How to prepare for AWS Cloud Practitioner exam
A guide to effective prep for AWS CCP exam.
Alrighty, in this piece I'll be covering all the steps of how to effectively prepare for your AWS Cloud Practitioner Examinations. I'll also share tips and best practices that helped me ace my Cloud Practitioner Test.
Do note that the details of this article are subject to the AWS guidelines in existence as of October/2023 and may change over time. With that being said, let's dive right in!
Overview
Amazon Web Service (AWS) is a tier of Amazon that offers IT solutions. Founded in 2006, AWS has niched down in the Cloud Provider space and is currently the World’s #1 Cloud Provider Service holding over 30% of the global market with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Provider (GCP) as runners-up.
AWS offers over 200 services to achieve its success and still has more in development.
AWS Certification Levels
To deliver efficiently, AWS has created different levels of certifications to help Cloud Engineers focus on specific Cloud solutions. These levels are divided into four(4): AWS Cloud Practitioner(Foundational Level), AWS Associates Level, AWS Professional Level and finally the AWS Specialty Level. They're further subdivided into different trails but the focus of this article is the AWS Cloud Practitioner Foundational.
Cloud Practitioner Exam Details
AWS offers offline and online methods for taking its certification exams, both with their pros and cons, this video explains those better, you should review it before scheduling an exam. Depending on which means you choose, you will be subjected to thorough screening before the test begins.
The Cloud Practitioner Exam has a 100-minutes (an hour and 40 minutes) exam duration. It comprises just 65 questions, the result is computed and scored over 1000. The pass mark for this exam is usually 70% i.e. 700/1000, anything below this is an automatic fail. The exam/course code for the CCP exam is CLF-C02.
There are mainly two kinds of questions, the multiple choice questions (choose two) and the single choice question (choose one). Depending on the kind of question, you're provided either 4 or 5 options. These options will contain the right choice(s) and the wrong ones, it's worth noting that every service that will be listed in the options is a real AWS service, none are made up or exaggerated, you’d do well not to overlook that fact.
AWS Cloud Practitioner (Foundational)
This course/certification provides an introduction to Amazon Web Service and covers what it offers. It demands that certified personnel understand the rudiments, concepts, values and infrastructure of AWS.
This requires that you understand certain AWS cloud concepts such as:
AWS Cloud Adoption Framework.
AWS Security.
AWS Global Infrastructure.
AWS Shared Responsibility.
AWS Storage.
AWS Virtual Private Cloud.
AWS IoT.
AWS Well-Architected Framework.
AWS Identity and Access Management.
AWS Compute.
AWS Database Services.
AWS Content Delivery and DNS Service.
AWS Analytics Service.
AWS Customer Support.
AWS Management and Governance, etc.
Courses
My best advice would be to first study through the AWS skill builder courses and achieve accreditations like Aws Partner: Accreditation (Technical), Cloud Economics Accreditation and Sales Accreditation (Business) amongst the rest. I suggest you take notes while going through the courses.
For the visual lessons, there’s the 14-hour video course but overall you'd have to get into the actual written content. The visual contents aid a good follow-along on implementing the services. You can get the Exam Cheat Sheets here, they focus on certain AWS principles and include general use cases for each service so you can directly address them to clarify any confusion.
If you're looking for something more virtual and funky then the AWS Cloud Quest: Cloud Practitioner is the course for you. It offers a game-like simulated environment and an avatar that traverses the everyday life of an AWS Cloud Practitioner while going around, solving problems with AWS that you have learnt.
Finally, the practice quiz provides a mock of the Cloud Practitioner exams they are as good as the actual exam and also give reviews on incorrect answers and links to study materials to enhance your knowledge on those areas. I believe that if you're able to achieve an average of around 85% on each test then you should be able to ace the actual exam easy-peasy, I'll leave the link to two sets of practice Quiz below for good measure.
Neal Davies Practice Test & Stephane Maarek Practice Quiz.
Do Note: you do not have to stick to one method of learning, I endorse that you enrol for all of them.
The CCP exam usually requires around 40hours of study time, a quick breakdown:
Video Courses(skill builder and other visual lectures) 20 hours.
Hands-on Lab 10 hours.
Practice Quiz 6 - 10 hours.
Extras and Revisions 4 hours or more.
Hands-On Lab (HoL)
Basically, the Hands-on Lab is a practical session used to implement the concepts you've learned so far, AWS offers a free tier account which you can use to follow up on these lessons and practicalise them without getting billed. The free tier account provides a one-year free plan and gives access to most AWS services, I suggest you crosscheck the service you're looking to launch with your free tier coverage just to be safe.
NB: the free tier account creation will require a billing card to be added upon creation.
Remarks
On average it's a fairly easy exam if you've studied enough, it took me 8 weeks to prepare for the exam without prior AWS or Cloud knowledge but I did have a good programming foundation. The Hands-on Lab and the Practice Tests will aid you a lot in your preparation. For every question there are usually at least two options that resemble the answer (for single-choice questions), you'd do well to read between the lines and search for keywords to spot the difference.
I sat for my exams in person at a Pearson Vue centre and the experience was pretty cool, the staff were friendly and communicated properly, the facilities were adequate for the task, I'd urge you to engage at a Test Center but if that would be a hassle then writing remotely is fine as long as you adhere to the rules. I recommend that you study for the AWS Cloud Practitioner from the perspective of developing your cloud skills rather than just passing the exams, that way you can put your knowledge into proper use.
Certain perks come with passing your CCP exams such as an invite to the AWS Certified Community, a discount on your next certification exam, digital badges and others.
These are the links to some useful courses that would provide you with the necessary knowledge for the Cloud Practitioner exam:
AWS Skill Builder (Enroll and complete the accreditation courses).
Try to apply the AWS concepts to real-life scenarios for easier remembrance, make an effort to push yourself to complete the courses. That's about everything you need to know, good luck with your exams, my best regards.