๐ My experience with preparation and passing the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam
๐ก Newskategorie: Programmierung
๐ Quelle: dev.to
What is this certification about
AWS Cloud Practitioner Certificate is the entry-level certificateย offered by Amazonย for their services. While the official recommendation is to have aboutย 6ย months of experience with AWS services, many people withoutย anyย experienceย and even outside of the technical field successfully passed this exam.
Theย focus of the examย is to test a participant on as broad a field as possible.ย I believeย the test itself is not difficult from an understanding point of view but could be challenging if memorization is not your strongest trait.
My background
As a native mobile developer, I had zero experience with AWSย in particular and the cloud in general.
Study plan and resources
I purchased the following:
[NEW] Ultimate AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02 is a full preparation course. It includes videos, slide set, practice videos, and short quizzes after each section.ย
Practice tests: 6 Practice Exams | AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02
ย ย The benefit of those is the explanation for the answers to each question. Reviewing and analyzing those was one of the most important steps of my preparations.ย
Those materials are frequently available on sale (as usual for Udemy) for around ~15 euro each.
Later, I learned about the free alternative by freeCodeCamp.ย Even though I haven't tried it, many people find this material very useful, so ifย forย someย reasonย Udemy doesn't work, it could have also been a good option.
There are plenty of exam materials and recommendations for this certification exam from AWSย itself.ย I madeย theย mistake of navigating through AWS'sย ownย free courses first,ย and theyย were not very useful for me.ย
Their official exam guide, while important, is also not particularlyย helpful,ย because it just lists pretty much every single service AWS provides.
Exam highlights
Preparation process:
As a person who used to dive deep into unknown topics, I had to change my approach to studies to focus more on breadth instead of depth for this exam.
Spreading the preparation throughout multiple days/weeks over shorter (under 1 hour) study sessions wasย more usefulย than trying to study long hours.
Going through test exam questions as early as possible to get used to the format and wording helpedย a lot.
Before the exam:
I wasย not readyย for the multi-step exam sign-in process and all the hiccups. AWS portal provided a testing function, Iย made all necessary tests the day before the exam on a separate laptop and didn't touch it until the exam time, yet right before theย examย there were still errors with the software. Luckily, everythingย was resolved.
Scheduling exams in the morning, not cramming the night before, going to sleep, and getting to the exam with a fresh head helped also.
During the exam:
Use the elimination principle. Scanning all answers and excluding those that don't fit was one of the most efficient tools.
Ifย don'tย remember something, mark a question for review andย come backย to it later.ย This approach allowed me to save a lot of time.
Conclusion
As a result of my preparations, I passed from the first attempt.
Preparing for the exam and going throughย the exam itselfย has been a valuable experience for me. Nowย Iย feel confident working on more similar tests.
Resources
- Exam starting page
- The official exam guide
- [NEW] Ultimate AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02
- 6 Practice Exams | AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02
- Free lectures by freeCodeCamp