AWS VPC & Networking Certification Guide

Primary Certification

AWS Advanced Networking Specialty (ANS-C01)

Format: 65 questions | 170 minutes | 750/1000 | $300 USD (Advanced Networking) (needs verification — question count, duration, passing score, and fee are subject to change by AWS; check the current ANS-C01 exam guide)

Related Certifications

•AWS Solutions Architect Associate (VPC's exact share of the exam blueprint needs verification — domain weightings are revised between exam guide versions)

•AWS SysOps

Key Exam Topics

•VPC architecture: subnets (public/private), route tables, IGW, NAT Gateway

•Security Groups (stateful) vs NACLs (stateless, subnet-level, ordered rules)

•VPC Peering: non-transitive, no overlapping CIDR, cross-region/account supported

•Transit Gateway: hub-and-spoke for many VPCs; replaces complex peering mesh

•VPC Endpoints: Gateway (S3/DynamoDB, free) vs Interface (PrivateLink, per-hour cost)

•Direct Connect: dedicated network connection (1G, 10G, 100G), lower latency than VPN

•VPN: site-to-site (IPSec over internet) or Client VPN (OpenVPN to remote workers)

Must-Know CLI Commands

bash

aws ec2 create-vpc --cidr-block 10.0.0.0/16 --tag-specifications "ResourceType=vpc,Tags=[{Key=Name,Value=MyVPC}]"
aws ec2 create-subnet --vpc-id vpc-xxx --cidr-block 10.0.1.0/24 --availability-zone us-east-1a
aws ec2 create-nat-gateway --subnet-id subnet-xxx --allocation-id eipalloc-xxx
aws ec2 create-vpc-endpoint --vpc-id vpc-xxx --service-name com.amazonaws.us-east-1.s3 --vpc-endpoint-type Gateway
aws ec2 describe-flow-logs

Exam Tips

•VPC Peering: must update BOTH route tables; /32 routes to peer VPC resources

•Transit Gateway: single point; can share across accounts via RAM

•NAT Gateway: per-AZ for HA; hourly rate + data processing charges (exact monthly cost needs verification — check current NAT Gateway pricing for your region)

•VPC Flow Logs: capture IP traffic metadata (not payload); send to S3 or CloudWatch

Study Plan

Week 1-2: Read official docs + overview/fundamentals sections in this platform

Week 3-4: Hands-on labs (AWS free tier / Azure sandbox / GCP free tier)

Week 5: Practice exams (TutorialsDojo, ExamTopics, Whizlabs)

Final days: Review weak areas + cheatsheet

Free Study Resources

•AWS: aws.amazon.com/training — free digital courses

•Azure: learn.microsoft.com — Microsoft Learn (free + sandbox labs)

•GCP: cloud.google.com/training — free courses + Qwiklabs credits

•TutorialsDojo: cheat sheets for all exams (best value paid resource)

Revision Notes

PRIMARY EXAM: AWS Advanced Networking Specialty (ANS-C01)

TOP TOPICS:
  VPC architecture: subnets (public/private), route tables, IGW, NAT Gateway
  Security Groups (stateful) vs NACLs (stateless, subnet-level, ordered rules)
  VPC Peering: non-transitive, no overlapping CIDR, cross-region/account supported
  Transit Gateway: hub-and-spoke for many VPCs; replaces complex peering mesh

VPC — Certification