My Experience with CloudKasthiram 2020
First, what is Cloud Kasthiram?
I never knew what the CloudKasthiram is when I was registering for the challenge. So I think there might be students like me and this is the best time I can share what I know about this CloudKasthiram.
Basically, CloudKasthiram is a challenge which is based on the Google Cloud Platform organized by GDG Sri Lanka. The challenge was to complete only 6 labs of 11 labs which were provided by the CloudKasthiram team within the given time period. After completing a lab they are providing a badge and that is the certification of completion. So that means to complete the challenge, six badges must be collected. Other than that, if anyone wants to get all the badges they can also complete all the quests.
From where did I get to know about CloudKasthiram and how did I register for the challenge?
I got to know about CloudKasthiram from the GDG Sri Lanka Facebook page. Then I registered myself for the challenge using the provided google form and received their confirmation email.
Link to GDG Sri Lanka Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/GDGSriLanka
What motivated me to complete the challenge?
It was offering an awesome SWAG pack. So that is the true reason I wanted to complete this challenge.
But when I got to know that GDG is providing us something beyond the swag like basic to advance knowledge about GCP with its operations and one-month free access to the Qwiklabs to get hands-on experience by practicing them and also lifetime valid certifications, that was the point I decided to complete this as soon as possible and complete all the labs without stopping after completing 6 labs.
But I had a challenge in completing this because this is the very first time I attempted learning cloud technologies. I only had very basic knowledge about it. If I say I had zero knowledge that is 100% true.
What are the mistakes I made, how did I overcome them and what are the best plans I executed when completing the quests?
There are a few things that happened to me and I will explain them one by one below.
In the very beginning, I did not read the guidelines given by the CloudKasthiram team and the guidelines given under the Qwiklabs lab sheets properly. So that caused me to block my account. So, I took a screenshot of the error popped by the system and I posted that in slack. People who were available at that time were helping me to solve my issue. All of them were helping each other. So that’s how helpful they were. I used this way and there was another way of requesting solutions from Qwiklabs support. Both methods worked for me.
Even though I was very new to GCP and to the cloud concepts I was attempting in an advanced lab at the beginning. Then I realized this is wasting my time. So, I found some easy labs and I tried them all. After completing them I gain some knowledge to complete the previously failed quest and completed it.
I was sticking into one lab even though I can’t provide the expected answer. So that causes me to exceed my subscription quota. I did not know that I can attempt only 5 times in one lab. So again I had to get support from Qwiklabs support and renew my subscription quota.
Before attempting to challenge labs, I referred to all of the other labs (it was a must to complete all labs to generate the badges) and maintained my own note rather than going back and checking the previous labs again and again.
What have I learned eventually?
How to create and manage cloud resources
deploy and manage cloud environments
How to Build websites on Google Cloud
How to use DevOps, Kubernetes, Machine Learning kind of technologies along with google cloud
What do I need to share with others?
For the students who would like to create their career paths with cloud engineering, this might be the starting point. Because in my case this was the very first time I learned about Google Cloud Platform(GCP) and its operations. But now, I do have an idea to continue learning about cloud technologies further. Anyhow now the challenge is over. But who has the true intention to participate in this challenge they can register for next year’s challenge, gain some knowledge, and complete CloudKasthiram successfully.
