ACE Professional study plan

Diagram a three-tier cloud network (transit hub, spoke VPCs, on-prem link) from memory and label every routing boundary

Define the address plan for a hub-and-spoke topology, allocating non-overlapping CIDRs for six spokes and two shared services subnets

Compare overlay versus native cloud routing constructs and write a one-paragraph decision note for each

Trace a single packet from an on-prem host to a spoke workload, listing each hop and the policy evaluated at that hop

Build a working lab with a transit hub, two spoke networks, and a simulated on-prem gateway, then verify reachability in both directions

Configure route summarization between the hub and spokes and confirm the routing table shrinks without breaking reachability

Introduce a deliberate asymmetric path and diagnose it using only routing tables and flow logs

Document the failure modes you triggered and the exact evidence that identified each one

Implement route policy that prefers a primary path and fails over to a secondary path, then force failover and measure convergence time

Design a segmentation scheme that isolates three workload classes while permitting one shared service

Explain how route preference, longest-prefix match, and administrative distance interact when two paths compete

Write five original practice questions on route selection and answer them without notes

Instrument the week-3 lab so every routing decision is logged and correlated by flow identifier

Build a dashboard that surfaces path changes, dropped flows, and top talkers across the hub

Define three alert conditions with thresholds and justify each threshold against observed baseline traffic

Run a scripted fault injection and confirm the dashboard and alerts fire as designed

Map the physical and logical elements of a campus workspace deployment, distinguishing wired access, wireless access, and identity services

Design a workspace onboarding flow for employees, contractors, and guests, specifying the policy decision at each step

Compare centralized versus distributed policy enforcement and recommend one for a two-building campus

Model a segmentation policy set covering IoT, voice, and corporate devices with explicit deny rules

Extend observability to the campus workspace: define client experience metrics such as association time, authentication latency, and roaming success

Correlate a simulated poor client experience with telemetry from identity, policy, and network layers

Draft a troubleshooting runbook that moves from symptom to layer in a fixed order

Validate the runbook by having a peer follow it against your simulated incident

Consolidate telemetry from cloud network, routing, and campus sources into a single correlated view

Practice reading flow logs and trace data to answer three specific performance questions under time pressure

Identify two gaps in your telemetry coverage and propose instrumentation to close them

Write a 300-word summary of how observability changes your approach to cloud network design

Complete two timed full-scope practice sets and score each by domain to expose weak areas

Re-study the two weakest domains using your own notes and lab artifacts only

Rebuild one lab from scratch without referring to prior documentation to prove retention

Write a one-page exam-day strategy covering time allocation and question triage