Recently, I posted a quick update about passing the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam and promised to share the steps I took to prepare for the exam. In this post, I’ll cover my goals for passing the exam and the resources that I utilized to help me prepare.
Goals
When I started preparing for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam, I had three simple goals:
- Utilize resources that are available online at no cost (i.e. free!). I am not opposed to paying for training when there is benefit to be had, but I felt that there were enough resources available at no charge that would adequately prepare me for the exam.
- In conjunction with the above statement, I also decided I would avoid “brain dump” style resources. If you’re not familiar with “brain dump” sites, these are resources where people, who have taken various certification exams, will provide the exact questions and answers to the exam (as they remember them). To me, this equates to cheating and I would rather fully understand the concepts being tested rather than simply memorizing answers to specific questions in hopes of getting a passing score.
- I am someone that is driven by challenges and deadlines so I set a personal deadline to pass the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam within two weeks. I have a bit of experience with Microsoft Azure (having passed the Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals exam) and a little bit of experience with AWS (much less than what I have with Azure) so I felt I already understood the basic concepts of cloud computing. It was really just a matter of applying the specifics of AWS to what I already knew. For your personal journey, two weeks might not be enough time to properly prepare for the exam – or it might be more than sufficient.
My Plan
After a short bit of research, I ended up with five separate types of training and materials to work through. These included:
- The AWS Training and Certification Site
- YouTube videos
- AWS Whitepapers
- An AWS Webinar
- Practice Exams
Each of these sections are discussed in more detail below.
AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials
This updated digital course is for individuals who want to develop a fundamental understanding of the AWS Cloud, independent of any specific technical role. You’ll learn about AWS Cloud concepts, core AWS services, security, architecture, pricing, and support to build your AWS Cloud knowledge. This course will also help you prepare for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam
This course is self-paced and completely free. It is comprised of 11 modules and is estimated to take about six hours to complete. I think it took me a little less because I watched all the videos at 1.25x – 1.5x speed. 😁
There are no hands-on labs in this course but there are multiple assessments as you work your way through the modules with a final assessment at the end.
YouTube
I watched AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner from TechTalks by Richard Jones. This video closely follows the same modules outlined in the AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials training discussed above and is about 7 hours in length. As with above, however, I watched the video at 1.25x – 1.5x speed which shortened the overall time commitment. (My son watches videos at 2x speed but that was too fast for me!)
There are other videos available on YouTube but this one seemed the most relevant and informative.
Whitepapers
If you haven’t perused the AWS Whitepapers & Guides then you are missing out on a treasure trove of AWS-related information. There are whitepapers and guides for all-things-AWS including whitepapers, reference architectures, and technical guides.
In preparation for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam, I reviewed the following whitepapers:
- Overview of Amazon Web Services
- How AWS Pricing Works
- AWS Support Plans – while this is not technically a whitepaper, I would recommend reviewing the AWS Support Plan information as it is good information to know and is also pertinent to the exam.
TIP: The above whitepapers can be downloaded in Kindle format. Even if you don’t have an Amazon Kindle reader (such as the Kindle Paperwhite) you can download the free Kindle app. An advantage of using a Kindle reader/app is that you can highlight sections of the whitepapers and make notes. In the app, you can also generate flashcards from highlighted text which can be really useful when preparing for the exam.
Webinars
On the AWS Events and Webinars site, you will find information on up-coming events where you can learn more about what AWS has to offer. There is a lot of information available for free here, including live webinars that you can sign up for as well as talks on demand.
The webinar that I signed up for and attended is called AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials Day. This webinar is not always available so you might have to wait a bit before the next event is scheduled.
Although the information in this webinar is similar to what is covered in the training outlined above, you do have the opportunity to ask questions via chat. This is the best feature of the webinar, IMHO, since you can get answers to any specific questions that you might have.
This site is definitely worth coming back to time and again as there is a lot of useful information provided here.
Practice Exams
Once I made it through the above training resources, I wanted to take a few practice exams to: a) get familiar with the test format and, b) validate that I actually know what I think I know. 😃
There are plenty of exams out there that can be purchased but, keeping in line with my goals, I was looking for a few free options. Here’s what I came up with:
- 20 questions
- 65 additional questions available if you sign up for email notifications
- Exam simulation
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C01) Sample Exam Questions
- 10 questions
- PDF format – i.e. this is not an interactive test, but still a good set of questions to run through
- 15 questions
- Interactive but not an exam simulation
With a little more searching, you’ll likely uncover a few more free options out there. However, I was satisfied with the above practice exams.
Exam Day!
At this point, I considered myself ready and scheduled the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam. Generally, you have the choice of scheduling an in-person exam at a certified testing center or you can also schedule an online, proctored exam if you do not want to, or can’t, schedule an in-person exam.
On the day of my exam, I arrived about 30 minutes early and did a really quick review of the flashcards that I had created using the Kindle app (as mentioned in the Whitepapers section above). I probably didn’t need to do this but it at least gave me the feeling of being more prepared.
Once I signed in at the testing center, I was asked to put my phone, watch, wallet and anything else I had in my pockets into a (locked) locker before entering the test area. I was given a pen and some paper in case I needed it (I didn’t) and then signed in to a PC for my exam. I had 90 minutes to complete the exam of 65 questions. I don’t recall exactly how long it took me but I do recall that I was well under the allotted 90 minutes.
Summary
If you are preparing for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam, I hope you find this information helpful. While everyone’s journey will be unique to them, you should be able to utilize some, or all, of these resources to augment your personal training plan.
As you prepare for, and take the exam, please let us know your favorite training resources in the comments section below. Also, let us know how you did on the exam.
Good luck!
