Introduction and Rationale
Recently I had the opportunity to complete my AWS Cloud Practitioner exam. The exam is a foundation exam that introduces you to cloud basics, with a heavy lean on the Amazon Web product set, Amazons architecture principles and Amazons complimentary services. It generally is the basis for more advanced certifications into areas such as Solution Architecture, Security and Data analytics. Other cloud services offer similar training materials for their own product set and principles, such as Googles’ Cloud Digital Leader and Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals.
Completing this cloud course won’t make you an expert in cloud services or AWS, not by a long shot, but it does give you the foundations to study them further. In addition it introduces many concepts that aren’t that prevalent in the on-premise world. Whether your technical or functional, interested in cloud a little or a lot, or just curious about how AWS services work in more details, this course is one that should suit anyone, and if the option presents itself, a worthwhile investment.
Training Material
To prep for this exam I would recommend 2 main resources. Both of these are courses on the Udemy platform, and both by Stephane Maarek who is an excellent course creator.
- Ultimate AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner - 2022 - Will give you a good overview of the course content, and include 1 practice exam.
- 6 Practice Exams | AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C01 - 6 practice exams, which are all graded and a clear description of all answers.
- There are some additional free training materials located on the AWS Cloud Practitioner course content page.
Tips
- Ultimately both of these courses mentioned above are worth the money, but at a push, if you have background experience of cloud or AWS, you may be able to get by with just reviewing the past paper course.
- When taking the exam, the initial thoughts are to focus on the product offerings, however there are key areas which are often overlooked which make up a significant part of the course content. These are:
- AWS Well Architected Framework
- Billing + Support Options
- The practise exams I linked above go into more detail than I think is actually required for the real exam. So if you are passing the practice, you will comfortably sail though the actual exam (I managed to complete the exam in about 20 minutes surprisingly)
- Overall I would say it takes around 10-15 hours to study and do the practice exams for this course.
Onto the AWS Solution Architect next!
