On Passing the AWS Advanced Networking Speciality Exam (ANS-C01)

AWS is the largest cloud provider and is in demand by many companies. Its vast array of services requires special training, and this certification is a guaranteed way to prove your expertise in one aspect of AWS: Networking.

Networking is the backbone of any cloud infrastructure. Even if you're not looking to be a Network Engineer, your skills in Networking are paramount to your computer science career.

The fine print in the AWS docs is what makes the architecture an art of having low bills.

— Unknown

Why AWS Advanced Networking Speciality?

AWS offers three Speciality level certifications - Advanced Networking, Security, and Machine Learning. Most likely, the exam you go for will be based on your interest and experience.

In my case, it was the former—a way to learn what cloud networking entails. I am a DevOps Engineer by profession, so most of my work isn't really about Network Engineering in such depth.

I also feel that I have not really "upskilled" outside of work in the past 4 years and that it is an important thing to do in the engineering profession.

Since my current company already uses AWS, I thought that this would be the best way to learn and maybe in future apply my learnings at work.

Preparation

I prepared for only 3 weeks before taking this exam. I studied for around 2 hours per day. In the first 2 weeks, I finished the Udemy course and in the last week, I took practice exams to hone my test-taking skills.

Personal Note: I was an on-call engineer during this preparation period and was also battling some high-severity incidents on the side. My primary focus was the incident of course, but I did manage to squeeze in some time for preparation. Perhaps more preparation time could have led to a higher score but luckily I managed to pass with a score of 789.

Experience

My experience with AWS before starting any preparation was around 4 years of hands-on in my current company - Nektar.ai. The recommended experience by AWS is 7 years up. As I prepared for the exam, I learnt that even network engineers with 10+ years of experience have failed this exam.

The best way to prepare for an exam which you can take at any time is to first book an appointment for the exam and pay the exorbitant fees. This will give you a deadline to work towards. And it keeps procrastination away.

Courses

Disclaimer: No course in the world can guarantee to cover all of the content mentioned in the Exam Guide. It is a good way to get started if you know nothing though. A good teacher can make a lot of difference and it can fast-forward your preparation by months.

The Udemy Course I took was - Clear and Simple AWS Advanced Networking Specialty. The reason for choosing this course was simple - it covered most of the important topics from the exam guide and had a free practice exam at the end of the course.

It took me around 2 weeks to finish this course. I made detailed notes in the OneNote book (the same one from my AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam preparation).

After I finished this course and had a lot of the basics ready, I took the AWS Skill Builder's Preparation Course.

This course helped me with the fine print in the exam guide. What should be known about each topic covered in the exam. In my opinion, this course should be made mandatory for anyone taking the exam.

Practice Exams

I took a total of 4 practice exams over the 4 days before the exam -

1. One from AWS Skill Builder
2. Then the free practice exam from the Udemy course
3. And another two from this Udemy Practice Exam Sets

I scored miserably on all of these exams. The one from point 3 is tougher than the exam and if you can score well on that, you're all set.

My scores in order were - 25%, 70% (since it only covers course content but 85% was passing), 25%, and 50%.

Honestly, I wasn't looking to buy another course just for more practice exams but my poor performance made me believe that it is required if I want to make the most of the exam fees I had already paid.

After each exam, I used to check the details of the AWS Services in the question and relevant documentation, and then make additional notes and and links to the documentation in my OneNote book. By doing this my book grew a lot larger than it was at the end of just the Udemy course.

As you give these exams, you can find patterns in the questions and the way to make a mind map of the services and how they interact with each other. This is the key to passing this exam. Even the courses have many diagrams that you should understand so that you can map it to the kind of solution you would need to implement to get the right answer.

Your revision after every practice exam has to be the diagrams mentioned in the AWS documentation and the fine print that differentiates one solution from another.

Exam Day

The last exam I took was in 2020, so it was a whole 4 years since I had taken an exam. I was a bit nervous about the exam but I was also confident that I had done enough preparation to pass it.

I chose to take the exam from my home, online-proctored. The exam was scheduled for 10:30 AM and you have to show up 30 mins prior for the proctor to do his preliminary checks. I woke up at 8:30 AM and had coffee with breakfast to help me focus during the exam. The instructions for getting started are crystal clear and you can't go wrong with it.

The exam is lengthy. It has 65 questions (only 50 are marked and 15 are for analysis) and you have 180 minutes to complete it. I had 13 minutes remaining before I could review my answers, and 5 minutes before I hit "Submit" one final time to end the exam.

Personal Note: I was irritated at one thing at the end of the exam - my lack of ability to focus for 3 hours. I blame the short-form videos that surround us these days. When just 1 hour was left in the exam, I don't know what happened but I was just unable to focus on the given question for a good 5 minutes. I re-read the question 10 times and after some deep breathing and a sip of water, I was able to focus again.

Other tips

• The "multiple answers correct" questions have partial scoring. Since each question is 20 marks, you can divide the marks per correct answer and get partial marks for any option marked correctly. This is why my score was 789 (there were multiple three options correct questions).
• You are allowed to have a water bottle with you during the exam. Sometimes you do get thirsty using your brain so much. Do drink water when thirsty because you're not allowed to take breaks or leave the room.
• I strongly encourage drinking coffee before the exam because it requires a lot of focus and you don't want to be sleepy during the exam.

Conclusion

The exam is tough. It is not impossible. If you have the right mindset and the right preparation, you can pass it. I did it in 3 weeks. You can do it too.