TensorFlow Developer Certificate: Passed!
I am today proudly a TensorFlow Developer Certificated! Here is my journey. May it inspire and help you to do it too!
An enthusiastic reader of machine learning news, I came across this TensorFlow Developer Certificate. Google Tensorflow team developed an exam to grant you access to a certificate network. So you could find TensorFlow’s experts all over the world on google maps. Check it here.
Are you like me? Do you get excited to get your name on the map? Yes, that is a little childish but whatever get you going is good!
If you’re asking yourself what is Tensorflow, to begin with? You’re in the right place.
Let’s get started!
What is Tensorflow?
Tensorflow is an open-source framework developed by Google for machine learning. Their site is well documented, it is easy to learn from their tutorials. TensorFlow also integrated Keras into its framework. Keras, an amazing library initially developed by the talented François Chollet in python for deep learning models.
The exam tests your TensorFlow knowledge. In my case, TensorFlow was already my favorite library, so it piqued my curiosity to see if I can make it. Can I prove to myself that I can belong to this community of TensorFlow fellows?
So first, you have to get the motivation. Whatever works for you: Recognition, fun to have your name on the google maps app, test your knowledge. If you have the motivation you got already half the challenge :)
Now, let’s get the tools to achieve it!
How did I prepare?
I read so many articles about people taking the exam. This helps me put together my to-do list. I’m gonna give you the conclusion of all my readings and how you can put together your own roadmap.
Assess your starting point: your situation!
Prerequisites:
So here it depends on your situation. For my part, I already had a mathematical background and got the certification on DeepLearning Specialization with Andrew Ng.
If you are not there yet, you can take Coursera’s course with Andrew Ng or learn from the youtube playlist of Andrew Ng and practice on your own.
Let’s get to it!
After getting the basics, you can take the Coursera Tensorflow Developer Certificate taught by Laurence Moroney. You will see 95% of what is needed in the exam. I read about people taking the 7 days free trial of the course and watching the videos with the maximum speed. The exercises are on google Colab with their solution. Find what works for you.
Laurence Moroney is the best teacher ever …just after Andrew Ng(Sorry Laurence! Andrew Ng is the first guy that explains to me how to transform linear algebra into Neural networks, that was magical! ). I already saw many of his videos on Youtube so I knew this would be fun.
When I finished the Coursera courses, I couldn’t take the exam directly for personal reasons. So I waited many months before being able to take the exam. To refresh my knowledge I found the videos of George Zoto. He created a community of people preparing for the exam. He shared slides of the courses and many tools and tips. He even created Trivia games for Tensorflow certification. That was so fun! Thank you George Zoto!
At this point you are ready!
What machine to take the exam?
If you have a GPU, that will save you so many hours of training. If not, you have to use google Colab with free GPU. Be sure to take the right versions on Colab. You can also pay for hours on the cloud. To see what your machine can do, try the TensorFlow tutorials on local and see if it is too long or not.
The exam is on Pycharm so you have to install it following the installation guide of the exam. Make sure to have the required versions. Try to play with Pycharm. For my part I tried to compile the tutorials on the Tensorflow website, I resolved any problem I had before taking the exam.
Conclusion:
This is the roadmap:
1- Get motivated
2- Watch videos, read articles, learn about deep learning
3- Take the Coursera Tensorflow developer certification or watch only the videos on Youtube or assist as a listener for free.
4- Install Pycharm and test your local machine
5- Test the Tensorflow tutorials on local
And that’s it! Hope you’re motivated to try it for yourself. Don’t hesitate to ask me your questions in the comments if you need any help.
Ressources
- Coursera
- Playlist of Tensorflow
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOU2XLYxmsII9mzQ-Xxug4l2o04JBrkLV
- George Zoto video
and his git hub repository:
https://github.com/georgezoto/TensorFlow-in-Practice
- Trivial game in
https://quizizz.com/join/quiz/5e87bdbc07fa7f001b120404/start?referrer=5d921444d0fa99001a135336
