Completing the AWS Cloud Certified Practitioner Exam

This post was originally posted as a thread on the social-media-network-that-shall-not-be-named, published via Typefully. It has been unrolled, formatted using markdown for posting on this site, and edited slightly to read better in this format (and fix a few typos).

I recently completed my AWS CCP Certification. Here’s how I started, a few things I learned, and some tips to help anyone who wants to go down the same route. Believe me, it’s worth it!

🚀 Getting Started

I started my study for my AWS CCP with no prior experience with cloud technologies. I had recently gotten a job delivering cloud-based software, and wanted to start off on the right foot (note: the job I do doesn’t require this at all, but it gives me an edge)

I started with a cursory Google of what to do, and what to expect, which helped to:

1. Give me an idea where to start
2. Provide me with a lot of reading material, and I mean a lot

•••

📚 Study Material

After a short freak-out session and formulating a plan on how to consume all of this information, I went to one of my favourite resources out there: Pluralsight¹. This Course is amazing; not only is it easy to understand, comprehensive and informative, but it’s such easy watching. I consumed an hour or so a night for a couple of weeks, and took detailed notes. Note: My license doesn’t include labs, but I was able to work without them.

During my spare time I got to grips with some of the AWS services, and span up a few projects of my own, and worked through some of the community’s projects too! This is a great one by @victoriadotdev.

In terms of actual study material (after I’d finished the course), I went with:

• Quizlet question packs
• Udemy question packs & practice exams
• Pluralsight practice exam questions
• My notes from the Pluralsight course

Don’t underestimate the power of question banks!

• Quizlet - AWS Services
• Quizlet - Practice Exam 1
• Quizlet - Practice Exam 2
• Udemy - 500 AWS CCP Questions (this is more like, 390 questions, but it’s been updated for 2022, so…)

•••

😅 Pulling the Trigger

Ultimately, you have to do your exam sometime.

To force my hand and ensure I study, I booked my exam for just over a months time. I opted for the Pearson Vue online exam (which has super strict terms, you can’t even have a glass of water on your desk but w/e²) with a 100min length.

The setup for the exam is fairly straightforward, you have a locked browser session, screen, webcam & mic recording. You’ll need two forms of ID, and you must take photos to prove your environment is clear - you can only have one monitor too. Make sure it’s quiet, if there’s anyone talking in the background, it’s an instant fail.

✨ Exam time!

Let’s talk about the exam itself. It’s multiple choice, 65 questions total. You can knock out a practice exam in about 12-20 mins at a decent pace. Should you do this in the real exam? probably not.

It’s fairly intense in the moment, but if you keep calm and collected, you’ll do fine.

My biggest piece of advice is to read every question thoroughly, make sure you PICK TWO³ if applicable, and flag anything you’re not sure about. You’ll be able to review your flagged questions.

Once you’ve reviewed your flagged questions, and you choose to end the exam, it ends. No fanfare, no nothing, the app quits. Super disconcerting.

For newer CCP exams, your results are available on the certification portal 24 hours after your exam ends. I got an email later too

If you pass, celebrate! Put your badge everywhere! Revel in your new-found certified-ness and plan for the next exam

And that’s it. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

📝 Footnotes

1. I’m fortunate enough that my employer pays for a standard Pluralsight license. I enjoyed the content though and would have paid for my own license if required. EDIT: 2024 Andy here. I have since paid for an A Cloud Guru license (with labs). Pluralsight does own ACG, yet I find their content more compelling, and would now recommend ACG instead. ↩︎

2. 2024 Andy again. The rules for this one are interesting; They state you cannot have water, yet I took my SOA-C02 last year whilst drank a glass throughout, and they didn’t seem to care. YMMV here, the glass had no writing on it, and it was 30°C in the UK at the time. ↩︎

3. My biggest failing in the practice exams was that I was too eager to finish. Read your questions carefully, and pick the correct number of options. ↩︎