How I passed the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

Last February 2020, I've passed the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Exam. It is the easiest of all the AWS exams as it is a foundational exam. This certification proves that you have fundamental understanding of IT services and their uses in the AWS Cloud, and demonstrated cloud fluency and foundational AWS knowledge. It's quite intimidating as I don't have working experience in AWS, neither background knowledge on its services. In this post, I'll share with you the resource I've used, and some tips as well, in order to pass the exam.

The first one is the AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials (Second Edition). This is a free course from AWS itself. It provides a detailed overview of cloud concepts, AWS services, security, architecture, pricing, and support.

Another free course I've used is the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Training 2020 - Full Course by Andrew Brown. This is a very good course and I highly recommend watching it. He provides exam tips, and also follow-along labs.

I would also recommend you to read the AWS whitepapers and FAQs, specially the Overview of Amazon Web Services and AWS Well-Architected Framework.

The last resource that I highly recommend is a Udemy course - AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Practice Exams by Jon Bonso. This course/practice exam is always up-to-date. Bear in mind that this is not a free course and its cost varies as Udemy often offer sales. I got this course for $10.99.

Exam Preparation Tips

Schedule you exam ahead, based on your self-assessment on how long you'll be needing to prepare. In my case, I prepared for 2 weeks.
You can reschedule your exam twice if for instance that you would still need some more time, or something happened along the way. Please be wary that rescheduling exam should be done 24 hours prior to your scheduled date and time.
Retake the practice exams until you're pretty confident or you reach at least 85% score.
Do not memorize the practice exams, instead, focus on understanding the AWS concepts.
During exam:
- Flag questions which you are not sure of your answers.
- Do not leave any questions unanswered.
- Review your answers if you still have time.
Schedule you exam ahead, based on your self-assessment on how long you'll be needing to prepare. In my case, I prepared for 2 weeks.
You can reschedule your exam twice if for instance that you would still need some more time, or something happened along the way. Please be wary that rescheduling exam should be done 24 hours prior to your scheduled date and time.
Retake the practice exams until you're pretty confident or you reach at least 85% score.
Do not memorize the practice exams, instead, focus on understanding the AWS concepts.
During exam:
- Flag questions which you are not sure of your answers.
- Do not leave any questions unanswered.
- Review your answers if you still have time.
Schedule you exam ahead, based on your self-assessment on how long you'll be needing to prepare. In my case, I prepared for 2 weeks.
You can reschedule your exam twice if for instance that you would still need some more time, or something happened along the way. Please be wary that rescheduling exam should be done 24 hours prior to your scheduled date and time.
Retake the practice exams until you're pretty confident or you reach at least 85% score.
Do not memorize the practice exams, instead, focus on understanding the AWS concepts.
During exam:
- Flag questions which you are not sure of your answers.
- Do not leave any questions unanswered.
- Review your answers if you still have time.

That's all folks! Hope you'll pass the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Exam with flying colors!

Please share this post if you find it helpful.

Thanks! Cheers!