AWS Cloud Practitioner Journey - Resources
Tags: aws, cloud, beginners
Published: 2021-04-09 22:04:56

Cloud skills are becoming important in our roles as developers. One way to begin our path to learn about cloud computing is to take our first certification. The AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification is an optional step if you want to get an Associate or Specialty certification, but it's recommended since you get the exam experience while also validating your knowledge on the basics of AWS Cloud.

Here is the [Cloud Practitioner Official Description] (https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-cloud-practitioner/). Notice it is recommended to have around six months of experience using AWS - but it's not necessary, you might need to dedicate around a week or two to be prepared for the exam.

What is important is actually getting experience practicing for the exam itself. My recommendation is to take a course covering all the contents of Cloud Practitioner certification and then get practice exams.

For courses I recommend these: 

[AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials](https://www.aws.training/Details/Curriculum?id=27076)
This course is good for beginners and people with IT backgrounds as well. It gives explanations to every subject using videos and illustrations. At the end of each chapter you will be given a small quiz to test your knowledge.

[Freecodecamp - AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Training 2020](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hLmDS179YE)
This course is a 4-hour in-depth video that covers everything you will encounter in the exam. It is less illustrative than AWS's training so I would recommend this video for people with an IT background and who need to cover the exam's content as soon as possible.

Choose the course you like the most, and then move on to the practice exams. In my case, I used this [Udemy course](https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-cloud-practitioner-practice-test/) to study for the certification. 

In this course you are given 6 practice exams, you are able to take each exam as many times as you wish and you can review your correct/incorrect answers. Each question has detailed answer explanations, so it is recommended for you to review each incorrect answer on your practice exams so you can compare your previous knowledge and improve your score. 

The first time I did the exams I scored about 68% in each one of them. Just review the exam's answers and why the answer you thought was right is incorrect. The next time you take any of these exams you will score around 85%-90% ;) and you will be ready for your certification. 

I would say to do these exams every other day before your certification so you get an idea of which content you need to review.

While I strongly recommend getting the Udemy course, you can also check these free resources:
[Official sample questions by AWS](https://d1.awsstatic.com/training-and-certification/docs-cloud-practitioner/AWS-Certified-Cloud-Practitioner_Sample-Questions.pdf) 10 example questions with answers
[Youtube Practice Test](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXKE1SfityA) This video is similar to the content you will get in Udemy tests, but mostly without explanations of the correct/incorrect answers. 

I hope these resources can help you on your cloud journey! :) If you already got your certification, feel free to comment on any other resource you found useful to study from.