Recently, I passed my 4th AWS Certification i.e. AWS Certified Advanced Networking Speciality Certification. It was relatively easy as my background is in Networking .
Exam Preparation :
Listed below are the resources I used to prepare for SCS-C01 exam :
- Exam Guide : Quite useful to familiarize yourself with the exam structure, sections and topics. AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty (ANS-C00) Exam Guide
- Training : I used Udemy AWS Networking in Advance course Reference : https://www.udemy.com/course/networking-in-aws/
- Study Guide : I used Packt Advanced Networking Exam guide which covers lot of useful scenarios, practical examples and use-cases. Reference: https://www.packtpub.com/cloud-networking/aws-certified-security-specialty-exam-guide
- Practice Questions : Practising for all exam topics and areas is critical. AWS offers practice exam also . In addition, I used whizlabs.com which is very thorough and provides explanation and details.
- AWS Documentation : Very throrough documentation provided by any service provider. Don’t miss the FAQ regarding each service (especially for VPC, Direct Connect, VPN). Reference : https://aws.amazon.com/faqs/
- AWS Re-Invent Videos : I highly recommend going through these videos, as they will give you enough in-depth knowledge about each service. Reference: http://aws-reinvent-audio.s3-website.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/2019/2019.html
- AWS Exam Sample Questions : I recommend going through AWS Exam Sample Questions to get yourself acquanited with exam structure and level of difficulty. Reference: AWS Sample Questions
Key Technology Areas :
Understanding some of the topics is extermely critical , so focus in depth on those:
- Direct Connect architecture (DX) , VPN primary and backup scenarios
- VPC setup i.e. subnets, route tables, internet gateway, NAT gateway etc.
- ACLs and Security Groups
- Understanding VPC flow logs,
- Route 53 architecture, A records, CNAME records , etc. public and private hosted zones
- Hybrid DNS architecture, use of R53 Resolvers etc.
- CloudTrail , CloudWatch logs
- AWS Config, AWS Inspector and related services
- Cloud Front, AWS WAF, Systems Manager etc.
Final Note:
Advanced Networking exam is not very hard if you know the basics i..e subnets, CIDR , ACLs etc. but it does require you to know in-depth about different AWS networking services and their use-cases.
Good Luck !
Certification Verification Link :
Tariq Sheikh has been working in IT industry for 15 plus years He is a dual CCIEx26141 with Security,Collaboration and Data Center as his specialities as well as 4xAWS Certified . He is based in Dubai,UAE and his areas of expertise include Data Center technologies, Networking, Security and AWS solution architect
