Exam prep & experience: Citrix NetScaler Advanced Topics: Security, Management, and Optimization (1Y0-340)

In May 2018, Citrix released their new Citrix Certified Expert - Networking certification, which completet the networking certification path at the upper end (blog post on training.citrix.com). The track starts with the Associate (CCA-N), the lower-level certification is a requirement for achieving the higher-level certification, continues with the Professional (CCP-N), and ends with the Expert (CCE-N) certification. This is pretty cool, and I’m very happy that Citrix now offers the CCE-N, because the expert-level certification was missing all the time.

Everything is cool… except you have passed exam 1Y0-351 to gain your CCP-N. In this case, you have to pass 1Y0-340 until Dec 31 2018. Otherwise you have to start with the CCA-N, after the validity period of your CCP-N is over (3y after passing the exam).

Bad move, Citrix, bad move. I’m really disappointed. I passed 1Y0-351 in Nov 2017, and now, 12 months later, I have to book, pay, and pass 1Y0-340 if I not want to start with a CCA-N in Nov 2020. Bad move, Citrix, bad move!

Exam 1Y0-340 is titled as “Citrix NetScaler Advanced Topics: Security, Management, and Optimization”, where as 1Y0-351 was titeld as “Citrix NetScaler 10.5 Essentials and Networking”. You can assume that more in-depth knowledge is needed to pass the exam, as it was necessary for 1Y0-351. Note the “Advanced Topics” in the exam title.

But what are these “advanced topics”?  According to the exam prep guide, the perfect candidate for the 1Y0-340 exam can deploy and/or manage

  • Citrix NetScaler Application Firewall (AppFirewall) to secure application access in a Citrix NetScaler 12 environment, as well as
  • NetScaler Management and Analytics System (NMAS) to administer a Citrix NetScaler environment, or
  • Optimize NetScaler-managed application delivery traffic

Citrix NetScaler Application Firewall (AppFirewall)

You should take an in-depth look at these topics:

  • Application Firewall Overview
  • Application Firewall Profiles and Policies
  • Regular Expression
  • Attacks and Protections
  • Monitoring and Troubleshooting
  • Security and Filtering

NetScaler Management and Analytics System (NMAS)

  • NetScaler MAS: Introduction and Configuration
  • Managing and Monitoring NetScaler Instances
  • Managing NetScaler Configurations
  • NetScaler Web Logging

Optimize NetScaler-managed application delivery traffic

  • Integrated Caching
  • Front-End Optimization
  • Tuning and Optimizations

How to prep?

The exam prep guide referres to the NetScaler documentation, as also to training material. Unfortunately I don’t have access to the newer training material, only to the training material from my CNS-220 course. But hey: At least we have tons of publically available NetScaler 12.0 documentation available!

The exam prep guide has a section in which Citrix outlines sections, objectives and references. You will find links to the NetScaler 12.0 documentation, as well as knowledge base articles, or blog posts. Go through it. Read it carefully!

The exam prep guide also outlines the section titles and weights. Two areas stand out:

  • Section 4: Attacks and Protections, and
  • Section 8: Managing and Monitoring NetScaler Instances

The section weights are directly map to the number of questions in the exam. If the exam has 60 questions, and section 4 has a weight of 21%, at least 12 questions will relate to “Attacks and Protections”.

How did it go?

First things first: I passed with a good score. The exam had 62 questions and I needed at least 62% to pass the exam. I passed with 82%. As a non-native English speaker that took the exam in a country where english is a foreign language, I got 30 minutes extra, resulting in 120 minutes for 62 questions. Plenty of time…

What should I say? It was a multiple choice test. Read the questions carefully. The exam guide did not lie to me. It came pretty close to the topics that were described in the guide. For most questions, my first “educated guess” was right. Sometimes, the least dumb answer seemed to be correct. ;)

It was a bit frustrating that Citrix has changed product names. NetScaler is no “Application Delivery Controller”, MAS is now known as “Citrix Application Delivery Management”. There was a button which showed a mapping table “old name - new name”.

If you are experienced with Citrix ADC deployments and configuration, I think the exam prep guide is enough to pass the exam.

Good luck!