My two cents on Cloudera CCA Spark and Hadoop Developer Exam (CCA175)
I have recently cleared my Cloudera CCA Spark and Hadoop Developer Exam (CCA175) and while my memory is freshened up i would like to provide the insights of certification and my personal experience about the exam.
Before appearing the exam, i have visited a lot of blogs, websites and study materials and found a tons of stuff but in bits and pieces. So i have collated all the information from different sources and tried to put that in a single place so that it can be helpful for all those guys who are planning to appear for this certification.
Why CCA 175?
There are so many Big Data certification exams available in market like Big Data Certifications from MapR, Big Data Certifications from Horton Works and Big Data Certifications from Cloudera.
I guess, if you are reading this blog, you already have made your mind to give this exam, however for those who are new or in dilemma and not able to decide, can think of the rational that it’s a hands-on (practical) exam which will help you to get a good understanding of big data eco system along with Hadoop and Spark. So even if you haven’t work on any big data project, still you can get confidence to appear for this exam.
CCA175 Exam Details and Registration:
This exam is a performance based hands- on and remote proctored exam for which you have to write your solutions on Cloudera Enterprise Cluster and it can be taken anytime anywhere.
Number of Questions: 8–12 as per Cloudera official website but what i have read and got is that you will get around 9–10 questions.
Time Limit: 120 minutes
Passing Score: 70%
Exam Cost: 295$+(Taxes)
Cloudera cluster comes with a lot of pre-installed and configured applications. Currently Cloudera exam cluster runs on version CDH 5.15.
For more details about the applications which are already installed in cluster you can visit the below official page from Cloudera for certification.
https://www.cloudera.com/about/training/certification/cca-spark.html
In order to schedule you exam you have to follow these steps.
· First create an account on https://www.cloudera.com/about/training.html
once you have created your account go to link https://university.cloudera.com/content/cca175 and buy the certification voucher. Certification voucher is valid for one year. Voucher is valid for only one attempt.
· After getting mail from Cloudera of your successful purchase you can go to https://www.examslocal.com// and can schedule you exam. Please note that you can re-schedule or cancel your exam date until 24 hours
before the scheduled date and you can do as many number of times as you want.
What do you need in exam:-
You need a laptop or a desktop with web camera and google chrome browser installed in it. The most important thing is try to get a bigger screen so that you can read the text properly on Cloudera cluster.
You also need to check whether your system is compatible or not. In order to do that run compatibility test. You can do this by either login in your exam local account or go to https://www.examslocal.com/ScheduleExam/Home/CompatibilityCheck and select option 3 with sponsor as Cloudera and exam as CCA175.
Internet with a good speed minimum 500Kbps download and 256Kbps upload but it is recommended to get a internet with speed of 5Mbps or higher download and upload. Also keep in mind that if you are giving exams in your office , make sure firewall rules are turned off, so that your program can access the files during execution if needed. Have another internet option in case of any issue.
A room with bright light so that proctor could see your face all the time.
Do’s and Dont’s:-
First and foremost, make sure that there is no one else except you during the exam.
· Close all the screens, tabs and any updates or any software or pop ups in your system. The only software open is Chrome and the only tab which is allowed to be opened up during the exam is your examlocal tab.
· Make sure your table is clean; there should not be any pen, phone or piece of paper on your table.
· CCA175 exam is a no break exam, so you can’t move away from your machine for two hours once exam is started. Proctor will ask you to use washroom or drink water before starting the exam, use it if you need.
· Proctor will ask you to share the screen and the webcam. Please share when asked.
· During the exam if you need any help, you can ping the Proctor in the Chat box. Proctor won’t have any idea on questions being asked in exam. He can only help if there is any issue in connectivity, before the exam please note that customer care number of examlocal as in my case the whole connection was gone and nobody was there to reply me so i had to call their customer care.
· Don’t chew or drink anything, otherwise proctor might cancel the exam and as this can cost your exam.
· Try not to murmur otherwise proctor will ping you to shut your mouth.
· Don’t sit right under the light as your face would not be clearly visible to proctor.
Study Material and Hands On: -
The topics on which Cloudera exam is based can be find on link https://www.cloudera.com/about/training/certification/cca-spark.html
In Cloudera exam you will be asked to provide solution, there is not any rule on choosing the solution method. Basically, you get a problem statement and you write a solution to get the desired output. You can choose whatever solution you think is the best and you can write.
I followed videos on You Tube by ITversity.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf0swTFhTI8q0x0V1E6We5zBQ9UazHFY0 — if you are interested in providing solution using Scala.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf0swTFhTI8rT3ApjBqt338MCO0ZvReFt — if you are interested in providing solution using Python.
For practice the questions which are similar to exam questions , you can buy the practice tests on Udemy.
Keep in mind that these exam questions are not the real exam questions , however they will give you an idea that which type of questions are asked. Try to finish these practice tests 5–10 minutes before , as you will be practicing these exams in your local machine and in actual exam you will be writing your solution on Cloudera VM which is a wee bit slow.
For more practice, you can follow Arun’s blog. Some questions in this blog are not very much clear , but you will get an idea about scenarios and problems.
http://arun-teaches-u-tech.blogspot.com/?_sm_au_=iHVQ12Fs7375sbLV
For hands on , i would strongly recommend if you download Cloudera VM from the link https://www.cloudera.com/downloads/quickstart_vms/5-13.html or you can subscribe to ITVersity cluster which is a paid version but totally worth.
You can check the cost details on ITVersity website. I did my practice on Cloudera VM.
Things to remember:
· First of all, don’t panic and be calm, take a deep breath and make yourself believe that you can clear the exam.
· You will get 9–10 questions in exam, so on an average 10 minutes for each question. Try to write the code in a text editor, i used sublime text editor so that if something goes wrong on execution, you won’t have to write the solution from scratch.
· You can open multiple terminals, so i opened two terminals, one for checking the solution files and path and one for writing the code.
· If you are setting any compression codec for any problem make sure you set it uncompressed after the completion of your problem.
· If you are practicing your exam by using spark 1.6 or spark 2.3 , stick to it and write your solution in exam by using that version only. Don’t change your mind in exam as you would get confused by syntax.
· Try not to start your spark shell by mentioning additional configurations like num-mappers or execution-memory until problem statement specifically ask for it. Existing configuration will work fine and you will be able to process the large data set in time.
· Try to solve the easy questions first and don’t waste time on complex questions. First aim to get 70%, which mean you have to write 7 questions correct out of 9–10 and then go for 100%.
· Try to verify your solution by checking the output file and location just after you have successfully completed the problem, don’t leave it for last minute.
· Schedule your exams on weekdays, as i guess cluster would be fast as compare to weekends. This is what i read in other blogs.
· After your exam completion, close all the terminals don’t leave your machine in an inconsistent state.
· Please learn all the compression codecs and file format conversions by heart, you will get documentation in exam on main page, but it will waste your time.
· One common mistake i have read in blogs about CSV file. If problem says save your output in CSV format then only use comma as separator, otherwise use the separator mentioned in problem statement and don’t save it as CSV.
· Time is the key in order to clear this exam, so keep an eye on time while you are solving the problems, you can ask to proctor about time left for your exam any time you want.
· Don’t forget to watch the videos and Certification FAQs on Cloudera website, this will help to understand look and feel about exam environment and how you can chat to proctor etc.
Exam Result and Re-take policy:
Once you will complete your exam, you will get an email with score card with result as Pass or Fail and this will land straight into your Junk folder. So check your Junk folder after 30 mins. If you have passed your exam, you will get your certificate in 2–3 business days.
Unfortunately, if you don’t succeed in your exam, you can reschedule it after 30 days.
So in a nut shell, i can say practice and practice, you will crack this exam. If you have any questions, feel free to ask and i will try to answer all your queries to the best of my knowledge. You can also connect me on LinkedIn.
Best of Luck!!
