Amazon web services (aws): essencial geek university videos

Introduction to AWS Certifications

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the most popular cloud platforms out there, and they offer an extensive suite of fully-featured services from data centers globally. In line with these services, AWS offers certifications to help professionals validate these in-demand cloud computing skills.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and this guide describes how to make that first step in your AWS certification journey, starting with the foundational Cloud Practitioner examination.

The purpose of the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C01) exam is to validate an individual’s understanding and knowledge of the AWS platform, including cloud architectural principles, cloud economics, available products and services, and other aspects such as security and value proposition. With all that in mind, let’s get started on the 3–2–1 plan for managing the exam: 3 key steps, ≤2 weeks, 1 exam attempt.

Step 1 — AWS E-Learning Modules

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Time needed: 6–7 days | Cost: Free
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The online e-learning modules provided by AWS themselves are wonderfully planned and delivered, making the concepts easy to follow and understand. The content is organized into bite-sized chunks that cover the key ideas behind cloud computing and the services offered by AWS. Best of all, it is free!

I liked how they used a coffee shop as a simple analogy across all the modules, as that makes the theory much easier to digest and visualize.

Go to the AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials E-Learning page to access the e-learning content. You will need to create an individual Amazon account if you have not previously done so.

The game plan for Step 1 is to follow through with each lesson in sequence, and take notes if possible. Although the video playtime is 6 hours in total, you should expect to spend at least twice that amount of time. This is to factor in repeat viewing and revision of the lessons.

For people totally new to cloud computing, I would say you should allocate about 2–3 hours per day for 6 days to have a good understanding of the content. If you already have some baseline knowledge of cloud computing concepts (e.g. exposure to other services like GCP), then the time required will be shorter.

Another tip is to watch the videos at a faster speed (e.g. 1.5–2x), so that the time spent can be optimized.

As a token of appreciation for reading this article, I am sharing my notes which I have neatly compiled based on the lessons and transcripts. You can find the notes here on my GitHub page.

Step 2 — AWS Whitepapers and Website

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Time needed: 2–3 days | Cost: Free
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After getting a good foundation of the main concepts of AWS services from Step 1, it is time to get exposed to more products and services that AWS has to offer. I found this to be important because the examination tends to test you on the functionality of the wide range of AWS products. You can get a good overview of the suite of services through the whitepapers provided by AWS. Here are the whitepapers which are recommended readings:

• Overview of Amazon Web Services
• How AWS Pricing Works

The whitepapers can be rather lengthy, so I did not actually read all of it in full, as it was too tedious and time-consuming for me. I would say that the main thing is to have a quick glance and identify the services which you have not come across before in the E-Learning modules (Step 1). For the services which are unfamiliar to you, briefly read through the respective sections in the whitepapers to have a basic understanding of what they do.

Feel free to read the documents in their entirety if you want to gain a strong understanding of the AWS platform, so as to further increase your confidence and chances of passing the exam at the first attempt.

Another resource to get you familiar with the wide range of products is to browse the official AWS website. Just by doing that, you should be able to get a good sense of the available services.

Step 3 — YouTube Practice Questions

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Time needed: 2–3 days | Cost: Free
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It’s now time to put your knowledge to the test. There are several resources that offer practice questions at a fee, but I avoided them because YouTube already has plenty of such practice questions available for free. These are the 4 videos I watched as part of my preparation (watched at 2x speed):

1. MyresTraining
2. TestPrepTraining
3. FreeCloudTraining
4. DigitalCloudTraining

Make sure you attempt the questions before viewing the answers. If you browse further on YouTube, you will surely come across even more of such videos, so feel free to watch them too. In addition, do check out the official sample questions from AWS here.

About the Examination

There are already many resources that describe the examination process, so I will not delve into that. You can check out the following to find out more:

• https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certification-prep/
• https://www.aws.training/certification
• https://d1.awsstatic.com/training-and-certification/docs-cloud-practitioner/AWS-Certified-Cloud-Practitioner_Exam-Guide.pdf

I will instead share some tips based on my personal experience.

• Make sure you are at least 40 minutes early because the setup for the proctoring service can take time to complete.
• There are 65 questions to answer within 90 minutes. That is actually sufficient time for you to complete the exam with time to spare. Therefore, do take time to read the questions carefully, and avoid rushing through the exam. You should also have enough time to look through (and edit) all your answers again, so please do so before submitting.
• If you are taking the exam from home, ensure that there are no ongoing (or potential) distractions throughout. For example, let your family members/house-mates know that you will be taking a proctored exam, and remind them not to interfere during the 90-minute window.

Conclusion

In this guide, I shared 3 steps on how to prepare for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam. As everyone has different learning preferences, the recommendations here are neither definitive nor exhaustive. Nonetheless, it should still provide you with solid preparation to take the exam and pass it on your first attempt. With just the resources listed in this guide (i.e. Steps 1–3), I was able to score 920/1000 (passing grade is 700/1000) on my first attempt. I am very confident you can achieve that too.

Once again, do help yourself with the notes I have compiled from the AWS lessons and transcripts.

Before you go

I welcome you to join me on a data science learning journey! Follow this Medium page and check out my GitHub to stay in the loop of more exciting data science content. Meanwhile, wishing you the best of luck in the examination!