Free Amazon ANS-C01 Exam Actual Questions & Explanations

Last updated on: Jul 17, 2026
Author: Eric Moore (AWS Certification Curriculum Specialist)

The AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Specialty (ANS-C01) exam is designed for experienced network engineers and architects who design, implement, and manage advanced networking solutions on Amazon Web Services. This certification validates your ability to work with complex network architectures, security policies, and operational workflows in production environments. Whether you're advancing your career or deepening your AWS expertise, this page provides a structured study roadmap and practical resources to help you prepare effectively for the ANS-C01 exam.

ANS-C01 Exam Syllabus & Core Topics

Use this topic map to guide your study for Amazon ANS-C01 (AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Specialty) within the Amazon Specialty path.

  • Network Design: Design scalable, resilient network architectures on AWS. You must evaluate use cases, select appropriate services (VPC, Direct Connect, Transit Gateway), and plan IP addressing schemes that support growth and redundancy.
  • Network Implementation: Configure and deploy network components in production environments. This includes setting up VPCs, subnets, route tables, NAT gateways, VPN connections, and ensuring connectivity between on-premises and cloud resources.
  • Network Management and Operation: Monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize network performance. You will interpret CloudWatch metrics, use VPC Flow Logs for diagnostics, manage DNS resolution, and adjust configurations to meet availability and latency requirements.
  • Network Security, Compliance, and Governance: Implement security controls and maintain compliance standards. This covers security groups, network ACLs, encryption in transit, VPC endpoints, and auditing network traffic to meet regulatory requirements.

Question Formats & What They Test

The ANS-C01 exam uses multiple question types to assess both theoretical knowledge and practical decision-making in real-world networking scenarios.

  • Multiple choice: Test your understanding of AWS networking concepts, service features, and best practices. Questions focus on terminology, configuration options, and when to use specific services.
  • Scenario-based items: Present real-world networking challenges where you analyze requirements, evaluate trade-offs, and select the best architectural or operational approach. Examples include designing failover strategies, resolving connectivity issues, or implementing security policies.
  • Configuration thinking: Require you to understand how to configure network components correctly, such as routing policies, security group rules, or VPN settings, based on stated business and technical constraints.

Questions increase in complexity, requiring you to connect multiple concepts and apply knowledge to unfamiliar situations, mirroring challenges you'll face in production environments.

Preparation Guidance

An effective study plan maps the four core domains to weekly goals, allowing time for hands-on practice and review. Start by assessing your current knowledge in each topic, then allocate study time proportionally to areas where you need the most reinforcement.

  • Map Network Design, Network Implementation, Network Management and Operation, and Network Security, Compliance, and Governance to weekly study blocks; track progress against each domain.
  • Work through practice question sets regularly; review detailed explanations to understand not just the correct answer, but why other options are incorrect.
  • Connect concepts across design, implementation, and operations workflows. For example, understand how a design decision (e.g., using Transit Gateway) affects implementation steps and ongoing management.
  • Complete a timed, full-length practice test in the final week to build pacing confidence and identify any remaining knowledge gaps.
  • Review AWS documentation for services covered in weak areas, and consider hands-on labs in the AWS console to reinforce configuration skills.

Explore other Amazon certifications: view all Amazon exams.

Get the PDF & Practice Test

Strengthen your preparation with up-to-date resources from validexamdumps.com. These materials align to ANS-C01 and cover practical scenarios with clear explanations.

  • Q&A PDF with explanations: Topic-mapped questions that clarify why correct options are right and others aren't.
  • Practice Test: Realistic items, timed and untimed modes, progress tracking, and detailed review feedback.
  • Focused coverage: Aligned to Network Design, Network Implementation, Network Management and Operation, and Network Security, Compliance, and Governance so you study what matters most.
  • Regular reviews: Content refreshes that reflect syllabus and AWS product changes.

Visit the exam page to download the PDF, Online Practice Test, or get a Bundle Discount offer for both formats: AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Specialty.

Frequently Asked Questions

What topics carry the most weight on the ANS-C01 exam?

Network Design and Network Security, Compliance, and Governance typically account for a larger portion of exam questions, reflecting the importance of secure, scalable architecture in production environments. However, all four domains are tested, so balanced preparation across each topic is essential.

How do the four domains connect in real AWS networking projects?

In practice, you design a network architecture first (Network Design), then implement it using AWS services (Network Implementation), monitor and optimize its performance (Network Management and Operation), and enforce security and compliance policies throughout (Network Security, Compliance, and Governance). Understanding these workflows helps you answer scenario-based questions more confidently.

How much hands-on AWS experience is needed before taking ANS-C01?

AWS recommends at least five years of networking experience and two years of hands-on AWS networking work. Practical experience with VPCs, security groups, route tables, and troubleshooting is invaluable. If you lack hands-on exposure, prioritize AWS console labs covering VPC setup, Direct Connect, and VPN configurations.

What are common mistakes that cost points on this exam?

Candidates often confuse similar services (e.g., Network ACLs vs. security groups), overlook compliance requirements in scenario questions, or misunderstand the order of operations in network troubleshooting. Carefully read scenario details, pay attention to security and regulatory constraints, and practice tracing network traffic through multiple layers.

How should I approach the final week before the exam?

Spend the final week on timed practice tests and targeted review of weak areas rather than re-reading all material. Use your practice test results to identify specific topics or question types that need attention. Get adequate rest the night before the exam, and review high-level concepts and common pitfalls rather than diving into new details.

Question No. 1

A company has started using AWS Cloud WAN with one edge location in the us-east-1 Region. The company has a production segment and a security segment in AWS Cloud WAN. The company also has a default core network policy.

The company has created a production VPC for the production workload. The company has created an outbound inspection VPC to inspect internet-bound traffic from the production VPC. The company has attached the production VPC to the production segment and has attached the outbound inspection VPC to the security segment. The company has also created an AWS Network Firewall firewall in the outbound inspection VPC to inspect internet-based traffic.

The company has updated a route table for the production VPC to send all internet-bound traffic to the AWS Cloud WAN core network. The company has updated a route table for the outbound inspection VPC to ensure that Network Firewall inspects any outgoing traffic and incoming traffic.

During testing, an Amazon EC2 instance in the production VPC cannot reach the internet. The company checks the Network Firewall rules and confirms that the rules are not blocking the traffic.

Which combination of steps will meet these requirements? (Choose two.)

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Correct Answer: A, C

Question No. 2

A company has a single VPC in the us-east-1 Region. The company is planning to set up a new VPC in the us-east-2 Region. The existing VPC has an AWS Site-to-Site VPN connection to the company's on-premises environment and uses a virtual private gateway.

A network engineer needs to implement a solution to establish connectivity between the existing VPC and the new VPC. The solution also must implement support for IPv6 for the new VPC. The company has new on-premises resources that need to connect to VPC resources by using IPv6 addresses.

Which solution will meet these requirements?

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Correct Answer: B

Question No. 3

A retail company is running its service on AWS. The company's architecture includes Application Load Balancers (ALBs) in public subnets. The ALB target groups are configured to send traffic to backend Amazon EC2 instances in private subnets. These backend EC2 instances can call externally hosted services over the internet by using a NAT gateway.

The company has noticed in its billing that NAT gateway usage has increased significantly. A network engineer needs to find out the source of this increased usage.

Which options can the network engineer use to investigate the traffic through the NAT gateway? (Choose two.)

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Correct Answer: A, D

To investigate the increased usage of a NAT gateway in a VPC architecture with ALBs and backend EC2 instances, a network engineer can use the following options:

Enable VPC flow logs on the NAT gateway's elastic network interface and publish the logs to a log group in Amazon CloudWatch Logs. Use CloudWatch Logs Insights to query and analyze the logs. (Option A)

Enable VPC flow logs on the NAT gateway's elastic network interface and publish the logs to an Amazon S3 bucket. Create a custom table for the S3 bucket in Amazon Athena to describe the log structure and use Athena to query and analyze the logs. (Option D)

These options allow for detailed analysis of traffic through the NAT gateway to identify the source of increased usage.


Question No. 4

A company has a VPC in the AWS Cloud. The company recently acquired a competitor that also has a VPC in the AWS Cloud. A network engineer discovers an IP address overlap between the two VPCs. Both VPCs require access to an AWS Marketplace partner service.

Which solution will ensure interoperability among the VPC hosted services and the AWS Marketplace partner service?

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Correct Answer: C

Question No. 5

A software company offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) accounting application that is hosted in the AWS Cloud The application requires connectivity to the company's on-premises network. The company has two redundant 10 GB AWS Direct Connect connections between AWS and its on-premises network to accommodate the growing demand for the application.

The company already has encryption between its on-premises network and the colocation. The company needs to encrypt traffic between AWS and the edge routers in the colocation within the next few months. The company must maintain its current bandwidth.

What should a network engineer do to meet these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?

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Correct Answer: C