How I Passed the AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam in a Week
Over the pass 4 years I have used I.T. certifications to help elevate my career and skills. They have helped me to get opportunities that I use to only dream about. Not only that, but they have boosted my salary to levels that I never thought that I could reach in tech.
But don’t get it twisted! Not every certification journey I have had has not been all roses and sunshine. Yo boy has failed A LOT!
Studying for certifications can take everything from you. From your time, your money, your friends, your marriage, your confidence and that’s a short list. But, because of my struggles I have been able to learn and grow from my experiences so I can share them with you.
In this post we will cover in detail 7 questions on how I passed the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam in less than a week.
What is the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Exam?
The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner is a foundational level certification for AWS. Achieving this certification will provide you with cloud fluency and foundational AWS knowledge. For me the AWS cloud platform and services were brand new. The exam preparation introduced me to AWS terms, services, and platform. The exam itself, is not too technical. he exam helps professionals understand and speak the language of AWS.
How much did the exam cost?
At the time of this post the cost of the exam is $100 USD.
How many questions are on the exam?
The exam consists of 65 questions; either multiple choice or multiple response.
Does the AWS certification expire?
Yes. You are required to re-certify every three years.
Do you need to lab for the exam?
No. But I always think that its good to gain hands on experience. I have heard of people only reading whitepapers and watching free YouTube videos. And they are still able pass the exam. And that’s OK. There are many people that will take this exam to understand AWS and the services offered. If you are like me then you need to not only read and watch videos on a topic. But you also need to put your hands on the technology to get to a true understanding. If you are wondering. Yes, I did lab for the exam.
How long did it take to become AWS certified?
In my new role at AWS the CCP was one of my first required certifications. On Monday the 13th of December I scheduled the exam and I sat the exam on Sunday Dec 19th. So that’s a total of 6 days. I spent Monday-Wednesday reading the AWS whitepapers and making notes. That was a total of about 12 hours. Then from Thursday thru Saturday I watched videos, labbed, and studied my note cards. For a total of 25 hours. This worked out to be about 8 hours a day from Thursday thru Sunday morning. So to summarize in 6 days it took me a total 37 hours to prepare for the exam.
What resources did you use for the AWS CCP certification?
Here are a list of resources that I used to prepare for the exam:
- Cloud Practitioner Exam overview — This will answer all your questions about the exam and provide you with a link to schedule you test.
- Cloud Practitioner Exam Guide — The Exam Guide provides you will all the topics that will be on the exam. Remember anytime you take a certification exam you should know what you will be tested on.
- Overview of Amazon Web Services Whitepaper — This document is about 74 pages of reading. But trust me its worth! It will give you an overview of cloud computing and many of the services that AWS offers.
- How AWS Pricing Works — Reading these 30 pages you will have an overview of how pricing works across some of the AWS most widely used services.
- Compare AWS Support Plans — Here you will get a break down of four different types of AWS Support Plans.
- Practice Exam Questions — Unfortunately this is not free, but the questions on this site were helpful. I like the fact that they provide an explanation for the answers on each question.
- AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification Preparation — This course also is not free. But they do offer a 1-week free trial. Another great thing about the course is that they have labs the curriculum. Plus the labs do not need you to create an AWS account.
- Create a free AWS account: — Here’s a link to create a free account. In case you decide you want to lab and explore the AWS console on your own.
In closing, the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam was a great exam experience. The questions were on topic and straight forward. Something to mention though, is that I do have the Azure Fundamentals Certification. The knowledge from that certification helped me to understand the AWS topics. Although we often want to achieve certifications as fast as possible. The most important thing is that we take the knowledge from our studies and apply it.
I wish you much success on your certification journey. Good Luck!
Peace,
