How to Pass the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner and Microsoft AZ-900/SC-900 Exams

Last year, in the fall semester of my junior year, I passed the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner and Microsoft AZ-900/SC-900 exams. Here are my thoughts on the certifications.

Overall Thoughts

Overall, the certifications covered very little information compared to their more “advanced” counterparts, and they will not teach you hands-on, practical concepts such as deploying virtual machines with Amazon EC2 or Azure Virtual Machines. However, if you want a very general and broad overview of the different aspects, features, and services of AWS and Azure, the certifications give insight into the complexity of their global architectures.

General Tips and Tricks

Unlike CompTIA exams (for the most part), AWS and Microsoft expect attention to detail on their exams.

• There is very little word salad on their exams, but they will test you on different features, offerings, and basic configurations of their services.
• Follow the exam guide/study guide that AWS and Microsoft provide for their exams. AWS gives you a list of services that you need to know for the exam at the end of their exam guide, while Microsoft lists services that you need to know for their exams throughout their study guides.
• All certifications heavily emphasize conceptual models such as the Shared Responsibility Model, the different deployments and types of cloud models, and cloud architecture and/or compliance frameworks. Know the nuances of any framework mentioned in the exam guide/study guide.

Recommended Training Material

For any AWS exam (including more “advanced” AWS certifications such as the AWS Solutions Architect Associate), I highly recommend Stephane Maarek’s courses on Udemy. I consider Stephane to be the Professor Messer of AWS because he teaches what you need to know for the exam. For Microsoft exams, any course on Udemy will do as long as the course is updated to the latest study guide for the exam you are taking.

Final Thoughts

The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner and Microsoft AZ-900/SC-900 exams are not the most difficult of exams, but with recent updates, they cover a great amount of information if you are not familiar with either cloud services provider’s architecture. As long as you follow the exam guide/study guide provided and use high quality training material such as Stephane Maarek’s training material, then you will pass the exams.