The Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) exam proves knowledge of Azure cloud concepts, Azure services, workloads, security and privacy in Azure, and Azure pricing and support. In addition, a candidate is familiar with the general technology concepts, including concepts of networking, storage, computing, application support, and application development.

Azure Fundamentals may be used to prepare for other Azure role-based or specialty certifications. To prepare for the Azure Fundamentals, I used Pluralsight courses and A Cloud Guru, a subsidiary of Pluralsight. The course content from both sites provided a substantial overview of Azure fundamentals. I recommend that with any certification, en devour, single-minded focus over a short period of two weeks or less in my experience to acquire the fundamental knowledge and skills and then immediately attempt the certification versus an extended journey on any singular certification has worked for me in proving my knowledge for certification.

The Microsoft Azure Artificial Intelligence (AI) Fundamentals (AI-900) exam proves technical and non-technical background knowledge of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) concepts and related Microsoft Azure services. Certified candidates will be familiar with technical and non-technical knowledge, cloud basics, and client-server applications. In addition, the Azure AI Fundamentals certification may be used for preparation for other Azure role-based certifications like Azure Data Scientist Associate and Azure AI Engineer Associate.

I used Pluralsight and A Cloud Guru to prepare for the certification exam. I was utilizing A Cloud Guru’s Azure labs, and my academic experience in business intelligence confidently assisted in taking the exam. Like other technical certifications, in my experience, an intense focus over a short period (one week), and with the foundation of the AZ-900 certification, the certification exam was not a complex challenge for me in getting prepared and feeling confident, as each certification is a building block on the next of proving and acquiring fundamental knowledge.

The Microsoft Azure Data Fundamentals (DP-900) exam demonstrates knowledge of core data concepts and related Microsoft Azure data services. Certified candidates will be familiar with relational and non-relational data concepts and different types of data workloads such as transactional (OLTP) and analytic (OLAP). In addition, the Azure Data Fundamentals certification may be used to prepare for other Azure role-based certifications like Azure Database Administrator Association or Azure Data Engineer Associate.

I used my bountiful work experience of more than two decades working with Microsoft products as an application systems engineer, systems architect, managing systems architect, engineering manager, and software engineering manager. I leveraged my A Cloud Guru account for the DP-900 course and the labs offered. The DP-900 certification exam had been relatively straightforward, and with my acquired knowledge from the AZ-900 and AI-900, I had no concerns in taking the exam.

The Microsoft Power Platform Fundamentals (PL-900) exam measures the candidate’s ability to describe the business value of Power Platform; identify the core components of Power Platform; demonstrate the capabilities of Power BI; describe the capabilities of Power Apps; demonstrate the capabilities of Power Automate, and demonstrate the business value of Power Virtual Agents.

I used the A Cloud Guru course to prepare for the exam and Pluralsight and Microsoft’s Learning Path for the PL-900: Microsoft Power Platform Fundamentals 10 modules. I was confident with my foundational knowledge acquired from my other certifications associated with Microsoft Azure and have worked with Microsoft Power BI for more than two years. However, on my first attempt at the exam, I just missed passing. What I experienced by just leveraging A Cloud Guru on my first attempt was that the course was a bit dated in comparison to the PL-900 exam. I immediately added Pluralsight and the Microsoft Learning Path to my agenda and password the PL-900 exam on my second attempt with ease. I prepared for one week for my initial exam, then within five days, I retook the PL-900 exam and passed. I recommend that any learner utilize more than one source of learning to ensure the most up-to-date and well-rounded content to tackle the ever-changing cloud certification exams.

The Amazon Web Services (AWS) Certified Cloud Practitioner exam credential demonstrates the candidate’s critical knowledge of implementing cloud initiatives. Additionally, a certified candidate may demonstrate an ability of cloud fluency and foundational AWS knowledge.

I leveraged A Cloud Guru and the free learning provided by AWS in multiple learning paths; however, I primarily focused on AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials as a first step, which provided a solid foundation. Next, I completed the AWS Architect Path, learning about the Well Architected framework built and leveraged by AWS. The learning path for Containers; Introduction to AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), Introduction to Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC); and Introduction to AWS Auto-Scaling. With a solid baseline of cloud concepts and services from Microsoft and Google, I found AWS to be a new adventure with its many comparable service offerings. I found the Well Architected framework as a systems architect and managing systems architect, which other cloud platforms also utilized, to be of value and continued interest to me. Understanding the differences and similarities and the benefits of multi-cloud offerings may increase one’s toolset of proven solutions to cost-effectively address business and data challenges.

The Databricks’ Databricks Lakehouse Fundamentals exam tests a
candidate’s knowledge about fundamental concepts related to the Databricks Lakehouse Platform. The questions assess how well the candidate knows about the platform in general, familiarity with the individual components of the platform, and the candidate’s ability to describe how the platform helps organizations accomplish their data engineering, data science/machine learning, and business/SQL analytics use cases. The certification does not assess the candidate’s ability to perform tasks using Databricks. Instead, the certification assesses how well the candidate can align the Lakehouse Platform components.

I recommend the Databricks Lakehouse Fundamentals exam to add further roundness to a cloud practitioner’s repertoire of platforms, tools, and overall knowledge. I was initially introduced to Databricks through Microsoft’s relationship with Databricks and the Azure Databricks offering. Azure Databricks has modules in the A Cloud Guru learning path for the Azure Data Engineer Associate (DP-203) course path. The training offered by Databricks for the Databricks Lakehouse Fundamentals may be taken on the Databricks’ website and may take about four hours with minimal interruptions. The cost at the time had been $20 USD for taking the course and obtaining the fundamentals certification. A proctored exam is not required for certification.

Data Scientist in Python

The Dataquest Data Scientist in Python teaches and explorers mastery in mandatory data scientist technical skills, including object-oriented and functional programming in Python, libraries like scikit-learn, Matplotlib, NumPy, and pandas. In addition, I learned web scraping, SQL queries, machine learning, deep learning, and predictive analysis. Set up and executed command line interface (CLI) UNIX commands, Git, and a GitHub account for efficient development collaboration.

I recommend Dataquest for continual hands-on learning in the field of data science. All education has been done by writing code in the browser with direct browser feedback, based on my examination of Dataquest, they are using AWS behind the scenes. Skills were applied in multiple guided projects involving realistic business scenarios. More than 170 hours were used to learn the hands-on certification, experience, and knowledge on the Dataquest site.

Google Cloud Digital Leader

The Google Cloud Certified: Cloud Digital Leader may articulate the capabilities of Google Cloud core products and services and have they benefit organizations. The Cloud Digital Leader may also describe common business use cases and how cloud solutions support an enterprise. The certification is for anyone who wishes to demonstrate their knowledge of cloud computing basics and how Google Cloud products and services may be used to achieve an organization’s goals.

I recommend using Google’s free training and the required four courses: Digital Transformation with Google Cloud, Innovating with Data and Google Cloud, Infrastructure and Application Modernization with Google Cloud, and Understanding Google Cloud Security and Operations – the training materials related to Microsoft Azure’s fundamentals and Amazon’s AWS cloud practitioner certification. Each leading cloud vendors has their own niche of cloud perspectives, products, and services.