How I became an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner?

How I became an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner?

This blog is a detailed roadmap on how to take the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Essentials Exam for FREE and all the resources to help you ace it!

While some of us might just want to explore Cloud Technologies, it is more of an imperative field that demands a good amount of hands-on and theoretical knowledge. AWS has a series of exams that are globally recognized as one of the most standardized knowledge checks for DevOps and Cloud engineers working all over the world on Amazon Web Services.

There are more than one million active AWS Certifications, a number that grew more than 29% over the past year. More than 650K individuals hold associate, professional, or specialty AWS certifications.

AWS Certification validates cloud expertise to help professionals highlight in-demand skills and organizations build effective, innovative teams for cloud initiatives using AWS. One can choose from diverse certification exams by role and specialty designed to empower individuals and teams to meet their unique goals.

Amazon Web Services :: Pearson VUE

What to begin with?

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CCP) examination is the most fundamental level certification one must clear to step into cloud technology and make your career out of it. Be it, students, in technology, professionals working with organizations and companies which have their infrastructure hosted on AWS, or the ones who are looking forward to making a career in DevOps or other Cloud-based domains, this certification is where you begin your journey at.

I took my CCP exam on the 10th of December and successfully bagged my certificate and the confidence, to begin with, the hands-on AWS Console to some extent. I would share my experience of the same, how I scheduled and prepared for the exam and you too could get AWS certified in a month!

CCP examination costs 100 USD, however, AWS hosts certain programs that can give you FREE vouchers, which I got through ‘She Builds — CloudUp’ by AWS.

About She Builds — CloudUp:

  1. It is a program for women in technology who help provide free vouchers, training, and scholarship programs for women, besides various awesome webinars and talks where you could stay updated with the amazing tech world and its advancements.

  2. They generally roll out google forms for application over LinkedIn and even e-mails(in case you have been a part of it before), for the fresh cohorts in the program.

  3. Some mentors and guides would ensure your learning, training and free Q/A sessions regularly during which you can practice and brush up your knowledge and even ask your doubts in the respective sessions.

  4. You will be enrolled in a dedicated Slack Channel where you can talk to your fellow mates, and women from your country as well as connect to them for any sort of doubts you have during the preparation and even learn from the experiences and resources shared by those who have already appeared for CCP previously.

  5. You can cover almost 70% — 80 % of your preparation from the ‘Cloud Practitioner Essentials’ digital training, exclusively designed by AWS insiders at :

AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials

Learn fundamentals of the AWS Cloud This updated digital course is for individuals who want to develop a fundamental…

aws.amazon.com

6. On completion of this course and the Skill Assessment test at the end of it, you will be given a certificate of completion over your registered e-mail. Keep a screenshot (SS1) of it as you would need it to claim your voucher. (You can keep your own pace but be sure the program is still ongoing, I completed it in two weeks tho!)

7. Your second task would be to take a mock test at the site given to you by the AWS She Builds community and score a minimum of 70% in it. Take a screenshot of your result (SS2) and save it as well.

You’re almost there! Just send these screenshots (SS1 and SS2) along with the other details that they have requested from you through e-mail and send them to the respective official mail as mentioned in the community guidelines or the e-mail you received.

Within a span of a maximum of 5 business days, you will be replied to with your unique voucher code. With this, you can log in to your AWS Certification Account from AWS Skill Builder and schedule your exam for free using Pearson Vue. (Just be sure you are using the same e-mail ID to register everywhere).

You can even reschedule the exam twice in case you aren’t confident of your preparation or other purposes. Prepare at your own pace and take your exam to see the cool badge and certificate added to your profile!

Caution: The exam can be taken only ONCE with a single voucher, so please practice enough and be confident about your attempt!

Exam Details you require

Exam Pattern: MCQ with single or Multi-option correct

No. of Questions: 65 (50 scored questions and 15 unscored)

Total Time allowed: 90 mins

Mode of Exam: AI Proctored (They are relatively very strict, can ask you to pause the exam and show you around the room anytime in case they feel issues).

Fun fact: I was asked to remove the pillows from my bed and keep it devoid of everything other than my laptop! :)

Resources to ace your exam -

You can find dumps and take practice quizzes from :

  1. https://d1.awsstatic.com/training-and-certification/docs-cloud-practitioner/AWS-Certified-Cloud-Practitioner_Sample-Questions.pdf

  2. https://free-braindumps.com/amazon/free-aws-certified-cloud-practitioner-braindumps.html?p=1

  3. https://quizlet.com/376424890/aws-cloud-practitioner-practice-exam-questions-flash-cards

  4. https://priyadogra.com/aws-cloud-practitioner-essentials-quiz-answers/

  5. AWS itself has a package of 65 questions that you can take before the final exam to test the exact environment, level of questions, and time constraints.

    And taddaaaa... finally you get AWS Certified with a fantastic digital badge that you could flaunt around on your LinkedIn profile!

For any further queries, you can reach out to me anytime at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sankitamandal/

Go get your shot and the chance to start with AWS! All the best!

PS: Stay tuned to this blog series for all your AWS-related questions and follow "Women in Cloud Native" to get along your cloud journey :)