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AWS ANS-C01: AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Specialty
What the ANS-C01 exam covers and what it costs, with a free 30-question practice test and an explanation for every answer.
- Exam fee
- $300 USD
- Duration
- 170 minutes
- Questions on the exam
- 65
- Level
- Specialty
- Topic areas
- 4
- Free practice questions
- 30
- Full question bank
- 100 questions
What the ANS-C01 exam covers
The topic areas in our ANS-C01 question bank, with each one's share of the 100 practice questions.
| Topic | Share | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Network Implementation | 30% | 30 |
| Network Security, Compliance and Governance | 25% | 25 |
| Network Design | 23% | 23 |
| Network Management and Operations | 22% | 22 |
ANS-C01 cost and format
| Exam code | ANS-C01 |
|---|---|
| Certification | AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Specialty |
| Vendor | AWS |
| Level | Specialty |
| Status | Retiring |
| Languages | English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese |
| Retires | December 31, 2026 |
Last checked October 22, 2026 against the official AWS exam page.
ANS-C01 sample questions
The first 5 questions from the free practice test. Open a question to see the answer and why it is right.
Question 1Network Implementation
An EC2 instance in a private subnet must reach the internet for software updates while staying unreachable from the internet. Which combination fits?
- AA NAT gateway in a public subnet with a route from the private subnet to it
- BAn internet gateway attached directly to the private subnet's route table as the default target
- CA public IP on the instance with an allow-all security group rule
- DA site-to-site VPN tunnel to a home network over the public internet
Show answer and explanationHide answer
Correct answer: AA NAT gateway in a public subnet gives outbound-only internet access. Attaching an IGW to private subnets, public IPs with allow-all and home VPNs expose or do not solve the requirement.
Question 2Network Security, Compliance and Governance
A company must ensure that all traffic between its VPCs and the internet passes through a firewall that inspects TLS-encrypted traffic. Which design meets this requirement?
- ASecurity groups attached to each instance that filter by port and protocol, without inspecting payloads or TLS sessions
- BA centralized inspection VPC with decryption-capable firewall, reached through Gateway Load Balancer endpoints
- CRouting traffic through a VPN tunnel to an on-premises firewall for every user session before it reaches the internet
- DPublic IPs assigned to the instances, with stateless network ACL rules filtering subnet traffic and no inspection appliance
Show answer and explanationHide answer
Correct answer: BA centralized inspection design with decryption-capable firewalls, using Gateway Load Balancer endpoints to steer traffic, inspects encrypted traffic. Security groups do not inspect payloads, NACLs lack deep inspection, and VPN detours change the design without central inspection.
Question 3Network Design
A company connects several VPCs in one Region to an on-premises data centre. The design must scale to many VPCs with centralized routing. Which AWS service should be used as the hub?
- AAWS Transit Gateway
- BVPC peering between every pair of VPCs
- CA NAT gateway in each VPC
- DDirect Connect with a public VIF only
Show answer and explanationHide answer
Correct answer: ATransit Gateway acts as a regional hub that scales with centralized routing. Full-mesh peering does not scale, NAT gateways translate addresses, and a public VIF is for public AWS endpoints.
Question 4Network Management and Operations
A network team wants to be alerted when a Site-to-Site VPN tunnel goes down. Which mechanism provides this?
- ARelying on users to report the outage through support tickets later
- BCloudWatch metrics for the VPN tunnel state with an alarm sending a notification
- CDisabling health monitoring on the tunnel to reduce alarm noise from brief route flaps at night
- DChecking the VPN console once a day and reviewing tunnel status manually
Show answer and explanationHide answer
Correct answer: BVPN tunnel metrics in CloudWatch with alarms provide automated notification. Daily checks, disabled monitoring and user reports are slow or absent.
Question 5Network Implementation
A VPC's security groups and network ACLs both apply to an instance's traffic. Which statement is accurate about how they evaluate traffic?
- ANetwork ACLs are stateless and apply at the subnet boundary; security groups are stateful and apply to the instance interface
- BBoth are stateful and apply at the internet gateway edge, so return traffic from the subnet is tracked by the gateway itself in flow logs
- CNeither applies to traffic leaving the instance, since outbound flows are exempt from both the subnet and interface filters by default
- DSecurity groups are stateless and evaluate each packet at the subnet boundary, while network ACLs are stateful and track connection state per interface
Show answer and explanationHide answer
Correct answer: ANetwork ACLs are stateless rules at the subnet level, and security groups are stateful at the interface. The other statements reverse or misstate these properties.
How to prepare for ANS-C01
- Read the official AWS outline first (exam page), so you know exactly what is in scope.
- Give the most time to Network Implementation and Network Security, Compliance and Governance: together they make up 55% of the questions.
- Take the free 30-question practice test and note which topics you miss.
- Go back to the weak topics, then test again. A practice score shows where to study; it does not predict your exam result.
Full ANS-C01 question bank
All 100 questions with answers and explanations, as a PDF, an online practice exam, or both.
The full 100-question bank for ANS-C01 is in final review. The free practice test is open now.
Start the free practice testANS-C01 FAQ
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