Need Advice on Caro-Kann

Buy a course on chessable or GothamChess' chessly.
In advance, I like pushing c6 pawn to c5 with the goal of taking on d4. Best is to take the d4 pawn after developing your knight to c6. White will usually play pawn to c3 and take back on d4. Add as much pressure to the d4 pawn as possible is a standard plan, using both your knights and queen to do so.
Additionally, pin the knight on F6 with your white bishop, trading the knight for bishop when threatened or the queen moves. This is different than the exchange where you typically want to keep your white bishop. The goal of taking the F6 knight is to add more pressure to d4.
In this advance variation, the best move for White is actually for them to take your c5 pawn immediately, but this is not commonly played at levels below 1800. Even then, your game plan would be to try to win back one of the pawns which typically white will give back the pawn on c5 to your black bishop.

Safest bet for beginners is the Lecter-Harrison double reverse variation. It was pretty popular in the 60's; Tal even used it to defeat Capablanca a few times, once in the '62 Rohingyian Olympiad and again that same year at the Constantinople Invitational.
The idea is that you build a strong center while putting pressure on c4 with moves like c5, but instead of doing that right a way, you first advance your b and c pawns (to b7 and c6 respectively) to clear the way for your bishop to fianchetto on the long diagonal. This prevents the usual encroachment by the enemy queen that we see so often in the Caro-Kann, but *IMPORTANT* only ATFER the g8 knight makes it to a4. Most players your level are completely out of their depth against this defense while you continue to build a strong center in preparation of uncorking the devastating f6 pawn break.

Simples...3...qb6 ,and then watch em squirm

Best way to play against the Advance? Cry. Then play Bf5 and learn the mainlines. Then realize Black is HURTING in the advance Caro and switch to the French or the Sicilian or the Open Game.

Best way to play the Caro-Kann as a beginner is not. Play open games and learn tactics. Tactics are why you lose.

You can find the answer to your question by using Google, a search engine commonly used to find information. That will tell you the basics of it.

You'll get better feedback when you share more information. As far as I can tell, you have never played a Caro-Kann game on this site at all. Not as black, nor as white. Without your input, it's impossible to give relevant feedback. Congratulations on having the Exchange variation down. Many players with twice or three times your rating are still struggling with that.

Your question is, what to play as the Advanced Variation as Black? That is still vague. Do you play 3. Bf5 or are you open to play 3. c5? My opinion is that I am very satisfied with my decision to play c5, based on Levy's recommendation, because it works. I'm less content with my general decision to play the Caro-Kann, as I find it a boring and passive opening.

What are your thoughts and considerations? We need your input to provide useful feedback.

Kkkkkkk

play the Caro kann if you want. I do and I love it. it is a defense that can be used for a lifetime. To answer your question, You will play whatever white wants to play. white decides which variation in the advanced. generally, you will see the Short variation, the Shirov attack, or the Tal.

At your level, your priority should be opening principles, rather than opening theory. It's more important to focus on developing your pieces, control the center, etc. There's plenty of content available on opening principles.

My comment earlier was about the fact that your should play more games before you can ask the right questions about specific opening lines. It takes time to develop an understanding of an opening. In Levy's words: "You need to play at least 500 games with an opening to know whether you like it or not", (paraphrasing a little bit).

That being said, you have to play something as black. The simple choice is e4 e5. It's probably best to avoid the Sicilian for now. Solid options are the French and the Caro-Kann, and the Caro-Kann is not a bad starting point. GothamChess is good educational resource, especially at your level. If you are going to dive deeper into the Caro-Kann, he's a good content creator to follow. I'm not advising against the Caro-Kann. It's worth trying out and see where it takes you. GL!

Are you beating bots that are 1800? That would lead to a rating estimate of 1000.

If the bots you are beating are 1000, you need to subtract 800 to get your rating estimate. Bots are not rated correctly. They are part of the site’s sales pitch, used car dealer style.

I've been playing chess with a goal of getting better for a little over 2 years. I've gone from 600 blitz to now 1700 blitz. I've only ever played the Caro-Kann against e4 and it has suited me fine up to this level (though that may change of course).
I feel the branches in the Caro are limited and it eases learning over Sicilian and e4/e5 lines and that is why I still stick with it.