How I Aced The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Exam

If you want to start your cloud computing journey, one of the first exams worth considering is the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam. It’s an accredited beginner certificate that I’d highly recommend to anyone looking to learn more about cloud computing or looking to get their first exam under their belt.

In this article, I will give an overview of the steps I took to prepare and ace the exam

Why take the exam?

“This credential helps organizations identify and develop talent with critical knowledge related to implementing cloud initiatives. Earning AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner validates cloud fluency and foundational AWS knowledge.” — Amazon

If you’re new to cloud development, it’s a great way to get a flavour of the problems you’d solve on a day to day basis and the thought process behind being a cloud developer.

How did I study for the exam?

1. Studied the basics required to pass the exam using the course https://acloudguru.com/course/aws-certified-cloud-practitioner on “A Cloud Guru” taking notes as I went along as well as working through the hands on labs

2. Read up on the Whitepapers suggested by the course as well as AWS:

• https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/shared-responsibility-model/
• https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/
• AWS Well-Architected Framework — AWS Well-Architected Framework (skimmed)

3. Understand what I’d be examined on using the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Exam Guide

4. Practise the exam Questions using the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Practice Exams 2022 — Tutorials Dojo

• This resource contained 5 practice exams that also go into detail about the reasoning behind what the right and wrong is.
• This was extremely useful as with any questions I didn’t fully understand, I’d explore the resources that gave a wider background regarding the topic, take notes and study the resources.
• Before long, I was able to score above 80% in all 5 practice exams.
• I then booked the real exam (the pass mark for the exam is ~70%).

The practice exams on Tutorials Dojo can be taken 1 question at a time. This made it clear to me what wasn’t covered in the ‘A Cloud Guru’ course and allowed me to take more notes down on those ideas/concepts/ services I was unfamiliar with and to understand them.

What I would’ve done differently if I were to improve my studying

The Cloud Guru course is a good introductory course but alone, isn’t enough to pass the exam. (I’ve attached some Reddit forums below that should be taken with a grain of salt).

• r/AWSCertifications — Do not use a cloud guru at all… my experience.
• r/AWSCertifications — Best Study Method for CCP with aCloudGuru Course?

This is what I would recommend to overcome this problem:

• I would have provisioned my own infrastructure in mini projects to interact more with the videos. This would have given me a first-hand experience with services I don’t typically use in my day-to-day role to help cement the concepts that would be present in the examination.
• Alternatively, I would suggest looking into more detailed resources for concepts you’re unfamiliar with or consider other courses to supplement ACG or another course altogether that may be more detailed and require a larger investment of time.

Exam Tips

• The whitepapers have quite a lot of core concepts that are very helpful to know when taking the exam. Don’t skip on reading them.
• Double-check to make sure you select the correct number of options in a question. (Some require 2 answers and this is an easy way to drop marks.)
• Think through what the question is asking you and remember what each service actually does by visualising the AWS platform.
• Take the time to think about what each service in the question is used for, has it come up before in a previous question where you knew the answer and can eliminate it.
• Flag questions you’re unsure of and move on. Come back to them later and take the time to think them through before deciding on an answer

Hopefully my experience will help others better prepare for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect exam!

How have you found preparing for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect exam? What would you have done differently? Leave your comments below to share some tips and Happy Learning!