A fleet of containers exposes HTTP/HTTPS APIs that need path-based routing to different services and integration with AWS WAF. Which load balancer type is required?
A.Network Load Balancer
NLB is layer 4 — no HTTP path routing or WAF integration.
B.Application Load Balancer
Correct. ALB provides layer-7 routing rules and WAF support.
C.Gateway Load Balancer
GWLB is for transparently inserting third-party network appliances.
D.Classic Load Balancer
Classic is the previous generation lacking modern layer-7 features.
Why this answer
The Application Load Balancer operates at layer 7 with path/host/header-based routing and integrates with AWS WAF and target groups for containers. NLB is layer 4 (TCP/UDP, ultra-low latency, static IPs); GWLB is for inline virtual appliances; Classic is legacy.
Correct answer: B · Last reviewed 2026-10-25
Official AWS references
Practice this interactively
Answer without seeing the solution first in the Scalability & Elasticity practice session.
Practice Scalability & Elasticity