Certifications

How I studied

One course for concepts, one for hands-on labs, and two sets of practice questions:

• Video course: Stéphane Maarek on Udemy.
• Labs: Adrian Cantrill's SAA-C03 course for the labs.
• Practice questions: Stéphane Maarek's practice exams, which are harder than the real thing, and Tutorials Dojo, my personal favorite. I passed all my exams using TD.

My advice

Make sure you understand each topic, and for every practice question you miss, understand why you got it wrong.

When an explanation doesn't click, ask Claude or any other AI to walk you through it, and to check whether anything in your reasoning is wrong.

How I studied

• Free course: AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials on AWS Skill Builder.
• Video course: Stéphane Maarek. He's the best one for this exam.

My advice

Honestly, study for it but don't take it. Most people recommend going straight to Solutions Architect – Associate, and I agree.

Still, skim or study this material a little first. It gives you the vocabulary and the big picture, so the Solutions Architect content isn't your first contact with AWS.

How I studied

• Video course: Andrew Ramdayal. The best video course for this exam, in my opinion.
• Videos and notes: Professor Messer's SY0-701 course. His videos and his notes are worth it.
• Practice exams: Jason Dion. More detailed and more difficult than most, which is exactly what you want. Professor Messer's practice exams are good too.

My advice

Use Andrew Ramdayal to learn it, Professor Messer's notes to review it, and Jason Dion to test yourself.

How I studied

This exam is lab-heavy. Please do the labs.

• Labs: TryHackMe's PenTest+ path. It's pretty nice.
• Practice exams: Jason Dion. His course is fine, and his practice tests are really good.
• Videos: Hank Hackerson's PT0-003 series on YouTube. A good free supplement.

My advice

• Learn your tools and their commands. This honestly isn't a recommendation, it's a requirement.
• Learn to read basic code in Python, SQL, Java, Bash, Ruby, and PowerShell. It doesn't need to be in-depth, but you should be able to look at any snippet and roughly tell what it does.
• Know the methodologies and frameworks: OWASP, OSSTMM, NIST SP 800-115, PTES, MITRE ATT&CK, and the Cyber Kill Chain.
• Know the major vulnerabilities, how to identify them, and how to exploit them, across web applications and APIs, cloud, infrastructure and networks, and human and physical targets.

How I studied

Network+ and Security+ follow the same pattern for me, with the same three instructors:

• Video course: Andrew Ramdayal. My pick for video.
• Videos and notes: Professor Messer. His free Network+ videos, plus his notes and practice exams, are worth it.
• Practice exams: Jason Dion. More detailed and more difficult than the others.

My advice

Same recipe as Security+: learn it from Andrew Ramdayal's videos, review with Professor Messer's notes, and test yourself with Jason Dion's practice exams, which are more detailed and more difficult.

How I studied

• Video course (pick one): Professor Messer, or Mike Meyers / Total Seminars for both Core 1 and Core 2. I think Mike Meyers is better: he's funny and very interactive.
• Practice exams: Jason Dion.

My advice

Keep it simple. One video course, either Professor Messer or Mike Meyers, plus Jason Dion's practice exams is all you need.

How I studied

• Videos: Shawn Powers' Linux Essentials playlist on YouTube.
• Hands-on: I opened the exam objectives and worked through them in a real terminal. On Windows, install WSL to get a Linux shell in minutes.
• Flashcards: there are plenty of good ones for LPI.

My advice

Go down the exam objectives line by line and run every command yourself. That's the best way to study for it.

I wouldn't just use AI to ask questions for this one. Run the commands yourself.