I recently passed the AWS Certified Advanced Networking — Speciality, which was my first, en route my path to the AWS Speciality certifications. This is the toughest of all the other AWS exams that I came across. In Jan 2021 I was asked to take this exam as there were some project-specific requirements.
AWS Certified Advanced Networking — Speciality (ANS-C00) exam is focusing on the AWS Networking concepts. It basically validates
Design, develop, and deploy cloud-based solutions using AWS Implement core AWS services according to basic architecture best practices
Design and maintain network architecture for all AWS services
Leverage tools to automate AWS networking tasks
I did all the research and started the preparation in Feb 2021. I took a course from https://acloud.guru AWS Networking Certification course to start with. During the initial days, I wasn’t able to understand the concepts related to BGP, VPN and other hardcore networking-related stuff. I kept on watching some Free YouTube videos related to those services and make myself comfortable with those services.
AWS provides a free course on Networking and It was a great help during the preparation. https://www.aws.training/Details/Curriculum?id=21330
I was fortunate enough to get a project that helped me understand the concepts related to (VPN, VPC advanced concepts, Direct Connect, Cloudtrail, and other related services) during the preparation of this exam.
Here is the Step by Step details of my overall journey:
Take a course on AWS Networking from any Online Platform (I took from https://acloud.guru and AWS Official Free Digital Training (Partially).
Refer to some independent YouTube videos on the services that you are not able to understand.
Do hands-on practicals on (VPN, VPC Peering and other major services wherever it is possible)
Take the test from any Test provider(I took from Whitzlabs). Unfortunately, these tests were very disappointing, especially when compared to TutorialsDojo.
My final bit of study was to take the second TutorialsDojo practice exam. My score gave me the confidence to schedule the exam and the questions were well compiled and there were various modes in that test series.
I scheduled my exam once I finished all the tests and had a practice of those questions at least 5–7 times.
I scheduled my exam at an exam centre as I had a bad experience with the Proctored exam that I took at home (Because of the interruptions I felt in between the exam — Like Proctor would ask you to move the camera etc).
Once I started the exam I was able to Solve the first 3–4 questions with ease, but then I found out the questions which were new to me and wasn’t there in the practice tests, After facing 5–7 similar questions I went into panic mode and started marking some random answers and had accepted that I will definitely fail. I marked all the 65 questions with some random guess within 90 Minutes and I had 90 more minutes to go and re-visit the questions.
I again started from Q1 and tried understanding the questions while keeping myself calm. In the second attempt, I was able to understand and mark the questions in a better way and it was a more serious attempt towards understanding and solving those questions.
The moment I submitted my answer, I knew that I will definitely fail but, it was a real surprise for me showing “Congratulations, You have passed this exam”
Conclusion: Try to do a rigorous practice of all the test questions that are there in Whitzlabs and Tutorials Dojo, understand the explanations, try to do hands-on for all the major services, don’t go in panic mode and have trust in yourself.