How to study and pass AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification Exam (CCP — CLF-C01)
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is an outstanding cloud service provider of Amazon. Like Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), AWS operates in many regions and availability zones, offering hundreds of services globally, including computing, storage, and database.
So, if you work in IT, or if you wish to work in IT, it is essential to have a basic understanding of these cloud service providers. As AWS is a clear market leader, my recommendation is to start by learning it over its competitors.
Below is the AWS suggestion for the learning/certification path, which naturally starts with the Foundational Certification — AWS Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C01):
By studying to complete this certification, you will have a clear understanding of how the AWS platform works, the basic building blocks behind it, and most of the critical AWS services (if not all).
I recently cleared the AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification Exam, and thought of sharing my view on it, as well as the path I took to complete this certification.
The most common question related to this certification is Do I need hands-on experience in AWS, or a computer science background to complete it? The answer here is No.
It will obviously help if you have experience, but as the exam only contains multiple-choice questions, you can easily ace it by studying and watching some videos on the platform.
So, when I decided to complete the certification, I gathered 3 types of resources:
- A comprehensive course focused on the exam topics
- Exam examples to practice
- AWS free documentation
And for 2 weeks, after work, I would focus on studying for the exam.
AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification (CCP) Course
I used the following Udemy Course to learn all the topics of the exam, plus a practice exam at the end:
https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-cloud-practitioner-new/
During the course, he recommends that you create an AWS account and reproduce everything that he is doing.
In my case, I just followed and comprehended the videos without reproducing them in my AWS account. You can definitely do it, but it will probably slow down your progress.
AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification (CCP) practice exams
After completing the course mentioned above, I focused on practising for exams.
I only took the certification once I could consistently get more than 90% score on the practice exams. To do this, I used the following Udemy courses, with 6 practice exams each:
- https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-cloud-practitioner-practice-test/
- https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-cloud-practitioner-practice-exams-c/
You can also find many practice exams on YouTube.
Both during the course and practice exams, I would frequently use the AWS documentation to clarify any questions that I might have.
AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification (CCP) exam
You can read the details of the exams by clicking here, but here is an overview:
- No Pre-requisite
- Costs 100 USD
- 65 Questions (Multiple Choice and Multiple Response)
- 1 Attempts — If you fail, you can repeat it as many times as you want, but you must wait 14 days until your next attempt and will have to pay 100 USD every time
- Delivery Method — Testing center or online proctored exam
- Time — 90 minutes to complete the exam
- Pass Minimum Score — 70
Conclusion
Nowadays I use AWS daily, and I can definitely say that completing the certification gave me an edge. I have a clear understanding of many core services, and I understand the best use case for each feature, leading to better optimizations, cost savings, and increased cloud security.
Besides that, having a certification under your belt can prove helpful in this competitive industry.
Best of luck!
