Guides
Certification guides
Maintained, no-fluff answers to the questions around the exam itself — which certification to take, whether it’s worth it, how to study, and how the scoring works.
How to pass the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam (CLF-C02)A practical plan for passing CLF-C02: what the exam actually tests, how to study domain by domain, when to sit mock exams, and the exam-day tactics that protect marks.Is the AWS Cloud Practitioner certification worth it?An honest look at who benefits from CLF-C02 — cloud newcomers, non-engineering roles, career switchers — and who should skip straight to an associate-level certification.CLF-C02 study plan: from zero to exam-readyA four-phase CLF-C02 study plan: orient, study domain by domain, consolidate weak areas, then rehearse with timed mocks — with clear signals for when to book the real exam.How AWS exam scoring works: the 100–1000 scaled score explainedAWS certification exams report a scaled score from 100–1000, not a percentage. How scaling works, why unscored questions exist, and what your score report actually tells you.Which AWS certification should you take first?New to the cloud? Start with Cloud Practitioner. Already building on AWS? Go straight to an associate exam — and pick it by role: architect, developer, or operations.How to pass the AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam (SAA-C03)A practical plan for passing SAA-C03: what the scenario questions really test, how to study the four design domains in weight order, the service trade-offs that decide answers, and how to rehearse with timed mocks.SAA-C03 study plan: from hands-on to exam-readyA four-phase SAA-C03 study plan: build hands-on intuition, study the four design domains in weight order, consolidate weak trade-offs, then rehearse with full-length timed mocks — with clear signals for when to book.Is the AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification worth it?An honest look at who benefits from SAA-C03 — engineers, aspiring cloud architects, career switchers with hands-on experience — and who should choose a different certification instead.How to pass the AWS Developer Associate exam (DVA-C02)A practical plan for passing DVA-C02: what the scenario questions really test, how to study the four domains in weight order, the developer trade-offs that decide answers, and how to rehearse with timed mocks.DVA-C02 study plan: from writing code to exam-readyA four-phase DVA-C02 study plan: ship a small serverless application, study the four domains in weight order, consolidate weak trade-offs, then rehearse with full-length timed mocks — with clear signals for when to book.Is the AWS Developer Associate certification worth it?An honest look at who benefits from DVA-C02 — working developers on AWS, backend engineers going serverless, engineers formalising self-taught cloud skills — and who should choose a different certification instead.How to pass the AWS CloudOps Engineer Associate exam (SOA-C03)A practical plan for passing SOA-C03: what the operational scenarios really test, how to study the five domains in weight order, the troubleshooting decisions that decide answers, and how to rehearse with timed mocks.SOA-C03 study plan: from operating AWS to exam-readyA four-phase SOA-C03 study plan: build operational reps with the core tooling, study the five domains in weight order, consolidate the troubleshooting decisions you miss, then rehearse with full-length timed mocks.Is the AWS CloudOps Engineer Associate certification worth it?An honest look at who benefits from the AWS CloudOps Engineer Associate (SOA-C03) — operations engineers, SREs, sysadmins moving to cloud — and who should choose a different certification instead.How Microsoft exam scoring works: the 700 pass mark explainedMicrosoft certification exams are scored on a 1–1000 scale with a pass mark of 700 — which is not 70%. How scaled scoring works, why question types are weighted differently, and what your score report tells you.How Google Cloud exam scoring works: why you never see a scoreGoogle Cloud certification exams are pass/fail only — no score, no percentage, no per-domain breakdown. What Google does and does not tell you, and how to judge readiness without a number.AZ-900 study plan: Azure Fundamentals from scratchA four-phase AZ-900 study plan covering all three skills areas, with daily practice, the question formats Microsoft actually uses, and clear signals for when to book Azure Fundamentals.AZ-104 study plan: from portal-curious to exam-readyA four-phase AZ-104 study plan built around hands-on Azure administration: study in weight order, work in a real subscription, rehearse the question formats, then sit timed mocks.Associate Cloud Engineer study plan: a gcloud-first approachA four-phase study plan for the Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer exam, built around gcloud fluency and the official guide sections — with readiness signals for an exam that gives you no score.Terraform Associate study plan: a short, precise examA four-phase study plan for the HashiCorp Terraform Associate (004) exam — build real configurations, learn state properly, and prepare for questions drawn almost verbatim from the documentation.KCNA study plan: breadth over depth, on purposeA four-phase KCNA study plan for the Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate exam — a multiple-choice, breadth-first exam that rewards vocabulary across the CNCF landscape rather than hands-on skill.ISC2 CC study plan: preparing for an adaptive examA four-phase study plan for ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity — study the five domains, then prepare specifically for computerised adaptive testing, where you cannot skip, flag or go back.AIF-C01 study plan: AWS AI Practitioner without the mathsA four-phase AIF-C01 study plan for the AWS AI Practitioner exam — vocabulary first, then the Bedrock-centred application material that carries the most weight, then timed mocks.DEA-C01 study plan: pipelines first, services secondA four-phase DEA-C01 study plan for the AWS Data Engineer Associate exam — build pipeline intuition, study ingestion and transformation in depth, then rehearse with timed mocks.SCS-C03 study plan: a specialty exam that punishes shortcutsA four-phase SCS-C03 study plan for AWS Security Specialty — IAM depth first, hands-on work in a real account, and a deliberately conservative readiness bar for a higher pass mark.DP-700 study plan: three languages, three equal domainsA four-phase DP-700 study plan for Microsoft Fabric Data Engineer Associate — build SQL, PySpark and KQL fluency, cover three near-equally weighted areas, then sit timed mocks.Generative AI Leader study plan: a business exam, not a technical oneA four-phase study plan for the Google Cloud Generative AI Leader certification — concepts, the current Google product names, output-improvement techniques and business strategy, then timed mocks.