more cost-effective.
D
Distractor review
Use a Transit Gateway with a private VIF and route S3 traffic through a NAT instance
Transit Gateway is used for routing between VPCs and on-premises, but for S3 access, VPC endpoints are still needed. Using a NAT instance would force traffic through an instance, adding cost and complexity.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
- PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
- Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
- NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
- Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
- Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
- Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
Related practice questions
Related SOA-C02 practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
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 company uses Amazon CloudFront to deliver content to a global audience. The origin is an Application Load Balancer in us-east-1. The SysOps administrator wants to reduce costs by minimizing the number of requests that reach the origin server. Which action should the administrator take?
Question 2
A company runs a batch processing application on Amazon EC2 that runs for 2 hours every night. The workload can tolerate interruptions. Which EC2 purchasing option provides the lowest cost for this use case?
Question 3
A SysOps administrator needs to monitor the CPU utilization of an Amazon RDS DB instance and receive an alarm when CPU utilization exceeds 80% for 5 consecutive minutes. Which AWS service should be used to create this alarm?
Question 4
A company runs a critical web application on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The application uses session stickiness (sticky sessions) to maintain user sessions. The SysOps administrator notices that when instances are replaced during a scale-in or failure event, users lose their session data. The administrator needs to preserve session data across instance failures without losing stickiness benefits. What should the administrator do?
Question 5
A company runs a production web application on a single Amazon EC2 instance. The application experiences a predictable and steady workload 24/7. The SysOps administrator wants to minimize compute costs for this instance while ensuring it remains available during the expected workload. Which EC2 purchasing option should the administrator use?
Question 6
A company has a VPC with public and private subnets. The private subnets host application servers that need to make outbound HTTPS connections to the internet. The SysOps administrator must implement a solution that provides outbound internet connectivity while preventing inbound connections from the internet. Additionally, the solution must allow the company to control which domains the application servers can access. Which solution should the administrator implement?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SOA-C02 question test?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use a Direct Connect gateway and a private VIF with VPC endpoints for S3 — To keep S3 traffic private over Direct Connect, the recommended approach is to create VPC Gateway Endpoints for S3 within the VPC that is connected via Direct Connect. The private VIF provides connectivity to the VPC. By adding a route in the on-premises network to the S3 prefix list and pointing it to the Direct Connect link, traffic to S3 will be routed through the VPC endpoints, staying entirely on the AWS network. A Direct Connect public VIF could also access S3 publicly, but that still traverses the AWS internet edge, whereas VPC endpoints keep traffic completely private within the VPC and Direct Connect.
What should I do if I get this SOA-C02 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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