Tech Exam Prep

Tech Exam Prep

By Ran Chen, EA, CFP®EducationHow ToCourses
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Tech Exam Prep episodes

  • CCNA Exam Prep 6, IPv4 Subnetting Without a Calculator
    This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.
    In this episode you will learn:
    - To calculate a subnet's block size instantly using the '256 minus the mask's interesting octet' trick.
    - To identify an IP address's network and broadcast addresses using the calculated block size.
    - The difference between total IP addresses in a subnet (2^h) and usable host addresses (2^h - 2), a common exam trap.
    - How to quickly convert between subnet mask decimal notation (e.g., 255.255.255.224) and CIDR slash notation (e.g., /27).
    - To apply the 'Block Size is Boss' mental shortcut to anchor your subnetting calculations under exam pressure.
    For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
    4 min
  • CCNA Exam Prep 5, IPv4 Addressing Basics and Private Ranges
    This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.
    In this episode you will learn:
    - The three RFC 1918 private IPv4 address ranges you must memorize: 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, and 192.168.0.0/16.
    - How to spot the common CCNA exam trap involving the 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255 private range.
    - The function of special addresses like the 127.0.0.0/8 loopback block for testing and the 169.254.0.0/16 APIPA range which indicates a DHCP failure.
    - The difference between historical address classes (A, B, C) and how they relate to default subnet masks still relevant for the exam.
    - The core networking strategy of using private addresses for internal LANs and Network Address Translation (NAT) for internet connectivity.
    For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
    4 min
  • CCNA Exam Prep 4, Cabling Types — Fiber and Copper
    This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.
    In this episode you will learn:
    - How to differentiate Single-Mode Fiber for long-distance links from Multi-Mode Fiber for shorter, cost-effective runs.
    - To identify the minimum UTP Copper category required for specific speeds and distances, such as Cat6a for 10 Gbps at 100 meters.
    - The specific use cases for straight-through (dissimilar devices) and crossover (similar devices) cables as required by the CCNA exam.
    - How to recognize common fiber optic connectors like the small form-factor LC and the push-pull SC connectors.
    - To avoid common exam traps by selecting the most cost-effective and appropriate cabling solution, even when more advanced options would also function.
    For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
    4 min
  • CCNA Exam Prep 3, Network Topology Architectures
    This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.
    In this episode you will learn:
    - To differentiate 3-tier (Access, Distribution, Core) for large campus networks from 2-tier (Collapsed Core) for smaller enterprises.
    - To recognize spine-leaf architecture as the modern standard for data centers, optimized for east-west server-to-server traffic.
    - To contrast WAN topologies: Hub-and-spoke for cost-effective centralized branch connectivity versus full-mesh for maximum redundancy at a higher cost.
    - To identify SOHO topologies as simple, often single-device setups for home or small business use cases.
    - The fundamental tradeoffs between on-premise (control, capital expense) and cloud (scalability, operational expense) network models.
    For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
    4 min
  • CCNA Exam Prep 2, Network Components — Routers, Switches, Firewalls, APs
    This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.
    In this episode you will learn:
    - Routers operate at Layer 3 to forward packets between different networks and separate broadcast domains.
    - Switches operate at Layer 2, using MAC addresses to forward frames within the same local network.
    - Firewalls provide stateful security by inspecting and filtering traffic based on the state of connections.
    - Access Points act as a Layer 2 bridge, connecting wireless clients to a wired Ethernet network.
    - The distinction between a router's role (inter-network) and a switch's role (intra-network) is a core CCNA concept.
    For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
    4 min
  • CCNA Exam Prep 1, OSI and TCP/IP Layered Models
    This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.
    In this episode you will learn:
    - The names and functions of the 7 layers of the OSI model.
    - How the 4-layer TCP/IP model maps to the more theoretical OSI model.
    - The process of encapsulation and decapsulation as data moves through the network stack.
    - The specific Protocol Data Units (PDUs) used at key layers: segments, packets, and frames.
    - How to apply the layered models as a systematic framework for troubleshooting network issues on the CCNA exam.
    For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
    4 min
  • [AWS CCP] 50, AWS Trusted Advisor and Health Dashboard
    This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.
    In this episode you will learn:
    - The five categories of AWS Trusted Advisor: Cost Optimization, Performance, Security, Fault Tolerance, and Service Limits.
    - The key differences in available checks between the free AWS Basic Support plan and paid Business or Enterprise plans.
    - The critical distinction between the public AWS Service Health Dashboard and the account-specific Personal Health Dashboard.
    - How Trusted Advisor provides actionable recommendations to reduce costs and improve your security posture.
    - Why the Personal Health Dashboard is the correct tool for understanding how AWS operational events impact your specific resources.
    For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
    4 min
  • [AWS CCP] 49, AWS Marketplace and Partner Network
    This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.
    In this episode you will learn:
    - The core function of AWS Marketplace as a digital catalog for third-party software.
    - Key product types in the Marketplace, including AMIs, SaaS, and Containers.
    - The purpose of the AWS Partner Network (APN) as a program for companies that help customers on AWS.
    - The critical distinction between APN Technology Partners (ISVs) and APN Consulting Partners (professional services firms).
    - A simple mnemonic to differentiate between the Marketplace (products) and the Partner Network (people) for the exam.
    For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
    4 min
  • [AWS CCP] 48, AWS Free Tier Details
    This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.
    In this episode you will learn:
    - To distinguish between the three AWS Free Tier types: 12-Months Free, Always Free, and Trials.
    - That the 12-Months Free tier for services like EC2 t2.micro starts from the moment of AWS account creation.
    - To recognize that Always Free offers, such as the 1 million monthly AWS Lambda requests, do not expire.
    - How short-term trials for services like Amazon SageMaker begin upon first usage, not account creation.
    - To identify common exam traps that test your knowledge of which services expire versus which remain free indefinitely.
    For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
    4 min
  • [AWS CCP] 47, AWS Cost Optimization Tools
    This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.
    In this episode you will learn:
    - How AWS Trusted Advisor provides high-level checks to identify idle and underutilized resources.
    - The role of AWS Compute Optimizer in offering specific, machine learning-driven right-sizing recommendations.
    - Using Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering to automatically optimize storage costs for objects with unknown or changing access patterns.
    - The concept of right-sizing as the process of matching resource provisioning to actual workload demand.
    - When to correctly use Spot Instances for fault-tolerant workloads to achieve significant cost savings, and when to avoid them.
    For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
    3 min

About Tech Exam Prep

From the publisher's feed

Tech Exam Prep is a free, daily podcast by OpenExamPrep covering the most in-demand IT and technology certification exams — including CompTIA Security+, AWS Cloud Practitioner, CompTIA Network+, CCNA,…