How difficult is this exam?>
Looking to take my Linux+ soon, was wondering if someone who has it could rate the difficulty for me? I wouldn't consider myself and avid Linux user but I do practice it at home, I have virtual labs set up and home and use Linux for a few things. Mainly Kali-Linux to practice pentesting but I'm decently familiar with the way it works and using its CLI.
Any feedback would be much appreciated, thanks!
Any feedback would be much appreciated, thanks!
Comments
Overall, I'd say it was easy, but I've been using Linux without a GUI as my personal machine for years, so..... Take my rating with a grain of salt.
Thanks for the info. Do you mind giving us an example of what type of fill in the blank questions they ask?
Is it this:
1) ________ Concatenates and print the content of files. // cat would be the answer
or
2) _______ appends to the file called "test" // something like echo "hello" >> test would be the answer
That said, prior to taking the exam, I had been a Solaris and RHEL admin/engineer for about seven years, and was considered the RHEL SME for my security testing team.
JR
The first exam (I believe it's 103 now) focuses heavily on Linux commands. The concept is to get you to master them which is instrumental in BASH scripting. There are no surprise style questions on this exam.
The key to passing is repetition and knowing the commands. Pay close attention to what is where, logs, all things /etc, networking, etc. Know your way around the Linux file system. I would recommend you setup a spare computer box and SSH into it versus using Linux with a GUI. And do learn VI even if you intend on using Nano.
Do be prepared to learn some really bizarre commands. I learned one that I can't ever remember using ONCE in my life. And I started using Linux in like 1996. The great part about Linux is once you learn the commands you will never forget them.
Currently I am preparing for that exam with CertMaster and CBT Nuggets/Pluralsight courses. Not sure if this is enough.
Chinook is right when he says the key is knowing the commands, but I would expand saying know the flags for the commands. They seem to focus on the flags more than the commands themselves. for example "using this command, what flag will accomplish this task?"
I would also say make sure you know Vi editor. I know nano is popular, but if you use it, STOP and use Vi while you study. One last thing is knowing the filesystem and the locations of particular config files and logs/messages. A lot of times they didn't make me put the full path but they asked for the name of the file within a directory.
Just FYI I used CBTnuggets and a couple other sources from my college. CBTnuggets doesn't go into enough deep detail to help too much. it is a good baseline but be sure to supplement it with other sources.
Thanks for the info. I've got my exam (LX-103) at the end of the month and i've barely found any motivation to work on it. I think it's because there aren't ANY linux-related jobs in my area and the cert was really a bonus for me, having Linux as a hobby. I hope I can just pass it, even if I get a borderline pass. I'll take your advice and learn more about Vi. I've always avoided using it because although it's "powerful", I just personally find it takes a long time to accomplish a task that I can do in nano or another editor and have never bothered to learn it.
To be honest I dont know why it is more popular. I like VI okay. Im not a linux guy per say but that is what I use when I do rarely ply around with linux. I just see nano a lot in discussions and training videos.
But why I use nano is because nano is just....easier. I don't know why you'd want to learn all the commands of vi when you can jump into nano and just use it with little difficulty. I think if i'm 100% honest (i know i'll get shot down for this) but with Linux, there is a lot of snobbery. Linux elitism is quite off-putting to the geeks amongst us, nevermind the average computer user.
For example, when I was doing my master's degree, they insisted we use the CLI because the GUI was "inferior" - and it's this kind of backwards thinking that puts people off Linux. I worked as a security analyst for 2 years. Using a CLI for security analyst work isn't possible. It's not theoretically or practically possible. Your multi-million dollar company would close overnight if you even attempted such a thing.
And I think a lot of old-skool Linux users are the same. They say 'vi' and 'CLI' is best, when a GUI is extremely important for productivity. At the end of the day, it comes down to what you prefer. I prefer nano and i'd use nano. If you prefer vi, use vi. For the Linux+ - learn both.