How I passed the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Exam
Introduction
Yesterday 31st August 2022, I passed the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Examination with a score of 825. It probably could’ve gone a lot better but given I took just 24 minutes on a 1 hour and 30 minute exam, I’d say it was a good score.
Now you’re probably wondering what my background is so I’ll tell you this is my first IT certification and also my first and not the last IT or cloud certification I’ll be taking that’s for sure. Practically everything I’ve learned in IT, I’ve learned by googling and breaking things. If that counts as experience then you could say I do have experience in IT.
Anyways, I’ll share with you some of the resources I used to pass the certification exam but I’ll discuss what the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner is first.
What is the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner?
To start with, the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner is AWS’ foundational level certification that validates cloud fluency and foundational AWS knowledge. It’s effectively what you would opt for if you have no experience with the cloud.
However, AWS recommends candidates have at least 6 months of experience before attempting this exam, though I think anyone who really wants to learn about cloud computing in AWS can achieve this certification. Cloud skills are transferrable so sticking with AWS which is the largest cloud vendor would give you enough knowledge to pick up something like Azure or GCP.
You can read more about the certification here.
My study resources
I used a combination of resources as I wasn’t entirely sure how difficult the exam would be even though a number of YouTube videos were very certain that the exam was easy. Of course, it’s only easy when you take the study seriously so here are some resources to help you do that:
Now, I genuinely believe anyone who’s passed an AWS certification has used at least one of his courses. This course is so detailed and packed with hands-on tutorials you can try for free in your own AWS Management Console. He also has quizzes and summaries after every section to make sure you’re able to grasp the concepts he discusses.
At the end of the course, he also offers 1 free practice exam in the course which is very similar to the style of the actual examination questions. You’re also able to review which questions you had wrong and he provides detailed explanations to explain why your answers are wrong and why the answer is what he says it is.
You cannot go wrong with this course.
2. 6 Practice Exams | AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C01 by Stephane Maarek
As if he couldn’t offer more content to help you succeed. He also offers 6 practice exams quite similar to the one in the course above. Believe me when I tell you, these practice examinations are much more challenging than the actual examination. If you can score consistently at least 80% on all practice exams before taking the final exam, you will be good to go. Furthermore, do not forget to review the questions you got wrong and even the ones you got right. In his explanations, he provides a lot of detail, and knowing that much can really help you with unexpected questions.
I would be lying to you if I told you I read them all. I did read quite a lot of it though, these helped me identify some AWS services that Stephane did not cover in his course which sometimes could be put in the multiple choice as distractors. It’s always good to be familiar with most of the services, as they help during the process of elimination in the multiple choice.
This was one of my favourite resources to use but I only discovered it a few days towards the exam. It did help me cement the concepts in a practical sense as it’s sort of a role-play game where you help people with their IT problems by providing them with cloud solutions. You get to practice building in the actual AWS environment.
It’s really fun if you’re into games like Sims sort of. You can level up and take on all sorts of tasks.
5. AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Practice Tests by Neal Davis
These practice tests were also good and reflected the exam style a bit more than Stephanes questions. They also provide detailed explanations for answers and why the other answers are wrong. Much like Stephanes.
My Strategy
So I would say most of my learning was done using Stephane Maareks course and practice questions. I was able to study the course content really quickly by doing these 3 things:
- Watch the course on Udemy in 2x speed.
This is just to get you familiar with the content really quickly but watching a 14.5 hour course in that speed lets you finish the course quickly so you can rewatch it again but the difference is, this time you would be more familiar with what you’re watching. Human beings find it easier to learn things they’re familiar with so I used this to my advantage.
2. Answer Questions from the Neal Davis Book
I used this to practice recalling what I’d learned from the course and also learning more as the answers provided were so detailed and provided some extra information that could also be potential questions.
3. Take Stephane’s Practice tests.
Stephane’s practice tests were what I’d like to call facing the boss. If you can easily ace those tests, the actual exam becomes really easy. Make sure to consistently score 80% and understand the concepts from the answer’s explanations.
You just need a 70% to hit a pass so the scores really don’t matter because 1000 and 825 all get the certificate at the end of the day so don’t stress much.
Plans after passing
I am aiming to get my AWS Certified Developer Associate certificate after this one. You can aim for any of the Associate certifications, it really depends on your needs. Though, the recommended path would be to take the Solutions Architect and then the Developer.
Goodluck!
