It has been a while since I took my last certification exam, accepting a new position has kept me busy with getting up to speed on the tools and procedures in my new role. However, I didn’t want to lose track of my own goals of continuing to gain knowledge in the areas of Cloud and IAM/Security.
I’ve personally used S3 since about 2007/2008 in my own business. During that time I also had to become familiar with and implement various levels of IAM and bucket policy/security. However, AWS offers so much more, I thought the CCP would be a good way to test my knowledge in a more broad way.
Why now? Well, my employer had a list of AWS topics that those of us in InfoSec were encouraged to watch, certification wasn’t required, but since it was already on my list I figured I’d continue on in my studies.
The Certified Cloud Practitioner exam: https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-cloud-practitioner/
Here’s a list of resources I used to prepare for this exam:
- AWS Ramp Up Guides (free) – https://aws.amazon.com/training/ramp-up-guides/
- AWS Skill Builder Videos (free) – https://explore.skillbuilder.aws/
- Amazon Qwiklabs – https://amazon.qwiklabs.com/
- Tutorials Dojo (practice tests, study guide) – https://portal.tutorialsdojo.com/
- AWS Hands on Labs (free tier compatible) – https://aws.amazon.com/getting-started/hands-on/
- Well Architechted Labs (free) – https://wellarchitectedlabs.com/
- My own AWS account (free) – https://aws.amazon.com/
- AWS whitepapers (services overview, well-architected) – https://aws.amazon.com/whitepapers/
- Cloud Academy – https://cloudacademy.com/
- ITPro.TV – https://www.itpro.tv/courses/aws/aws-certified-cloud-practitioner/
- Linkedin Learning – https://linkedin-learning.pxf.io/aws_ccp
- Pluralsight (Cloud Security Best Practices videos) – https://app.pluralsight.com/library/
I also answered a few practice questions from the All In One Exam Guide, (I have access through my Percipio subscription).
Bottom line here though, you can totally prepare for this exam using the free content available directly from AWS, they even have free practice exam questions!
I personally just like to get a mix of content sources, as each tends to approach things differently, but I definitely used the free AWS materials as the foundation for my studies.
Are you planning to take the CCP exam? Do you have plans for any other AWS certifications? I’d love to hear about it!
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