Blueprint Reading & Symbols Flashcards
7 cards from real Architecting on AWS Certification practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Blueprint Reading & Symbols flashcards as text
In an AWS architecture diagram, the Elastic Load Balancer is most commonly depicted as which symbol?
Answer: A horizontal bar or balance scale icon distributing connections
ELB is shown as a balancer icon—often a horizontal bar—indicating it distributes incoming traffic across multiple backend targets.
On an AWS network topology diagram, what does a NAT Gateway symbol positioned between a private subnet and an Internet Gateway indicate?
Answer: Private instances can initiate outbound internet connections without being directly reachable from the internet
A NAT Gateway allows outbound internet access for private subnet resources while blocking unsolicited inbound connections from the internet.
In AWS architecture diagrams, CloudFront is typically depicted at which location relative to the origin services?
Answer: At the edge, outside the VPC, between end users and the origin
CloudFront is drawn at the edge of the architecture between users and the origin, representing its role as a global CDN with edge locations.
When an AWS architecture blueprint shows an icon of interlocking gears labeled 'Step Functions', what architectural concept does this represent?
Answer: An orchestration workflow that sequences and coordinates multiple service calls
AWS Step Functions orchestrates serverless workflows by coordinating Lambda functions and other services in defined sequences, hence the gear/workflow icon.
In an AWS architecture diagram, what does a funnel icon connected to an S3 bucket and a database typically represent?
Answer: An ETL pipeline such as AWS Glue processing and loading data
A funnel icon between S3 and a database represents an ETL process, commonly AWS Glue, that extracts, transforms, and loads data.
In a standard AWS reference architecture, what does a box labeled 'AZ-1a' containing subnets and EC2 instances represent?
Answer: A specific Availability Zone grouping fault-isolated resources
AZ-1a designates a specific Availability Zone (e.g., us-east-1a), grouping resources that share physical fault isolation within a region.
What does a lock icon overlaid on an S3 bucket symbol in an AWS architecture diagram indicate?
Answer: The bucket is publicly inaccessible or has bucket policy restrictions
A lock icon on an S3 bucket indicates restricted access, typically a private bucket with block public access settings or restrictive bucket policies.