How I prepared myself for the AWS Cloud Practitioner Certificate

#aws #cloud #cloudcomputing #beginners

Once you choose a technology life, Cloud is inevitable. ☁️

The hottest trend in the information technology field is Cloud Computing, and you will bump into it. It is a matter of time.
This happened to me in my second job as a developer (I changed careers into software development around two years ago, after my 40s, and having no tech background). After almost a year of mainly handling components in React in a frontend environment, with minimal contact with the deployment circle, I started to work as a full-stack developer in a startup, and the stack included AWS.

If you're in the same boat, an absolute beginner like I was when I first started, I recommend taking a quick detour to this article first: Cloud Computing: What it is and why should tech beginners learn it?.

AWS

AWS is made up of many different Cloud Computing products and services, and I often find myself lost in the midst of tools I had never heard of before, such as AWS Lambdas, API Gateway, Amazon S3, and others. At that moment, I realized that it was crucial knowledge for growing in my career, and I decided to explore more about this new, exciting world called Cloud Computing.
If you are new to AWS, the AWS Cloud Practitioner certification exam serves as your entry point. I didn’t need a certification to perform my work. However, certificates give you visibility and help you to show off your achievements and learning. With the advancement of technology and the growth of the number of professionals in tech, certifications have become a way of presenting a competitive advantage.

The exam 💻

The AWS Cloud Practitioner exam tests your foundational understanding of AWS Cloud concepts, services, and terminologies. You have 90 minutes to complete the exam, with 65 questions, either multiple-choice or multiple responses. The test costs USD 100, and the score goes from 100 to 1,000. The minimum passing score is 700.
You can take the exam at the Pearson VUE testing center or online. I decided to do it in person to avoid concerns such as power outages, internet dropout risks, or the requirements related to the online exam.
If you don’t have a testing center close by or prefer to do it online, be aware of the requirements to guarantee the integrity of the test, such as asking you to show the room and check you via the webcam the whole time to ensure you look at your screen only. Avoid noise and keep your desk and surroundings clear of multiple objects. Ensure you are alone or ask your family not to disturb you during your exam. And don’t forget to have your identification document nearby.
I have heard of cases where people had their exams canceled due to issues like these, so pay attention to what they ask you to do before the exam.
This exam can be completed in the following languages: English, French (France), German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Simplified Chinese, Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Spain), and Traditional Chinese.
The exam will include questions on four main domains: Cloud Concepts (26%), Security and Compliance (25%), Technology (33%), and Billing and Pricing (16%).
The exam is not divided by domain sections. The questions can include more than one area, depending on the service. You don’t need to achieve a passing score in each section. You only need to pass the overall exam.

Preparation for the exam 📚

Fortunately, I got all the support from the AWS CloudUp for Hāpori Wāhine Program, the CloudUp for Her Cloud Practitioner in New Zealand. It is an online bootcamp that provides you with resources and support to prepare yourself for the exam. It’s planned for women to support women in getting to know the Cloud.
Being surrounded by a supportive and incredible team of women makes an immensely positive impact on your journey. However, you can definitely prepare yourself well and for free to take the exam and get the certification beautifully. Essentially, the content of the bootcamp lies in what is already provided by AWS on their pages.
I completed the AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials course and other free courses offered at the AWS training and certification page. I also checked out some of the resources listed at the end of this article.
You can find more details of the AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials course in this article How to get started with AWS (for absolute beginners).
The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner page and documentation already include valuable resources.
Once you delve into the content, understanding what problem each service solves and its corresponding use cases is vital. My exam included many questions simulating a customer's necessity, and I needed to choose the best service to sort that demand.
The quantity of services is vast, and it is impossible to know everything, but there are some critical points for you to look at closely.

Cloud Concepts:

Benefits of the cloud - e.g., elasticity, agility, scalability, pay-as-you-go, economy of scale.
The aspects of AWS Cloud economics - e.g., understanding labor costs associated with on-premises operations, right-sized infrastructure, and managed services (e.g., RDS, ECS, EKS, DynamoDB).
The different cloud architecture design principles, e.g., design for failure and decoupled components versus monolithic architecture.

Security and Compliance:

Shared responsibility model.
Cloud security and compliance concepts - e.g., identify different encryption options on AWS (e.g., In transit, At rest), describe who enables encryption on AWS for a given service, understand the concept of least privileged access, Amazon CloudWatch, AWS Config, AWS CloudTrail, etc.
AWS access management capabilities - e.g., MFA, IAM.
Resources for security support - e.g., security groups, Network ACLs, Transit Gateway, Load Balancer, AWS Shield, AWS WAF, AWS Trusted Advisor, and AWS Inspector.

Technology

Understanding the methods of operating in the AWS Cloud - e.g., programmatic access, APIs, SDKs, AWS Management Console, CLI, Infrastructure as Code, different cloud deployment models (cloud native, hybrid, and on-premises), and connectivity options.
Learn about AWS global infrastructure - e.g., Regions, Availability Zones, Edge Locations, disaster recovery/business continuity, Amazon CloudFront, and AWS Global Accelerator.
Identify the core AWS services - e.g., compute services (AWS Lambda, Amazon ECS, EC2, etc.), storage services (Amazon S3, EBS, EFS, the Snowball family, AWS Storage Gateway, etc.), networking services (Amazon Route 53, VPC, VPN, AWS Direct Connect, etc.), database services (Amazon RDS, DynamoDB, Redshift, etc.).

Billing and Pricing

Learn to compare and contrast the various pricing models for AWS (e.g., On-Demand Instances, Reserved Instances, and Spot Instance pricing) to find the best fit.
Understand the account structures of AWS billing and pricing - e.g., AWS Organizations.
Understand resources available for billing support - e.g., Cost Explorer, AWS Cost and Usage Report, and QuickSight.
Review AWS support plans, their benefits, and to whom each plan applies, and try to understand how to improve the cost of services.

Final considerations 📌

The coolest thing about the journey of preparing for certification is the knowledge we get while studying for the exam. I could understand what I was doing at work, as well as many other related things I didn’t know about before the certification.
I have no regrets about the time I spent preparing for my AWS Cloud Practitioner Certificate exam, and I enjoyed all the steps of my rewarding learning journey. I have been collecting countless benefits from it since I first started, such as being invited by friends to create and run a new AWS meetup group focused on Tools and Programming, where I could start to help beginners like me take their first steps into this fantastic world. After becoming an AWS User Group leader in 2023, I also became an AWS Community Builder in the same year, and it has been wonderful so far!

AWS often promotes fantastic certification campaigns and sometimes even 100% discount vouchers. To keep an eye on these campaigns, follow AWS and AWS Technical Trainers on social media and LinkedIn.
Once you receive your certificate, practice what you have learned and begin building cloud projects. There are many cool beginner projects on the Internet for you to start putting your hands on.
You can find additional resources to keep upskilling in the list of free AWS training courses available in my GitHub repository: Free AWS training courses.

I hope I have helped you succeed in your exam! 🚀

Note: I share my experience in this article regarding taking the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C01) exam. AWS now offers the CLF-C02 exam, which includes new services and area improvements. The study resources shared in this article have already been updated by their owners to match the latest version. The structure, including the number of questions, passing score, and other details, remains the same.