My Journey to AWS Cloud Practitioner certification

kevingranberry

Feb 8, 20226 min read

AWS Cloud Practitioner.

Wow! I finally got it y'all. I am finally a certified AWS Cloud Practitioner. I was totally new to the world of cloud computing so I wanted to share with those the path I took to get my first AWS certification. There are many paths to this destination and I want you all to choose the path that is best for you but here is the path I followed.

It all started a few months back when my company decided to migrate to the Cloud. As a network engineer obviously I would be affected. I currently help maintain 2 Data Centers. All our company's data processing moving to the cloud is a huge sea change for me. I mean we have a lot of networking hardware equipment to manage in our data centers. When going to AWS all the networking is virtual. So I needed to understand what was going on and if I would still have a job. LOL!

I already subscribe to Kevin Wallace's online training website which contains a training program called "Getting Started with Cloud Computing". This is a very good entrée into Cloud computing. It was not solely focused on one vendor but the overall aspects of what Cloud Computing is all about. This was great information and looking back it was a lot of what I initially learned in my AWS focused training. So with that knowledge I was ready to get started.

Now it is time to start learning AWS. The first thing I did is become familiar with what topics are covered in the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam. The great thing is a lot of the information is free and on the Amazon website itself. The next thing I did was get a copy of the Exam Study guide. The book referenced a number of white papers to review so I downloaded those and created a study folder to review later. Then finally I looked into what other certs AWS offered and tried to see if there was a path I would like to pursue. I wanted to see how far it would be to go from Practitioner to whatever the next cert world be. Also what is the certification path for Network Engineers? Luckily for me there is a Networking Specialty. My next goal :-)

A few weeks later my Director came to us and said if we wanted to take an AWS class the company would pay for it. Great! Me and my coworkers looked at training options and my team as a group chose Global Knowledge. It seemed like a good idea at the time because they offered a subscription model. I signed up for the Cloud Practitioner Essentials class and waited a few months until the next live one became available. The class was offered during the work day and my Director said I could take the class during work hours. That did not stop work though. LOL! It was hard taking a class during the day because folks would still hit me up about network issues. Also the instructor was not a native English speaker so sometimes it was hard for me to understand. I went through my notes after class but still felt I did not have a good grasp on everything.

Now it was time to get some hands-on experience. I got a FREE 1 year access account to AWS through Amazon. This allowed me to complete some of the labs from class on my own. This was excellent because it gave me real hands-on experience without using our company's account where I could mess something up. Remember when they say FREE, there are limits. Keep an eye on the applications you build and your login security. Leaving an Elastic IP Address, Virtual Server or ELB running too long and those hours add up quickly. If you exceed your monthly limit you will get you a bill from AWS. Also you don't want some hacker coming in and mining Bitcoin with your AWS resources.

I decided to take another Cloud Practitioner Class this time with Stormwind Studios. Stormwind had a great package deal for AWS and other training courses. They did not have any live classes scheduled so I had to listen to their Pre-recorded classes. This ended up being a blessing in disguise. In the recorded class I was able to take it at my own pace. I could now take notes and easily pause to get whatever gems the instructor was giving at that time. The instructor was great! Easy to understand and he even told us when he was covering information that may not be on the exam. Because there were so many recordings I created an Excel spreadsheet that listed each video and their running time as well as the overall running time per section. The spreadsheet became a great tool for keeping me on track and managing my time. It was also a great reference for when I would have to do review sessions later. Along with my tons of notes.

Now the piece de resistance was Udemy and their "AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner: 6 Full Practice Exams 2022". Now that I had done all this studying I needed a way to test my knowledge. Udemy had a sale on these exams so I got what I needed for $14. Let me say first after taking the actual AWS Exam the Udemy Practice Exams simulated very close to what I saw when I sat for the test. Each of the 6 exams were 65 questions and timed just like the real thing. My plan was to take an exam, then review what questions I answered wrong. This is where the Udemy course excels. Each question comes with a detailed explanation of the correct answer and then information why each of the other answers are incorrect. The test results are given with how many questions for each area of study and what percentage of those questions you got correct. For my review I would review the incorrect questions by topics. I would start with the topics I missed the most. I would write down the question as well as the corresponding answer and explanation until I got a good understanding. Once I started getting 80% correct on all the exams I felt I was ready.

Scheduling the test was a breeze. I went to the Amazon website for the Cloud Practitioner. When I clicked the link to schedule my exam it gave you 2 vendors to choose from. I selected Pearson Vue because I had done all my Cisco certs with them. I scheduled my Exam for that weekend. I reviewed my notes. The night before I re-took practice Exam #5 and #6. I had gotten above 90% on both of them so I felt pretty good. Reviewed the white paper on AWS pricing. That morning I woke up. I reviewed a Kevin Wallace practice exam just to brush up and I was ready.

The exam process from home was new to me. I work from home and like most people I have a pretty crowded desk. You start out testing your system and internet access. They asked me to remove my extra monitors. Then they ask you to have no other applications running at the time. After that you take pictures of your test area and your Identification then you have to wait for a proctor to come and review your material. I waited a good 15 - 20 minutes. When she came on she asked for me to take my laptop and scan the room. When they say nothing on your desk, they mean it!. So I ended up taking the test from my dining room table because it would have taken too long to remove my desk phone, wireless router, computer, speaker system, etc. The test started and all the questions were multiple choice. A cool thing is you can mark a question for review. When all the questions are completely answered a screen comes up that lets you know you can go back to any of the 65 questions to review before you submit. When I hit Submit it said I had passed! There was a note saying I would receive an email within 5 business days to give them time to review and certify the results. I got that email the next day.