Passed AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner!

thaiguy314

Though it may be considered more entry-level, I'm happy to say I passed the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam. I've been wanting to pursue a cloud certification for a while but I've heard less than stellar things about CCSP and was a little intimidated to attempt one of the AWS associate certs right out the gate. I think this certification was perfect for someone like me who was somewhat familiar with AWS but not quite ready to take on something like AWS Certified Solutions Architect. 

I have about 7 years worth of experience in Army cyber, IA, and RMF with 2 years worth of experience doing RMF on AWS-hosted apps specifically so I was slightly familiar with the major AWS concepts. Aside from experience, I  really only used two resources to study: the AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials and the udemy practice exams. I completed the AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials hosted by AWS themselves which I enjoyed more than I thought I would. The production value was very good, it was relatively entertaining (as this topic can be dry), and they were really good at conveying concepts to you so they were easy to understand and retain. It was pretty high level though and overly simple so I don't think that by itself would help you pass the exam but it could probably get you 65% of the way there. The second resource was the udemy practice exams (https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-cloud-practitioner-practice-test/). The questions, format, and time constraints are almost dead-on to the real thing. I especially liked it because all 6 practice exams covered just about everything on the actual exam and is really useful because it provided in-depth explanations about why an answer was right or wrong. I wrote up my notes based on those explanations. Another user who recommended the practice exams said if you can consistently score 90 on all 6 exams then you're ready which I would concur.

I ended up scoring a 770 but all in all, from the time I started the AWS course to the time I started/finished the practice exams, and took the actual certification exam was roughly a week and a half, maybe a little short of 2 weeks so I'm not really upset over my score. I'm sure I could've scored higher if I dedicated a little more time but I felt like I needed to strike while the iron was hot before I ended up procrastinating and never doing it at all. For the actual exam, I used the OnVue virtual proctor service as opposed to a PearsonVue testing center as I was impatient to get it over with and tried Saturday night to schedule an exam for the following day on Sunday but a PearsonVue exam requires you register at least a full 24 hours ahead of time. With OnVue, I was able to do it in 8 hours if I wanted to. Everything was fine and I'd probably do virtual proctoring again because of convenience but I ironically have a high end gaming laptop that has no webcam and had to go buy some cheapo 10 dollar one at Walmart. It sucked but worked for the purposes it was intended for but checking in with the proctor was a huge pain in the ass because it's inherent recording setting is super zoomed in. So if I do it again, I'd probably spend the 50 bucks decent webcam.

Next plan is to purse the Certified Solutions Architect. Good luck to anyone considering taking this cert!

JDMurray

Congratulation! If you use AWS at work then it's a good idea to continue  up the AWS cert path. Another possibility is to get a broad experience of Cloud technologies by doing Azure AZ-900 or Google Associate Cloud Engineer next.