Passing the Alteryx Foundation Micro-Credential Certification
What it is, how it can benefit you and some tips.
First of all, you can navigate here to take it: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Certification/bd-p/product-certification
Also, check out this post introducing it from Alteryx: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alter-Nation/Introducing-Alteryx-Micro-Credentials/bc-p/959839#M1521
You can access the prep guide here: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Exam-Prep/Foundation-Micro-Credential-Exam-Prep-Guide/ta-p/958663
Recently, Alteryx introduced a new certification: the Alteryx Foundation Micro-Credential. It sits before the Alteryx Core certification.
A breakdown
- It’s free
- 1 hour long with multiple choice questions and it is an open book certification
- There are 40 questions
- If you don’t pass, you can retake again a week later
- Exam outline consists of basic data analytics (35%), basics of Alteryx designer (65%)
How it can benefit you
- This is a nice certification to take if you are at the start of your Alteryx learning journey. It's also a great one to take if you have been using Alteryx for a while as a nice refresher.
- If you are new, this will really help you understand the terms that are used when referring to certain areas, you will get awareness around the interface, what resources exist where and how key tools behave. It also brings in general data concepts which are integral to grasp before working with data.
- If you have been using Alteryx for a while as I have, you may be surprised that you missed something when you started learning to use it. A few times, I had to go back and just double-check if I was correct or not.
- Overall, this will benefit you whatever skill level you are. I personally believe that this will help the learner of Alteryx who is not ready to take the core certification to feel settled in the fundamentals.
Some Tips
- Just take it! If you fail, you can take it again a week later. I truly believe that you will learn a lot from it and have more questions coming out of it. This will encourage you to go away and learn some more.
- Read the questions carefully. You have plenty of time.
- Use google! It is open book so use the resources online to your advantage.
- Go through all of the questions that you can answer, flag the ones that you cannot and get to them at the end.
- If you are really confused, use the process of elimination. Some questions were specific to how you find certain things and where they sit within the interface. These were multiple choice. I had to double-check and followed the route to each location before selecting what I thought the answer was. Where I would be led to a dead-end, I eliminated the option.
- Use any leftover time to check over your answers.
- Get familiar with the UI and interface in general, some questions were specific to the configuration pane.
- Understand what different file extensions are: https://help.alteryx.com/20221/designer/alteryx-file-types
- Make sure that you understand what different data types do. In fact, keep this open when taking the certification: https://help.alteryx.com/20221/designer/data-types
- Familiarise yourself with the results pane and metadata pane.
- Definitely use the Alteryx Academy resources to understand the basics of what data is: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Interactive-Lessons/Defining-Data/ta-p/936428#done
- Refer to the PDF that Alteryx give you for a comprehensive guide: https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/ayx.policies/Alteryx+Foundation+MC+Exam+Prep+Guide.pdf
In summary, I think that this is a great step from Alteryx in providing a certificate that feels attainable to the early user of Alteryx but also a nice refresher for the old users. I think the PDF outlines the certification very well, with many resources listed. If you are thinking of taking it, please just do. I promise you that you will become a more confident user by the end of it all!
Good luck and most of all, enjoy it!
