Seeking Guidance for NS0-163 Certification – Resources, Experience & Tips?

James_brad

Hi everyone,

I’m currently preparing for the NS0-163: NetApp Certified Data Administrator (NCDA) ONTAP exam and wanted to reach out to this community for some honest guidance and shared experiences.

I’ve been reviewing the official documentation and going through some training material, but I’m still unsure if I’m focusing on the right areas. A few questions I’ve been struggling with:

• How in-depth should I go with ONTAP CLI commands vs System Manager GUI?

• Are scenario-based questions common on the NS0-163 exam, or is it more straightforward?

• Any specific NetApp documentation or hands-on lab exercises you found especially helpful?

• How much weight is given to storage efficiency, SnapMirror, and high availability concepts?

Also, for those who have recently passed the exam—did you rely mostly on official NetApp training, or did you find practice exams or third-party resources beneficial?

I'm aiming to pass this on my first attempt and would love to hear how others approached it. Any insights—big or small—would be really appreciated!

Thanks so much in advance.
– James Brad

donny_lang

Hey James, it sounds like you're on the right path with reviewing the official documentation and training material. I'll do my best to answer your four questions below: 

1. How in-depth should I go with ONTAP CLI commands vs System Manager GUI?

Knowing both is going to be useful for the exam as well as in real-world scenarios when you are managing ONTAP systems. However, the goal of the exam in my opinion is not necessarily to test how well you can memorize CLI command parameters or remember visually where something is in the GUI; the overall focus is on understanding the concepts themselves.

2. Are scenario-based questions common on the NS0-163 exam, or is it more straightforward?

There is a mix of both types of questions so be ready for both.

3. Any specific NetApp documentation or hands-on lab exercises you found especially helpful?

My recommendation here would be to take a look at the "What You Will Be Tested On" section of the NCDA page (link HERE) and then search docs.netapp.com for relevant documentation in order to learn more about a specific process or feature. In addition, I've had really good luck with the ONTAP Simulator if you learn by doing. If you don't want to deploy something from scratch, the NetApp Lab on Demand is a good option as long as you have a NetApp account. I would check out the "Understand and Manage NetApp ONTAP NAS Technologies" and "Understand and Manage NetApp ONTAP SAN Technologies" labs as a starting point. 

4. How much weight is given to storage efficiency, SnapMirror, and high availability concepts?

These are all concepts that are explicitly mentioned in the exam overview linked above so a good understanding of them will go a long way. 

As to your last question, I like to get my hands dirty and deploy things to dig into how they work, so getting as close to real-world as possible is what works best for me (simulators, labs, etc.). The official documentation is really good too, so I rely on that for a lot of quick learning as well. I have not personally used any 3rd-party resources, but I'm sure there are some good ones out there.

Hope that helps - have fun with your studying and of course good luck on the exam!