AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty (ANS-C01): Ultimate 2025 Study & Exam Preparation Guide

What Is the AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty?

The AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty validates your ability to design, deploy, and manage complex network architectures on AWS and across hybrid environments. You’ll be tested on building resilient connectivity, segmenting and securing multi-account systems, optimizing performance globally, and troubleshooting at scale (AWS exam guide).

As of October 30, 2025, the active version is ANS‑C01 (AWS exam guide). The content focuses on deep networking decisions rather than basic service definitions—you’ll weigh tradeoffs, meet constraints, and justify designs just like you would in real projects.

Who should consider it:

• Network engineers and architects moving workloads to AWS

• Cloud engineers handling multi-account/multi-Region topologies

• Security and platform engineers building centralized egress and inspection

• Consultants at AWS Partners who design and review customer architectures (APN blog)

Actionable takeaway: If you’ve already built hybrid networks, managed Transit Gateway, or designed global ingress/egress patterns, you’re ready to start preparing. If not, plan for hands-on labs while you study.

Exam Snapshot: Format, Time, Score, and Languages

You’ll want the big picture before you dive into the weeds. Here’s the quick view of the AWS Advanced Networking – Specialty exam (ANS‑C01):

• Question format: Multiple-choice and multiple-response

• Number of questions: 65

• Time: 170 minutes

• Delivery: Pearson VUE (test center or online proctored)

• Languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese

• Scoring: Scaled 100–1000; passing standard for Specialty is 750 (Source: AWS certification page and after-testing policy)

Actionable takeaway: Timing matters. With 65 questions in 170 minutes, budget about 2–2.5 minutes per question and leave yourself 15–20 minutes for review.

Content Blueprint: Domains and Weightings

The exam blueprint is your study map. For ANS‑C01, the domains and weightings are (AWS exam guide):

• Network Design — 30%

• Network Implementation — 26%

• Network Management and Operation — 20%

• Network Security, Compliance, and Governance — 24%

What this means for you:

• Design and Security together make up more than half of the exam. Expect scenario questions where you must meet constraints (HA, compliance, cost, performance, or migration timelines) with the right combination of services.

• Implementation and Operations test whether you can make the design real: routing tables, BGP choices, logging/monitoring, and fault isolation.

Actionable takeaway: Use the domain weightings to allocate your study time. If you’re short on time, prioritize “Network Design” and “Network Security, Compliance, and Governance,” but don’t ignore visibility and operations—troubleshooting often unlocks points fast.

What’s In Scope (and What Isn’t)

AWS publishes an explicit list of in-scope services for this exam. Study these first because they drive many questions (In-Scope Services page):

Core networking and edge:

• Amazon VPC, VPC peering, AWS Transit Gateway, AWS PrivateLink

• AWS Direct Connect, AWS Site-to-Site VPN

• Elastic Load Balancing (ALB/NLB), Gateway Load Balancer patterns

• Amazon CloudFront, AWS Global Accelerator

• Amazon Route 53 (public, private, routing policies, health checks)

Security and governance:

• AWS Network Firewall, AWS WAF, AWS Shield

• AWS Firewall Manager, AWS IAM

Operations and visibility:

• Amazon CloudWatch, AWS CloudTrail, VPC Flow Logs, Traffic Mirroring

• Reachability Analyzer, Transit Gateway Network Manager

Actionable takeaway: Build your plan around the official in-scope list first. If a service isn’t listed as in scope, don’t over-invest unless it clearly integrates with the core topics.

How the Exam Thinks: Decisions and Tradeoffs

You aren’t just picking services—you’re balancing requirements. Expect questions like:

• “You have overlapping IPs and strict segmentation. Which patterns fit?” (PrivateLink vs. peering vs. Transit Gateway route domains)

• “You need global, static IPs with fast failover. Should you choose Route 53 policies or Global Accelerator?”

• “There’s a compliance requirement for centralized egress filtering. What combination of Network Firewall, GWLB, and routing gets you there?”

The exam rewards:

• Knowing why you pick a design (not just what you pick)

• Understanding cost/perf/security tradeoffs (e.g., DX vs. VPN deployment time and SLA)

• Being precise about capabilities and limits (e.g., TGW propagation, Resolver endpoints, ALB vs. NLB behavior)

Actionable takeaway: For every service, learn its “sweet spots,” limitations, and how it interacts with others. Keep a personal “decision log” as you study.

A Practical 6–8 Week Study Plan

This plan assumes you can dedicate 6–8 hours per week. Extend to 10–12 weeks if you’re newer to cloud networking.

Week 1: Foundations and framing

• Review core VPC concepts: CIDR, subnetting (IPv4/IPv6), route tables, SGs vs. NACLs.

• Read AWS’s Hybrid Connectivity whitepaper sections on connectivity types and design considerations to internalize VPN vs. Direct Connect tradeoffs and when to use Transit Gateway (Hybrid Connectivity whitepaper).

• Lab: Build a basic two‑VPC setup with peering; add a third VPC and compare TGW vs. mesh peering.

Week 2: Multi-account design patterns

• Study hub-and-spoke with AWS Transit Gateway, RAM sharing, and route domain segmentation.

• Lab: Create a TGW hub with separate route tables for prod/non-prod; connect accounts via RAM; verify segmentation with Reachability Analyzer (exam guide domain pages).

Week 3: Hybrid connectivity and resiliency

• Learn BGP fundamentals for AWS: ASNs, route advertisements, path selection.

• Read the Direct Connect Resiliency Toolkit for HA patterns and testing (DX Toolkit).

• Lab: Simulate DX + VPN failover. If you don’t have DX, model the routing with static “stubs” and CloudWatch alarms to practice failover logic.

Week 4: Edge, performance, and ingress

• Deep dive on CloudFront, Global Accelerator, and Route 53. Know when each solves latency, routing, or caching requirements.

• Lab: Place GA in front of regional ALBs; add health checks and stickiness; compare user experience from different client Regions.

Week 5: L4/L7 load balancing and inspection

• Compare ALB vs. NLB vs. GWLB. Understand GENEVE encapsulation with GWLB and how to chain inspection.

• Lab: Centralize egress using Network Firewall and GWLB in an inspection VPC; route traffic from spoke VPCs through the inspection path.

Week 6: Private connectivity and service exposure

• Study PrivateLink for producer/consumer patterns across accounts/Regions; compare to peering/TGW.

• Lab: Publish a service via PrivateLink and consume it from multiple VPCs; observe DNS behavior and endpoint policies.

Week 7: Hybrid DNS and name resolution

• Master Route 53 public vs. private hosted zones, Resolver inbound/outbound endpoints, conditional forwarding, and DNSSEC options.

• Lab: Connect on-prem-style DNS (or a simulated DNS server) with outbound resolvers in AWS; test split-horizon.

Week 8: Observability, operations, and review

• Practice with VPC Flow Logs, Traffic Mirroring, CloudWatch metrics/alarms, CloudTrail trails; use Reachability Analyzer and TGW Network Manager to troubleshoot.

• Do the official practice questions to calibrate pacing and identify weak areas (certification resources page).

• Final review: Revisit in-scope list, domain blueprints, and your personal “decision log.”

Actionable takeaway: Treat labs as non-negotiable. Even if your environment is small, you can simulate most patterns with minimal cost and tear them down afterward.

The Must-Know Design Decisions (Cheat Sheet)

Use this as a rapid refresher before exam day.

• PrivateLink vs. VPC Peering vs. TGW

  • PrivateLink: One-way, producer/consumer, no transitive routing, great for decoupling and overlapping IPs.

  • VPC Peering: Simple, non-transitive, limited scale for many-to-many meshes.

  • Transit Gateway: Scalable hub-and-spoke with segmentation via route tables; supports multi-account.

• CloudFront vs. Global Accelerator vs. Route 53

  • CloudFront: CDN + caching; TLS offload; great for content and web apps.

  • Global Accelerator: Anycast static IP, fast failover to regional endpoints; not a CDN.

  • Route 53: DNS-level routing policies (latency, weighted, geolocation) and health checks; not a transport acceleration layer.

• ALB vs. NLB vs. GWLB

  • ALB: L7 features (host/path routing, WAF integration).

  • NLB: L4, ultra-high performance, static IP, TLS termination support.

  • GWLB: Service insertion for third-party virtual appliances using GENEVE.

• Direct Connect vs. VPN

  • DX: Dedicated, predictable bandwidth with SLAs; longer lead times; use VPN as backup.

  • VPN: Quick to deploy, lower cost, less predictable; great for initial connectivity and DR.

• Hybrid DNS

  • Resolver endpoints for inbound (on-prem → AWS) and outbound (AWS → on-prem).

  • Conditional forwarding to integrate split-horizon and hybrid name resolution.

Actionable takeaway: For each trio (e.g., CloudFront vs GA vs Route 53), memorize one sentence that captures the core “why” so you can answer quickly under time pressure.

Hands-On Labs You Can Try This Week

Short on time? Pick two of these:

1. Centralized egress with inspection

• Build an inspection VPC with Network Firewall + GWLB.

• Route spoke VPC egress to the inspection VPC using TGW route tables.

• Verify blocked/allowed traffic and log visibility (exam guide domains; Network Firewall docs).

2. DX resiliency and failover thinking (without physical DX)

• Emulate a primary/backup path using route priorities and CloudWatch alarms.

• Practice failover and document what you’d test with the DX FailoverTest tool if you had DX (DX Resiliency Toolkit).

3. Producer/consumer via PrivateLink

• Publish a service from a “producer” VPC; consume in two separate “consumer” accounts.

• Observe endpoint service policies and DNS behavior across accounts.

4. Global ingress choice

• Stand up identical stacks in two Regions behind ALB/NLB.

• Put GA in front of them and compare to Route 53 latency-based routing for failover speed.

Actionable takeaway: Screenshot your route tables and diagrams, and annotate them. Visual memory helps you recall the right choice faster on the exam.

Registration, Price, Retake, and Recertification

• Price: 300 USD for Specialty-level exams (pricing/policies). Taxes may apply in your region.

• Scheduling: Pearson VUE test center or online proctored (certification page).

• Retake policy: 14-day wait after a fail; full fee each attempt; you can’t retake the same version after you pass, but you can sit a new version when released (FAQs).

• Validity: 3 years; you get a 50% voucher for recertification in your account (recertification policy).

• Accommodations and ESL: Request before scheduling; ESL adds 30 minutes for English exams (policies).

Actionable takeaway: Book your exam date 6–8 weeks out to create urgency. You can always reschedule if needed—but a date on the calendar keeps your plan on track.

Smart Study Resources (Official First)

• The official exam guide and domains: Start here and refer back weekly (AWS exam guide).

• In-scope services list: Build your study backlog from this list (In-Scope Services).

• Skill Builder exam prep: Use the exam prep plan and the official practice questions to calibrate pace and style (certification resources page).

• Hybrid Connectivity whitepaper: Essential reading for VPN vs. DX vs. TGW tradeoffs (Hybrid Connectivity whitepaper).

• Direct Connect Resiliency Toolkit: Patterns and testing guidance for HA designs (DX Toolkit).

• Optional: Recorded AWS re talks on networking; Architecting/Advanced Networking courses on Skill Builder (subscription: $29/month or $449/year as of this writing—Skill Builder terms).

Actionable takeaway: Resist the urge to overdo third-party question banks. Use official practice to set expectations; spend most of your time building and testing designs.

Common Pitfalls (And How to Avoid Them)

• Treating it like a trivia test: The exam favors design reasoning. For each service, learn when you would and wouldn’t choose it.

• Underestimating DNS: Hybrid DNS (Resolver endpoints, conditional forwarding, DNSSEC) shows up frequently. Practice with a small lab.

• Ignoring logging/visibility: VPC Flow Logs, Traffic Mirroring, Reachability Analyzer, and TGW Network Manager help you troubleshoot and prove designs.

• Forgetting IPv6: Many customers are adopting dual-stack; review addressing, routing, and security group behavior with IPv6.

• Skipping resiliency testing: For hybrid links, understand failover patterns and how to validate them.

Actionable takeaway: Build a “weak topics” list after each study session and make a micro‑lab to kill that weakness within 48 hours.

Career Value and When This Cert Shines

Why employers care:

• It’s practical. The skills map directly to uptime, performance, and security—things that impact customers and budgets.

• It scales. You’ll design multi-account, multi-Region networks with proper segmentation and control, which reduces risk as organizations grow.

• It travels well. Hybrid designs are still the norm; knowing DX models, VPN, and BGP helps you meet real-world constraints.

For AWS Partners, staff certifications can contribute to partner program differentiation and credit, which can influence visibility and opportunities (APN blog).

Actionable takeaway: In interviews, bring diagrams. Show how you designed a segmented hub-and-spoke with centralized egress and why you chose PrivateLink for overlapping IPs. The certification opens the door; your stories seal the deal.

Practice Thinking: Two Sample “Mini Scenarios”

Try answering these quickly, then review the rationale.

1. “We need global, static IPs for a latency-sensitive app fronting ALBs in two Regions. DNS TTLs are too slow for our failover needs. What should we add?”

• Likely answer: AWS Global Accelerator in front of regional ALBs to provide anycast static IPs and fast, health-based routing. Route 53 is still useful, but GA solves the transport/failover speed problem.

2. “We have overlapping CIDR ranges between accounts and must expose an internal API to dozens of consumer VPCs without transitive routing.”

• Likely answer: PrivateLink. It decouples networks, avoids routing overlap concerns, and scales better for many consumers than peering.

Actionable takeaway: When you see “static anycast + fast failover,” think Global Accelerator. When you see “overlapping IPs + internal service exposure,” think PrivateLink.

Exam-Day Strategy

• First pass: Answer straight‑forward questions quickly; flag anything that needs a diagram or deeper thinking.

• Watch the constraints: Words like “overlapping CIDR,” “strict segmentation,” “centralized egress,” “static IPs,” and “fast failover” are your clues.

• Time management: Aim for 2–2.5 minutes per question. If you can’t decide, eliminate two options, pick the best remaining, flag, and move on.

• Final 15–20 minutes: Review flagged questions starting with long scenarios. Re‑read the last line of the question (the “ask”) before changing answers.

Actionable takeaway: Keep a sheet of “trigger phrases” during your last week of study so they feel automatic on test day.

FAQs

Q1: Do I need a prerequisite certification?
A1: No formal prerequisite. AWS recommends several years of networking plus cloud/hybrid experience, but it’s not required (AWS certification page).

Q2: How many questions and how long is the exam?
A2: 65 questions, 170 minutes (AWS certification page).

Q3: What score do I need to pass?
A3: AWS uses scaled scoring (100–1000); Specialty passing standard is 750 (after‑testing policy).

Q4: Can I take the exam online?
A4: Yes. You can take it online proctored via Pearson VUE or at a test center (certification page).

Q5: How much does it cost, and what if I fail?
A5: 300 USD. If you don’t pass, you must wait 14 days and pay the full fee to retake (policies/FAQs).

Q6: How long is the certification valid?
A6: 3 years. You’ll receive a 50% discount voucher for recertification in your account (recertification policy).

Q7: Are there official practice questions?
A7: Yes—see the certification page and AWS Skill Builder for official practice materials and an exam prep plan (certification resources).

Q8: I’m not a native English speaker. Can I get extra time?
A8: You may request a 30‑minute ESL extension for English exams; submit the request before scheduling (policies).

Conclusion:

You don’t just “learn services” for this certification—you learn how to think like a cloud network architect. Focus on in-scope services, practice the big design decisions, and build small labs that mimic real constraints. Set a date, follow the 6–8 week plan, and use the official resources to calibrate your pacing. If you want help tailoring this plan to your experience and timeline, tell me your background and target date—I’ll build you a personalized weekly schedule with lab checklists.

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