I got hit by hard questions on AWS Prescriptive Guidance, AWS Well-Architected Framework and even AWS Machine Learning services (SageMaker, Rekognition etc) plus the new AWS services (AWS Audit Manager, MemoryDB for Redis etc). RI discounts and Spot Pricing questions also surprised me.
To those who are saying that the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam is just a walk in a park, the exam definitely isn't! I'm not sure if its because there would be a new CLF-C02 exam version and AWS included those new concepts/services in the current exam, but in all honesty, I did enjoy taking this test. It's not overly difficult but you have to know a plethora of AWS services and their corresponding features.
In terms of exam prep, I used the CloudQuest game as an initial exam prep for the test. I do like gamified learning and the included AWS labs are definitely a bonus. My only pet peeve is the slow provision of those labs. Also did the Tutorials Dojo course and used all the available labs on the course. It's a good reviewer before drilling their practice exams and explanations.
My advice to those who are planning to take this test is to never take this exam lightly. Make sure that you read the official exam guide from cover to cover, and use that to guide you in your self-study.
Hey everyone!
I just wanted to share that I’ve officially passed the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam! I’ve been studying for about 10 days and took the exam today (February 14th).
Here’s what worked for me: •Official AWS Skill Builder Course: I used the AWS official course to get a solid foundation. It covered most of the core concepts and really helped me understand the material. •YouTube Videos: For specific domains I wanted to dive deeper into, I watched a few YouTube videos that gave me a clearer understanding. •Practice Tests: I did 1 free exam practice test sampler on Tutorial Dojo and 1 free full sample practice test on example.co. Both were helpful to get a feel for the questions. •Study Time: I spent about 10 days preparing. I booked the exam on the 3rd, started studying on the 4th, and sat for it today.
Special shoutout to @madrasi2021 for their extensive post on resources and study guides. Your tips and links were incredibly helpful!
What the Exam Was Like:
The exam itself wasn’t too hard. There were definitely several questions about Support Plans (e.g., the minimum level required for Full Trusted Advisor Checks). Some of the language in the questions was a bit slick, but nothing too tricky. I flagged a few questions I was unsure of and came back to them at the end, which worked out well.
Tips: •Don’t rush: Take your time with the questions, and review your flagged answers at the end. •Focus on core AWS services: Make sure you know the basic services like EC2, S3, IAM, etc., and the concepts of billing and support.
Overall, I’m feeling really good about it and wanted to encourage anyone on the fence about taking the exam. You can totally do it! 😊
Let me know if you have any questions or need more details about my study approach.
After 1 month of preparation, I finally passed the AWS Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) exam with 821 points! Here’s what worked for me and might help others preparing:
✅ Resources Used: Stephane Maarek's Udemy Course + 6 Practice Exams, freeCodeCamp course by Andrew Brown (too vast, only for topics / services I didnt understand well in Stephane's course) and finally ChatGPT - must have made over 100+ prompts for what is <service>, Difference between <this> and <this> etc
✅ Practice Exams: Bombed 5 practice tests - 25%, 30%, 52%, 55%, 60%, 73%
✅ Exam Experience: Exam was easier than practice exams. I had completed it within 35 mins didnt even need extra 30 mins through ESL or whole 130 mins.
✅ Tips for Future Test-Takers: Revising by prioritizing those topics you didnt score well in practice exams would help a lot. The Exam is more like 'some company, some scenario - which service should be used here?'. Try to remember topics through some keywords.
If you're preparing for the exam and have any questions, feel free to ask! #AWS #CloudComputing #Certification
I plan to give AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate SAA-C03 in future. So do share any tips if you have passed it recently
I have tech experience but it seems that AWS has well over 50+ vendor specific services that seem similar to one another, especially with the addition of AI/ML/DL.
I just passed the in-person exam(don't know the exact result yet). Here's how I prepared:
-
I followed this free course and took notes as I went along with it. For me writing things down works best when trying to remember information. I tried not to consume too much information per day(2 hours max) in order to improve my chances of retaining this knowledge in the long term. The course is quite thorough and it covers everything that is needed to pass the exam. It took me 2 weeks to go through the whole thing.
-
I spent 2 weeks taking Tutorials Dojo practice exams. These were very helpful as they exposed my weaknesses and showed me which areas of knowledge needed improvement. These exams provide tremendous value for money given how cheap they are and how close to the real thing they get. For the most part I found these to be actually harder than the exam itself.
And to provide some context about myself: I'm a Full Stack Developer with almost 3 years of experience, so most of the concepts that were being taught were pretty easy to grasp, but I've never had to touch AWS so I went into this with 0 hands-on experience.
I'm not planning to stop here as I'll be preparing for the SAA-C03 next but I'll probably want to get some hands-on experience with AWS before I sit the exam.
I work in an Indian IT company and my company gave me a voucher to complete this exam in 1 month. But due to lot of work load I could not study anything. I got 1 day to prepare for this exam and i took my chances. Although I don't have any prior experience in cloud i still have done my btech from cs and work in the IT field, so I am not totally new to this . But I passed with a score of 781. Fyi-I don't recommend anyone to do this as it defeats the purpose of the certification that is to learn in depth. This was my prep-
-
I did" [EXAM REVIEWER] AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02" course by Neal davis. This is 5 hour course on udemy..
-
Then I did "AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Practice Exams CLF-C02" 6 practice tests again by Neal davis.
That's it.
I am posting this because I know a lot of folks who are afraid of exams, they might be super good with The tech but might fumble on the mcqs. Just be comfortable that it can be done even in a day and don't take up too many resources take one up and complete it to the end with complete focus.
My background: I work as a Data Scientist and have a few years of experience, but I've never worked professionally with AWS before. The only time that I used AWS for anything was in an end-to-end Machine Learning project, in which I only used EC2, S3, VPC, and RDS.
How I studied:
Did Stephane Maarek's Udemy course for about 9 to 10 days (btw, amazing course! It's worth it!).
Then, I spent the next two days reviewing the course's slides.
I have also used someone's (I saw it here in the community, but I can't remember where and who shared it) notes to quickly review some key points (used while reviewing the course's slides and for an entire day after that).
Did the free practice exam available in Stephane Maarek's Udemy course after reviewing everything (I got 67%). I dedicated one day to doing the practice exam + reviewing the wrong questions and their concepts)
Bought Stephane Maarek's Udemy course containing six more practice exams (also amazing and worth it!) and spent approximately 8 days doing all exams and reviewing every wrong question. I got the following score for each exam*:
Exam 1: 70%
Exam 2: 81%
Exam 3: 78%
Exam 4: 80%
Exam 5: 80%
Exam 6: 73%
Finally, one day before the test I reviewed some concepts that I was struggling with and read all questions from Exam 5 or 6 (run out of time, I was aiming to do that for all six exams, but gladly I didn't need)
I don't know how much time I spent studying each day, but I spent approximately 3 weeks studying for this exam.
My thoughts about the real exam: It was easier than I expected and much easier than Stephane Maarek's exams. The questions are shorter and straightforward, and I didn't need to know much in-depth information concerning the concepts (Stephane Maarek's exams have a bunch of questions like this). So, if you are struggling with Stephane Maarek's exams, don't panic! Oh, before I forget, I got my result in less than 12 hours!
Had a lot of fun studying for this exam. Now, onto the AI Certified Practitioner (AIF-02)!
* Some of those exams I did late at night after working all day, so I got a few questions wrong because I misread some of the questions or my brain fogged lol.
In short: it was easy.
Took me two weeks with 1-2 hours daily, or rather even less.
I have almost no practical experience with AWS, know some networking stuff and have overall technical/SW-development knowledge.
Used the test exam at https://simuladoclf.s3.amazonaws.com/english.html , big thanks to the author and ChatGPT to prepare.
Actually, ChatGPT is a very good mentor to prepare for this exam (doesn't work that good for PMP exam though) - you just ask it to prepare you for the CLF-C02 exam and here you go: you get explanations and quizzes, once you answered the questions you can ask it to focus on weak areas and go deeper. Repeat it until you are sure and go for exam.
ps. passing the exam took me 20 minutes including the feedback quiz and that initial check of the papers and surroundings.
Graduated last year majoring in IT and I have been having difficulties finding a job. My gpa is good, I just lack experience. My friend who has an IT career recommended me take this certification or the MD102, is this cert worth taking? How hard is it? What kinds of positions will this open me up for?
Is it ACTUALLY worth getting the Cloud Practitioner cert? I've got zero experience with anything Cloud or AWS related, and I've pretty much only known about CompTIA certs so I'm basically completely blind nor do I even know where the first step to even taking the first step. From what I looked up it seems like its a crapshoot if it's worth getting or not, with all the major advancements in tech lately I have no idea where I should start in terms of advancing my own knowledge. I don't know if the cert is good as a starting point or if it has value among companies in general or even required by them.
I am planning on studying for the AWS cloud practitioner exam starting today. I saw that AWS has two main resources to help prepare, a 7hr self paced module and a 12hr video game. Should I do both, one or the other, or is there another resource you guys recommend? I am currently studying IT in college and have an okay understanding. Thank you for the advice in advance!
So I decided to dip my foot into the AWS certifications in order to help me get a job. I went through their free course for this cert and proceeded to absolutely bomb the practice exams because a) I just suck at tests and studying for them and b) A lot of questions pop up for AWS services that were never covered in the course. But one other thing I noticed is that it felt like I was studying for a sales job. Like I was being trained to be an inside AWS agent at whatever company hires me. This is exactly the same type of shit I had to do when I sold cars in my 20's.
My question is this; Is this cert actually worth it? I started with it because it seemed like a good entry into getting other certs. Will having this cert make a difference when looking for devops/systems jobs?
I've been studying & it's relatively new to me, I was thinking when to book it. I've just learnt up to Amazon S3 on Stepehen Mareek's course but I really want to get my exam booked in & have a goal to focus to, any thoughts?
Hello folks, I'm essentially a Java web app developer with around 15 years of experience. I'm sort of familiar with some of the cloud concepts but never really got a chance to work on the cloud/Devops side so planning to upskill myself. I'd love to start with the very foundational course/certification but not sure how to go about preparing for it. After a few days of browsing around I found these resources:
Free Resources
A 14+ hour video by freeCodeCamp on Youtube
Playlists by Stephane Maarek and Neal Davis on Youtube
Bunch of videos/playlists on Youtube that claim to have exam question dumps
Paid Resources
Udemy course by Neal Davis
Udemy course by Stephane Maarek
I'd appreciate it if you could share your thoughts and tips based on my questions below:
Is it enough to go through the free resources listed above and take a shot at the exam or is it worth going for the paid courses?
If paid courses are worth it, which ones(s) are the best?
The paid courses seem to provide some practice exam(s) too, but would you suggest taking any other practice exams as well? If so, what are the worthy options?
Is it good to go through the question dumps or are they misleading?
How long do you think it would take to prepare? I know this depends on each individual, but just a rough estimate. I'm out of job at the moment [was made redundant :-( ] but a full time carer for my toddler so only have about 2-3 hours max per day to prepare :/
Thanks in advance!
Well, today I took and failed my Cloud Practitioner exam. Scored a 660. Honestly feeling down after this, as I prepared for over a month and from what I’ve read, this is supposed to be the easy exam that people pass with 10-14 days of studying. But with that said, I definitely plan to retake it in 14 days. Attached to this post is the breakdown of my score performance. Any advice (I.e resources, specific practice exams, videos etc) you guys would recommend?
I'm a CS student in my 3rd year of University. Do you think its worth doing the foundational AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification? Or should I try out the Associate certification. I honestly don't have much experience with AWS, except a code-along project or two. Please advice.
My primary goal is getting internships at the moment.
I’m tired of losing many job opportunities and be left behind in my current job position because of my lack of AWS skills, so I decided to get AWS Cloud Practictioner certified as soon as possible. I started studying last Friday via the AWS Skill Builder by a link provided by my company and I’m close to finish the course.
I know there’ll be 65 questions (50 scored + 15 unscored) and I’ll need at least 700 out of 1,000 to pass. For those who took the exam, what should I expect from it and how do I better get prepared to it? Thanks in advance!
The YouTube recommendation algorithm is telling me I can get certified within two weeks. Is this real or not?
Hey guys just a general question to anyone whose passed the Cloud Practitioner exam, how many days did you study or hours per day did you study to feel comfortable to do the test? Did you find the test hard?
I recently took the AWS Cloud practitioner exam and failed it the first time I took it. I did online practice exams as well as bought a Udemy course that highlights all of the exam materials. Are there any other resources that I can utilize to pass the certification exam?