AWS cloud practitioner certfication - Cheat sheet

Earlier this week, I achieved my AWS Cloud practitioner certification. Despite being a user of cloud computing, AWS, and Azure for over a decade, it felt good to formalize my learnings and get certified (Something I have shunned in the past to avoid the time that needs to be spent on learning). It felt good going back to formal learning, creating notes, and taking tests.

I strongly recommend the AWS cloud practioner (or the equivalent certifications on Azure and GCP) to everybody - technical and non-technical individuals who work in the technology industry, as it improves your vocabulary on cloud computing. Here are some tips if you would like to venture in

1. The exam is relatively easy and achievable if you are willing to spend about 25 hours of time taking an online course and doing mock papers. For non-technical individuals, I would expect them to spend a few more hours to get the fundamentals right. But the prep and certification can be completed in less than a month with about 2 hours of learning every day.
2. You may be taking a risk, if you just take the exam based on your experience and working knowledge of AWS. The questions on billing, well architected framework and rarely used services can be tricky. Like all exams, the vastness of the topic needs preparation time.
3. The AWS. free trainings at AWS Skill Builder is very rudimentary and does not help prepare for a high score. I wasted 15 hours on this training, and I then took up better trainings on Udemy (see below). The free trainings in AWS won't help if you are non-technical.
4. Udemy had very good training programs. I chose the following 2 programs (which I got at a good discount). Ultimate AWS certified Cloud Practitioner -2022 and AWS Certified Cloud Practioner - 6 full practice exams 2022. The practice exams are very useful to disambiguate between answer choices. The format of questions and answers are very similar to the final exam.
5. Stéphane Maarek (the instructor and creator of the Udemy training) is an expert in the topic and provides very good exam hacks and clear instructions on how to respond to questions. He balances this out with hands on exercises which will help you get a flavour of the AWS service if you are new the platform (I found it repetitive, so I skipped them, but I am sure, 'new to AWS' users will find this very useful.
6. The Udemy training is meant for non-technical people to understand cloud fundamentals and often goes into concepts, which I skipped. But more than 75% of the training was very relevant and helped me understand AWS services more clearly
7. Time allotted (90 minutes to complete the 65 questions) is more than adequate. I was able to complete the test and review every selection 1ce well within the stipulated time.

I was especially happy to achieve my highest score in the final exams, thanks to all the preparations. I recommend it to all individuals (non-developers) in a tech (Engineering Managers, Directors, QA etc.) or tech-related role (Product Managers, sales specialists etc.), including senior leaders. For developers, the Cloud developer and architect certifications would provide the right degree of challenge.