This past weekend I tested and received my AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification. When I started training for the test I had very little exposure to AWS. I studied for a little over a month, around 60 hours, before taking the test; which luckily I passed on the first time.
Here’s most of the resources I used in training:
AWS Skill Builder: Cloud Essentials Learning Plan
Goes through maybe everything needed for the test and at the end has sample questions they will walk you through how to best answer the questions.
AWS Skill Builder: AWS Cloud Quest: Cloud Practitioner
The Cloud Quest is like a RPG/Simulator game, you also get to use AWS services in a sandbox where you’re guided through the process of setting up a service. After that you go back into the same sandbox to update or add features on your own. After you completed it, it will run a test to check you did it correct. When you’ve completed the Cloud Practitioner part of the game you will get a badge to your Credly account.
FreeCodeCamp’s training video.
DigitalCloud’s Cheat Sheet: Lots of great info of the services broken down and explains each item and how it works.
Overview of Amazon Web Services AWS Whitepaper – Overview of AWS services
How AWS Pricing Works AWS Whitepaper – Great overview of the pricing for AWS, while this part is usually shown as the smallest percentage of the test, I fully read this then just when through a little at times to try to keep it fresh.
AWS Glossary: For times when you need to quickly look up a term or service. Very high level
AWS Certification page: about 1/2 way down and also at the bottom are some study aides go over these before taking/scheduling the test.
I also watched a few short YouTube views and read a few articles, when trying to flush out certain services.
If I were to do it over I would have started with the ‘Skill Builder: Cloud Essentials Plan’ up to the ‘Exam prep’ section; then do the Free Code Camp’s video. During these 2 play around with the game, ‘Cloud Quest’, not sure how much that helped me in passing, it helped in reinforcing, try not to get sucked into getting all the pets. At times read the Digital Cloud’s info to get further info, I tried to read a day or so after watching it in a video to help reinforce the learning. I also made a few flash cards of services that seemed to show up from the lessons the most. With the flashcards, I mostly focused on the side that had the description of the service than tried to say what service is, sometimes the other way (read the name of service and say what it does) to help when they are listed as one of the choices.
After completing those, I then started to do the practice tests, you’ll find several online (read reviews when available). When I missed a question or seen a service I didn’t remember I would write it down then look it up afterwards finishing the test. WARNING: sometimes the practice exam will make up names for the answers. After a couple of online tests I went back to AWS Skill Builder exam prep, which was more useful than the other tests since they explain why and what to watch for in the questions. After that I did a few more practice tests when I was getting high 700 and a couple of 890s I decided to try to take the test. The online tests, in English, are offered 24/7 so you might be able to schedule a test for the same day. Just make sure you have time to clean up around the computer or setup in another room and nobody else will be home.
To calculate your score: take the number of correct answers divide by the total number of questions, then times 1000 to get your score. The score you need is at least 700, I wanted to get over 800 before taking the test. A couple of important notes, this was mentioned in the AWS Skill Builder and other places, is for the multi-choice questions, if you get at least one of them wrong you get zero points no partial credit; also it’s better to guess than leave an answer black, a blank answer and a wrong answer are both worth zero points.
