OCI Networking Professional study plan

Map the OCI region/availability-domain/fault-domain hierarchy onto a diagram you draw from memory, then verify it against official documentation

Build a VCN with two regional subnets (one public, one private) using both the Console and the CLI, and record every CIDR decision you made

Explain, in writing, why overlapping CIDRs between a VCN and an on-premises range break connectivity and how to plan address space to avoid it

Distinguish security lists from network security groups by listing three concrete rule scenarios where only one of them fits

Configure VCN peering (local and remote) between two VCNs and verify traffic flow with a ping test from an instance in each VCN

Compare the VCN wizard presets against a hand-built VCN and note which resources each preset creates

Trace how a packet leaving an instance resolves its next hop by inspecting the route table and the VNIC's effective route rules

Identify which VCN resources are regional versus availability-domain scoped and list them

Build an internet gateway plus NAT gateway topology and prove that a private-subnet instance can reach the internet outbound but cannot be reached inbound

Configure a service gateway for Object Storage and confirm traffic no longer traverses the NAT gateway

Explain the difference between a route rule target of a gateway versus a private IP, and when each is valid

Document the exact route table entries needed for each of the three gateway types in your lab

Set up a Site-to-Site VPN with at least two tunnels and describe the role of each tunnel in redundancy

Compare FastConnect virtual circuits against VPN for bandwidth, SLA, and routing behavior, and pick the right one for three given scenarios

Configure dynamic routing (BGP) concepts in a lab or simulation and explain how route preference is decided when multiple paths exist

List the failure modes of a single-tunnel VPN and the monitoring signal that reveals each

Deploy a public load balancer across two availability domains and verify health-check behavior by taking one backend down

Configure a network load balancer for a TCP workload and contrast its feature set with the flexible load balancer

Explain listener, backend set, health check, and policy as four separate configuration layers and how each affects traffic

Choose a load balancing policy for a stateful versus stateless workload and justify the choice

Create a public and a private DNS zone and resolve a record from inside the VCN and from the internet

Configure a DNS resolver endpoint or forwarding rule to resolve an on-premises domain from OCI

Explain how DNS-based traffic management and health-checked failover differ from load balancer health checks

Walk through the resolution order when a private zone and a public zone share a name

Write least-privilege security list and NSG rules for a three-tier app and prove each rule is necessary by removing it and observing the failure

Enable VCN flow logs and Network Visualizer, then trace a blocked connection back to the exact rule that dropped it

Configure a bastion or jump-host pattern and explain why it is preferred over exposing SSH on a public subnet

Identify the IAM policy statements needed to let an operator manage networking resources without full tenancy admin

Run a full timed practice exam and categorize every missed question by domain

Re-lab the two weakest areas from the practice exam and document what changed in your understanding

Build a one-page troubleshooting checklist mapping symptom (no route, blocked port, DNS failure, unhealthy backend) to first diagnostic step

Review the connectivity decision guide and load balancer table from earlier weeks and correct anything now known to be wrong