I just passed my CompTIA Linux+ certification exams!

jasper_zanjani

I passed my LX0-103 last week and I just walked out of the test center having passed the LX0-104! Ask me anything!

Infosec_Sam

Congratulations on the pass! Question: How much Linux experience did you have before this exam, and what did your study program look like? I've been working with Linux for a bit on side projects and whatnot, so I figured I might have to give this exam a shot!

Dakinggamer87

Congrats!! 

Johnhe0414

That's Awesome! Congrats!

How long was your study period? What was your prior experience with Linux?

LonerVamp

Congrats! I'm also in the middle of that "older" version, passed 103 a few weeks ago and studying for 104 to take in the next month or so.

What study resources did you use, by chance?

jasper_zanjani

I made the commitment to get CompTIA Linux+ after installing Manjaro Linux in early April, according to my forum registration date. Before that I had absolutely no experience with Linux, except for installing an Ubuntu derivative on my Chromebox, which I never used. But I had been familiarizing myself with shell commands for perhaps close to a year. In fact, one of the main reasons I first became interested in getting certified was really to validate my understanding of bash shell commands, since they are used everywhere. By this time I had already become comfortable using the vim text editor. Early in the year I saw a Udemy course instructor using it with panache, and because you could see what his keypresses were it really seemed like witchcraft.

At first I took an organic approach, following my personal interests. I started configuring and using various desktop environments (including i3), started a dotfiles repo on GitHub (learning git was painful too!), and downloaded and configured some command-line tools. I had already been listening to Linux podcasts for a bit, and I would research their recommended "picks" each episode and implemented some of them (replacing ls with the more colorful exa, for example). I went through several older Linux books I had found at used bookstores, which were useful with regard to the Unix filter commands sed and awk.

But what really pushed me over the edge was traveling cross-country to attend Linuxfest Northwest. One of the talks I heard was by the Linux Professional Institute, and they announced there that conference attendees were welcome to take the LPIC-1 tests on-site at a 50% discount. I figured, depending on the difficulty of the material, if I had even a decent chance of getting certified and saving $200+ for a certification I was planning on getting anyway, it was worth the risk. At the same time, ITProTV, an online video course vendor, was advertising a free weekend of Linux content in celebration of the conference. I immediately signed up for the free weekend and went back to my hotel to study, where I soon discovered I had grossly underestimated the depth and breadth of material you need to know.

Recommended resources:

• ITProTV I ended up extending my trial of ITProTV and paying for a month of it, and I am very glad I did so. They had courses for both the older and newer Linux+ exams, and I watched both in their entirety. Being familiar with vim was a great relief to me, since I was able to skip those portions of the video courses, and in fact I took copious notes of the courses in markdown format using vim. ITProTV's material was in-depth, professionally made, and comprehensive, with some exceptions I will get to.
• Wiley Practice Exams I also had access to online practice exams from Wiley Test Banks, for both the LPIC-1 and the Linux+. I systematically used and abused these exams, and they were irreplaceable.
• Anki Anki has been a favorite utility of mine for many years, I used it to learn several foreign languages and now I have successfully adapted it to learning various programming languages (HTML, CSS, Python, bash) and literally thousands of Linux commands and options. Any syntax covered in a video course was adapted to an Anki flashcard. Any obscure option found in a practice exam question was put it into Anki. Anki is a flashcard program that uses your own assessment of the difficulty of each question in order to determine how quickly you see it. Over time, the cards that are easiest are seen least, and the cards that are hardest are seen over and over again. This relentless focus on drilling the difficult material means that every Anki session is in fact, a practice exam. I could probably make a whole post just about how to use Anki for coding practice, I feel that strongly about it.

Long story short, it took me weeks of full-time dedication to the task to get to the point of passing, by the skin of my teeth, the LX0-103 last week and the LX0-104 earlier today after failing once.

Recommendations for new test-takers:

To be perfectly honest, if I could go back I believe I would just take the newer exam, the XK0-004 and not bother with the double-credit. I was flabbergasted at how picky the exam was with regard to what syntax is to be used in individual configuration files. Some exam topics, like everything to do with mail servers and network configuration, appear to be hopelessly outdated. My Manjaro distribution did not have tools like ifconfig or netstat even installed and they are not available from repositories. Qmail was deprecated and removed entirely from Arch repos in 2005, but it's part of the exam's requirements. Keep in mind that qmail was intended to be a replacement for the even older sendmail, and that too is part of the older exam's requirements. Don't even get me started on sysvinit, which hasn't been used in a major Linux distro for half a decade. There is no doubt in my mind that part of the reason I failed the LK0-004 the first time was because I simply was not able to find these tools or to use them on my own computer. I did not think it was necessary to virtualize a whole other instance of Ubuntu or CentOS until after I failed, when my $220 was already burned. You might think the older exam is a good deal because you get a second "certification", but keep in mind you are taking a risk because some of the material is from several Linux generations ago. The newer exam cuts out the cruft, the material you learn will be much more applicable, and it is much cheaper and less risky. Imagine being forced to retake the LK0-004 more than once just because you didn't know some bizarre syntax for xorg.conf or how to forward emails on some god-forsaken MTA they stopped using 15 years ago!

itdept

Congrats on the pass. How come you had such a small gap between exams?

Which exam did you find more difficult and why?

jasper_zanjani

It sounds like you're saying it's normal for people to have long gaps between the exams. It seems natural for me to get it done right away. Anyway I need the certification so I can get a job.

The 104 is much more difficult, as I explained above, because it focuses on a lot of outdated technologies in the realms of MUAs, MTAs, static IP configuration, etc and specific syntax to use in configuration files.

Spiegel

Congrats on the pass! I know that test is a beast to tackle from every person that I meat that have taken it.

Any other certs on the horizon?

averageguy72

Congrats!

itdept

Hi Jasper, I think I replied to the thread just a few seconds after you posted. Thanks for the report on LX04, the info is very helpfull. I'll definitely remember to work with an older distro 

LonerVamp

jasper_zanjani said:

... Anyway I need the certification so I can get a job....

I think this is a good reason to have looked at the newer exam, though I suspect you'll end up going the next step anyway (red hat, lfcs, or lpic2). But it's nice to hear about all you learned from this anyway!

Swift6

That feeling when you walk out the test centre with a pass is incredible. Congratulations on your achievement.

UnixGuy

Congrats!

NetworkingStudent

jasper_zanjani said:

I passed my LX0-103 last week and I just walked out of the test center having passed the LX0-104! Ask me anything!

Did you get the life time Linux + cert?
 I know the new Linux exam requires you to decertify every 3 years.

what is the next cert you will go after?

Basic85

Congrats, you a system admin?  

jasper_zanjani

Basic85 said:

Congrats, you a system admin?  

not at the moment but I'm hoping to become one shortly!

jasper_zanjani

NetworkingStudent said:

Did you get the life time Linux + cert?

There is no expiration date provided for this certification, so I suppose it must be, at least until CompTIA decides otherwise.

NetworkingStudent said:

what is the next cert you will go after?

To be honest over the past few months I have earned a lot of the technical certifications that I had imagined would help me get a job in technology, so I'm going to focus on actually getting back in the workforce now. I imagine once I do land a job that they'll have some areas they would want me to focus in, and I have no problem doing that, especially if I'm able to take advantage of company reimbursements. If it were up to me, I would get the CCENT, and maybe more forward with LPIC-2, and build on my Python cert that nobody's heard of: the Certified Professional in Python Programming (PCPP). But I think I can reasonably expect to get hired now, and if I'm working as a sysadmin then the sky's the limit!

LonerVamp

Nice, lots of options for you!

shochan

I thought about taking the dual exams before they expire after failing the Linux+ beta...but I think I rather just take one exam instead of two.  I was kinda rushed to study the beta exam (only 2 mos to study, which is not even enough time to truly know Linux)...Cheers & Congrats!

sergius

Hi and congrats to passing your exam! I'm currently learning for LX0-103 with Anki Cards. Can you please share your Anki library so it can help other user like me to better prepare to exan? Thanks in advance! 

jasper_zanjani

sergius said:

Thanks in advance! 

You're welcome in advance!

shochan

why do ppl say, "In Advance"?? LOL!

itdept

Do you need to know lots of command flags like you do in the LX03 exam?

jasper_zanjani

itdept said:

Do you need to know lots of command flags like you do in the LX03 exam?

Yes

blargoe

Well done!

Remo_Williams

This relentless focus on drilling the difficult material means that every Anki session is in fact, a practice exam. I could probably make a whole post just about how to use Anki for coding practice, I feel that strongly about it.

Remo_Williams

Would you mind sharing your Anki flashcards?! Pretty please?

jasper_zanjani

Remo_Williams said:

Would you mind sharing your Anki flashcards?! Pretty please?

Because spaced repetition is most effective in reviewing material already learned, I do not believe it would be productive to share my cards because you have no context in which to learn them. For you, they would just be random commands and options with no rhyme or reason.

Remo_Williams

That's a good point, and one that makes sense to me since I have begun using Anki. Nonetheless, thanks for the motivation!!! 

mgmguy1

I just downloaded Anki and it's amazing. Just what I have been looking for. Thank you.