My Guide to the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam with no prior AWS experience/training
Recently, I passed the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam with a score of 880/1000. With no cloud experience, I spent 2 weeks preparing for the exam, studying about 4 to 5 hours a day.
In this article, I would like to share with you my exam prep experience. If you have limited study time and are looking for an efficient study plan, this article is for you.
Why AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner?
If you are reading this article, you likely agree that Cloud Computing is the way of the future, and AWS is the most popular Cloud platform.
The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification is the introductory tier of AWS’s numerous certs. It offers a nice introduction to a wide range of AWS services, including many of its most integral services such as EC2 and S3. Therefore, if you are new to the cloud, studying for this exam will provide you with a solid foundation for further AWS study.
Remember, the goal is to better understand AWS services, NOT simply obtain a certification!
The Ultimate 14 Days Study Plan
My exam preparation was very effective in terms of covering the actual exam content. However, when looking back, there are still several things I would do differently to better utilize my time.
The study plan below covers all the prep materials you will need and I have ordered them in the most logical way to enhance your understanding of the contents. Let’s have a look.
1. “The Big Preparation” — 8 days
You want to know the most important contents required by the exam as soon as possible, so you can prioritize your study time to focus on your weakest areas. The fastest and most effective way is to take an online exam prep course. These courses are well-structured and cover the right amount of depth for getting the lay of the AWS landscape without the risk of studying unnecessary topics.
There are many online course options and you can get them at very cheap prices or for free with a trial period. I recommend Linux Academy, A Cloud Guru, and Udemy. Just make sure the course has at least 15 hours of content and lab demos. I also found https://udemy.com/course/aws-certified-cloud-practitioner-new/ course which covers the hands-on experience
Udemy Course:- 5 Days (I did the course 2 times for detailed understanding)
Linux Academy:- 3 Days
Hands-on experience is very important for all AWS exams!
During your study, focus on these areas below and do hands-on exercises on the AWS website. Make sure you internalize every step. Drawing diagrams is a very good way to study the services.
There is no “overstudy” for these areas: IAM, EC2, S3, Pricing, and Support.
Draw your own diagrams for network services: VPC, subnet, routing tables, NACL, internet gateway, NAT gateway, Route53, ELB, CloudFront, etc.
Security: What are the security related services and what are their differences?
2. Mock Exams and Documentation — 3 days
By now you should have a high-level understanding of the major services, so it is time to test your knowledge to get a baseline! The online courses usually have mock exams. Try at least one exam, and don’t worry if your score isn’t high — my first try was only 72%! The goal is to learn which areas you should spend more time focusing on. For each question that you did wrong, instead of just reading the correct answer provided by the mock exam, you should go to the AWS site to check why it is correct and find the original words from AWS’s thorough and detailed documentation.
3. Don’t Skimp on the White Papers! — 3 days
What I did not realize until I read the white papers is that a lot of the mock exam questions are created based on the white papers. I can’t emphasize enough how important they are. There are many white papers, but for this certification, the AWS site recommends 4 of them:
Overview of Amazon Web Services
90 pages: The first 10 pages are the introduction of cloud computing, and the rest are introductions to every single AWS service.
Architecting for the Cloud: AWS Best Practices
40 pages: Some of the contents are beyond the scope of this exam, but they are very helpful to understand the relationship of the services and group them together.
20 pages: Please read every single word of this one. I had a surprising amount of questions about this topic!
Only one page: Again, a small document, but one worth a lot of marks on your exam!
I know what you’re thinking — “that’s a lot of reading!” Here is a very useful tip that saved my eyes: use the PDF auto speech function! Have the computer read for you, and you will remember the contents better without falling asleep.
4. Mock Exam and Practice Refresh — 1 day
The day before the exam, try the mock exams again; by now you should have 80–100% accuracy. Then refresh your memory by browsing the AWS site. It doesn’t hurt to open up every service page, watch the 2–3 minutes intro videos, and ask yourself what this service does. And don’t forget to practice with the core services again if you find it helpful for your memory!
HERE’S A BREAKDOWN OF MY EXAM EXPERIENCE:
- 65 questions, 90 minutes
- With all questions, you either select 1 answer from 4, or 2 answers from 5
- No questions on serverless
- Couple of questions on AWS Direct Connect (think hybrid cloud)
- Couple of questions on Amazon CloudFront (think performance for global users)
- 2–3 questions on TCO analysis — make sure you know what’s included in a TCO analysis
- 2 questions on the AWS Shared Responsibility Model
- 2–3 questions on AWS Organizations
- 2–3 questions on the architectural benefits of cloud — e.g. elasticity
- 2–3 questions on cost benefits — e.g. pay for what you use, scale for peak capacity
The exam is technically very light with most questions on AWS services just testing that you know what it is and what its use cases are. The exam is more focused on testing the reasons for using the AWS Cloud, how and why an organization should migrate (technical and business reasons), how and what you are charged for, the security of the cloud, and architectural best practices.
Have a good sleep the night before the exam and be confident!
Tip:
- Do not rely only on cloud guru lectures.
- White paper is the key. You need to read thoroughly. Highly recommended.
- Udemy sample test are the best they go really deep. So helps you to prepare. Highly recommended.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
Give your AWS exam from Home
First, you go to https://aws.training and sign-in with your certification account. Select the “Get Certified” button and follow the link over to certmetrics.com. From there you can find the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam and then make sure you click “Schedule with Pearson Vue” (not “Schedule with PSI”).
You’re then advised to download some software to your machine and run a system test (best to do this ahead of the scheduled date to make sure you’re setup properly). The test checks your network connection, microphone and webcam and asks you to take photos of the space around your desk. I had to take photos of the workspace from the back of the room, the left hand-side of my desk and the right-hand side. You also need to take photos of some ID (I used a driver’s licence).
The exam is proctored so you do have someone on the other side of your webcam watching and making sure you’re not cheating in some way. On the day of the exam, the proctor asked me to manoeuvre my laptop around to show her my workspace through the webcam before starting the exam. You need to have a clutter-free workspace with no additional monitors and the room should be quiet and clear with no one else around. I recommend making sure you log in and get setup at least 20 minutes ahead of the scheduled exam time as I had to take the photos of the room and ID again.
All the best
