Final answer:
Changes to a hosted zone in Amazon Route53 can take 24 to 48 hours to reflect globally because DNS resolvers need to update their caches after the TTL expires, which by default is 24 hours.
Step-by-step explanation:
When changes are made to a hosted zone in Amazon Route53, it can take between 24 to 48 hours for changes to reflect globally. This delay is primarily due to the propagation of the new DNS information across the internet. DNS resolvers, which are responsible for translating domain names into IP addresses, cache the results for a certain period, known as the Time To Live (TTL). The default TTL is often set to 24 hours. Once the TTL expires, the resolvers must fetch the updated DNS information, which then becomes available globally. Thus, until all caches have been updated, some users may still be directed to old IP addresses.