SAA-C03
Elastic Load Balancing for the AWS Exams: ALB vs NLB (2026)
Sep 25, 2026
A load balancer spreads incoming traffic across multiple targets so no single server gets overwhelmed and your app survives an instance dying. On AWS that’s Elastic Load Balancing, and the exam mostly cares about picking the right type.
ALB vs NLB vs GWLB
The Application Load Balancer (ALB) works at layer 7 (HTTP/HTTPS) and routes by URL path or host — the default for web apps. The Network Load Balancer (NLB) works at layer 4 (TCP/UDP), handles extreme throughput, and gives a static IP. The Gateway Load Balancer fronts third-party appliances like firewalls.
Test yourself
An app needs to route requests to different target groups based on the URL path, such as /api and /images. Which load balancer?
- Application Load Balancer
- Network Load Balancer
- Gateway Load Balancer
- Classic Load Balancer
👉 Click to reveal the answer & explanation
Correct answer: A. Path-based (and host-based) routing is an ALB layer-7 feature. An NLB (B) works at layer 4 and can’t see URL paths; the Gateway LB (C) is for virtual appliances; the Classic LB (D) is legacy.
Related topics
Auto Scaling · Amazon EC2 · Amazon Route 53
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