Linux Distro?

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Ok so I am studying for my LPIC1 exam so I can start making my way out of my current career and into a Linux based career. I am currently using Ubuntu and have gotten pretty officiant with the system and dangerous enough with the ins and outs of the Distrobution. I was thinking about changing distros to a more learning friendly (and by that I mean its expected that I set up more than just installing flash). While I think Ubuntu is an AMAZING introductory distro, I would like something more intense. I have heard many good things about Fedora and Black Lab Linux since both are said to be more professional. I am hoping to tackle Arch sometime but I am just no there yet.

Does anyone have any suggestions or favorites that a learning user should try? I am not a novice but there are plenty of people who know a heck of a lot more than I. But I am always looking to learn. Of course I am going to run everything through my Virtualbox for a bit before making the plunge.

You should try Debian or Slackware next. They are fairly easy to use, but a bit more intense than Ubuntu.

I second Debian. It's what Ubuntu is (mostly) built on & is widely used. It's already cross compiled for various platforms and generally speaking, has massive amounts of community support and documentation. Also, many embedded systems seem to use it that don't use a proprietary distro. You can get your feet wet on that end by playing with any of the ARM-compiles, including several for Raspberry Pi & similar boards.

Slackware is a one man show (-ish) & seems to have slowed down quite a bit. Last version was 14.1, released in November 2013. It has also stayed its own course, which may be viewed as being somewhat silo'ed.

If you really want to learn Linux, I cannot recommend highly enough Linux From Scratch. Just...make sure you have a spare system (an old, outdated laptop works fine) in addition to whatever you want to use every day. Basically, you start out with a kernel and libraries, just barely enough to prep a drive, install the kernel and basic libraries and make it boot. From there, the documentation (it's a book, really) walks you through building a full system customized & optimized for that system. IMO, there is no better way to learn Linux. I find myself walking through it every time there is a major kernel revision or init change.

I would also second Debian, or the BunsenLabs distro, which is essentially the community driven continuation of CrunchBang Linux, which in itself is a Debian Spin. BunsenLabs is based on the current stable Debian Jessie. --It's not quite Slackware, Gentoo, or one of the more difficult distros, but unlike regular Debian with a full fledged DE like KDE, Mate, or what have you, you will have to edit text files in order to tweak the system to your liking.

I second the LFS idea as a good start. Making your own distro by following instructional guides is a good way to witness how a Linux-based operating system operates. It will make you face libraries, compilers, partitions, kernels and programs, to name a few.

I would suggest learning how to setup a Virtual Machine and then try Ubuntu Server on it.

I'm not sure how beneficial 'challenging' distros really are compared to more practical skills on the server side. Learning from a limited Terminal environment would probably help you out. Try setting up a LAMP server, a forum with phpBB, Word Press, or MediaWiki.

After that, you could probably take on Arch Linux or Slackware and not feel as frustrated. Besides, I think Arch could break on you anyway.

I'm not sure how I feel about Debian. Their installer is incredibly slow for some reason.

A good alternative to Arch is Manjaro. It's based on Arch, but they've made installing and setting things a lot easier. You don't really have to be a pro Linux user to use it.