Prerequisites
- AWS Associate certification or equivalent experience
- Basic networking knowledge (subnets, routing, DNS)
- 2–3 hours of study time per day
Study Schedule
Days 1–4VPC Fundamentals & Design
- VPC, subnets, route tables, IGW, NAT Gateway
- CIDR planning, IPv6, secondary CIDRs, IPAM
- VPC endpoints (gateway vs interface), PrivateLink
- Practice: 30 network design questions
Days 5–8Transit Gateway & Multi-VPC
- TGW architecture, route tables, attachments
- Route table isolation, centralized inspection
- VPC peering, shared VPC (RAM), Connect attachment
- Practice: 30 connectivity questions
Days 9–12Direct Connect
- Dedicated vs hosted, LOA-CFA process
- Private VIF, public VIF, transit VIF
- DX Gateway, LAGs, BGP, redundancy patterns
- Practice: 30 hybrid connectivity questions
Days 13–15VPN & Hybrid DNS + Week 2 Review
- Site-to-Site VPN, accelerated VPN, VPN CloudHub
- Route 53 Resolver endpoints and forwarding rules
- Hybrid DNS architecture patterns
- Mini mock: 30 Domain 1–2 questions
Days 16–19DNS & Content Delivery
- Route 53 routing policies, health checks, traffic flow
- DNSSEC signing and validation
- CloudFront distributions, behaviors, caching, Lambda@Edge
- Global Accelerator vs CloudFront, Practice: 30 questions
Days 20–23Network Security
- Security groups, NACLs, defense-in-depth
- AWS Network Firewall: stateful/stateless rules, inspection
- WAF web ACLs, Shield, DDoS mitigation
- Encryption in transit: TLS, IPSec, MACsec
Days 24–27Operations, Performance & Troubleshooting
- VPC Flow Logs, Traffic Mirroring, Config
- Reachability Analyzer, Network Access Analyzer
- Placement groups, ENA, EFA, bandwidth optimization
- Practice: 30 Domain 3–4 questions
Days 28–30Full Mocks & Final Review
- Take two full 65-question mock exams (170 min each)
- Review all incorrect answers and weak areas
- Final cheat sheet review, focus on DX and TGW
- Exam strategy: draw diagrams for complex questions
Study Tips
Draw network topology diagrams as you study — it helps retention
Focus heavily on Direct Connect and Transit Gateway (high exam weight)
Practice troubleshooting connectivity using a logical layered approach
Know when to use each connectivity option (cost, bandwidth, latency)
Ready to Practice?
Put your study plan into action with ANS-C01 practice questions.