In a tech community, we all are aware of how the world is adopting, using and shifting some of the services to cloud as it offers great amount of flexibility, reliability, convenience, and cost cuttings. for example In the cloud, the services and servers (computing power) are on demand and you pay for only what you use. every company needs people who are aware of all such benefits, features and services offered by cloud service providers to implement cloud initiatives and “ AWS Cloud Practitioner Certificate” establishes your credibility in the market, it validates your cloud fluency and foundational AWS knowledge. to earn this certificate you have to take and pass AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam (CLF-CO1)
What the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certificate all about ?
This is a certification offered by AWS to people who are aware of all the services offered by AWS , their uses and use cases. AWS offers over 200 different type of services and is leader in the cloud market place. Ideally you should know all of them , their uses and what it offers in details for making best use of AWS. But, should you really know all the services and their uses to become AWS certified cloud practitioner ?, No, Its good if you know but it is not necessary to pass the exam. AWS focuses on some key services in their examination that are core to AWS offerings.
To know more about the certification you can visit official AWS website at AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Certification | AWS Certification | AWS (amazon.com)
You can download the exam guide offered by AWS on their official website or from the link given below. Here you will get to know which all services and topics you should know in order to pass the exam.
Click to access AWS-Certified-Cloud-Practitioner_Exam-Guide.pdf
How should I start learning about AWS and prepare for the exam ?
I will tell you about my strategy. What I followed and what I did to learn about AWS and to pass the exam. this may or may not be the best strategy, but it worked for me.
Strategy
It was simple, Let me first do a course that can help me to understand the important services offered by AWS and then let me see what the exam actually looks like and what kind of questions are asked in the exam. then, let me check where do I stand, how much I know, what I don’t know and how much more should I learn to pass the exam.
Which course I followed to learn about AWS services?
I looked for the courses available on Udemy and picked [NEW] Ultimate AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner – 2022 | Udemy offered by Stephane Maarek by looking at its ratings. It has a rating of 4.7 of 5 and rated by over 100,000 users. After, completing the course and giving the exam I found it to be good for learning theoretical knowledge. He has summarized important points in his slides and you can access the slide once you purchase the course. but It’s not enough, you may still remain confused regarding minor details about certain services, you will realize this when you solve mock exams. So go through AWS official website, YouTube or read blogs by searching on google once you get to know the services for which you lack sufficient knowledge.
Which mock tests I referred to do practice?
Again, I looked for the resource available online and on Udemy I found 2 courses
- https://www.udemy.com/course/practice-exams-aws-certified-cloud-practitioner/
- AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner 500 Practice Exam Questions | Udemy
each of them with approximate 390 questions, so a total of 780 questions in total. The good thing about these 2 mock tests is that, although few questions were repeating ( in combined 780 questions ) but most of them were not repeating it helps you to solve wide variety of questions and helps you to understand the services more clearly. Remember the goal while solving this mock test should be to know the services more clearly. So, go through the explanations and make your own notes. Try to score above 80 % in these exams. you may not get it in the first attempt. but, you can attempt it multiple times if required. I’m sure after answering and learning from these many questions you will be in a position to pass the exam. Now to feel confident , look for other 50 to 100 dump questions available online on various websites and try to answer them. In my case, I could solve most of them. In the end you have to realize that there can be no end to this preparation. so take a leap of faith and attempt the exam.
How was my exam experience?
After doing the course which I mentioned, revising it multiple times , solving close to 800-900 questions and going through their explanations and reading some blogs. I felt exam to be of easy to moderate level. from my experience one can solve close to 60 – 70 % questions easily, there can be 4-5 tricky questions. But, this was just my experience. AWS may keep changing the exam questions every month. so it is best to know which all services they focus on for AWS CCP exam and have a good knowledge of them.
Very Informative