OCI 2019 Certified Architect Associate: Exam Guide [2020]

  • by Chandranath Mondal
OCI 2019 Certified Architect Associate: Exam Guide [2020]

If you are a Solution Architect or want to start your career in Solution Architecting on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) platform, and planning to take the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure 2019 Certified Architect Associate Certification exam, then read this article where I discussed how to prepare for the exam.

Here I’ve shared tips from my personal experiences on how to study and which all areas to cover. I hope that will help you get well prepared for the exam.

About the Exam

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure 2019 Certified Architect Associate Certification is an intermediate level exam. The exam details can be found at the official certification page.

Prerequisites

Oracle recommends you have a strong foundation knowledge in architecting infrastructure using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure services. But there is no prerequisites that you need to meet prior to taking this exam.

If you don’t have prior experience working with OCI, then you can follow these learning activities:

Taking the Exam

Following are the high-level details about the exam:

Length105 minutes
No. of questions 66 (Multiple-choice, multiple-answer)
Passing Score65%
Cost $ 150 USD

You get 1 and half minutes per question, however I recommend to target to spend 1 minute per question. If any question is taking longer time then mark that for review and proceed for the next question. This way you can cover all the questions first and later you can revisit the questions which you had not answered earlier. Also, you will have the opportunity to go back and change the answer of any question.

Pro-Tips

Question Format

There are two types of questions – i) single answer and ii) multiple answers.

In single answer type question, you choose one single answer from a list of say 4 answers. In the other type, you may have to choose say 2 answers from a list of say 5 answers.

Testing Center

You have to take this exam at Pearson VUE. Their testing centers are located in most of the major cities. Check the nearest center in your locality and choose the time and date to book an exam. However, I registered for the online proctored exam and attended it from my home during COVID-19 lockdown period.

Taking the exam from home

You have to to attend this from a quiet room where nobody will enter throughout the exam duration.

First, you need to login to Oracle certification account (refer link in your exam confirmation email). Then you need to download the OnVue client app on your computer. This app requires administrative privileges on your computer. This app monitors and doesn’t allow to run any other app throughput the exam duration.

You can start the verification process by entering your mobile no. where you get link to upload photos. You need to upload 1 photo of yourself, 1 photo of your identity proof with photo and 4 photos of the room from 4 sides.

Once you submit, the monitoring starts and you are supposed to sit straight and follow all exam etiquettes. They can see you throughout the exam but you can’t.

They will verify your documents and may connect you online where you might need to shows your hands that you are not warning any gadgets like digital watch. They might ask you to show any parts of the room if they find something suspicious from the photos that you uploaded. Your workstation must be clean and free from electronic items. Your mobile phone should be far away from arm reach.

Once the verification is done, they release your exam where you need to check if your name and the test that you are taking mentioned on the screen are correct or not. Next you need to agree the Oracle Terms which essentially says you are not going to disclose the questions in the exam. Once you agree, your exam starts, timer begins, you get your first question and a clock on your screen starts showing how much time is left.

When you are done, you can submit all the answers. If not, then at the end of 105 minutes your answers are automatically submitted and it shows your results.

Study and Learning

As a Solution Architect, you should know the best practices for designing highly available, cost-effective, fault-tolerant, and scalable distributed systems on OCI.

Read Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Documentation to learn:

I highly recommend to refer OCI CLI Command Reference to learn about its capabilities and usage.

Stay Tuned

Cloud is a moving target. New services and features are continuously getting added to it. Subscribe to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Blog and Oracle Connect Newsletter to stay tuned.

Following are some topics from key services which you should have good understanding and hands-on experiences on designing solutions following the best practices recommendations:

Identity and Access Management (IAM)

It’s a very important services which is integrated with mostly all other services. Learn the different components in IAM and how to work with those.

  • Apply core Identity and Access Management components
  • Explain resource locations
  • Design federation with various identity providers
  • Apply IAM, governance, and security best practices

Networking

  • Apply design concepts related to VCN components
  • Describe Public and Private IP addresses and virtual NICs
  • Apply VCN connectivity options
  • Understand remote network connectivity
  • Apply OCI Load Balancer concepts
  • Understand OCI Edge services
  • Apply OCI networking best practices

Advanced Networking Concepts

  • Manage your cloud network components, such as Virtual Private Network (VPN), Fast Connect, Multiple VNICs, and IP addresses

Instantiating a Load Balancer

  • Discuss Load Balancer terminology and concepts
  • Set up a Load Balancer

Compute

  • Understand compute and sizing
  • Troubleshoot options using console connections and boot volume
  • Architect High Availability and Disaster Recovery solutions
  • Describe image options

Storage

  • Understand OCI Storage options
  • Design storage solutions for applications and database

Launching Bare Metal and Virtual Compute Instances

  • Describe the components of Compute service, including shapes, images, and custom images
  • Create and manage a Compute Virtual Machine (VM) instance

Database

  • Describe OCI Database options
  • Explain OCI Database Operations
  • Architect HA and DR solutions
  • Managing Autonomous Database

Advanced Database

  • Use advanced database features, such as Data Guard, BYOL, Data Encryption, RAC, and Exadata

Architecting Best Practices

  • Architect High Availability (HA) using OCI
  • Design for Security using OCI

After the Exam

Email Confirmation

Within 1 to 2 hrs., you receive an email confirmation with subject line Your Oracle Certification Exam Results are Available and you get instruction to view the result.

Digital Badge

Within 1 to 2 days, you receive another email with subject line Oracle issued you a new badge which says You’ve earned a badge from Oracle with the link to the Acclaim badge.

OCI 2019 Certified Architect Associate Digital Badge
OCI 2019 Certified Architect Associate Digital Badge

Bottom Line

I’ve cleared multiple certifications (both associate and professional levels) on different Cloud technologies and realized that there is no short-cut to achieve that. The only things that are required to clear these exams are your knowledge and understanding of context. Most of the questions in this exam will be scenario based where they will make you think and choose the best possible answers isolating them from the incorrect answers (they call as “distractors”). You can only expect a very few direct questions. So, in every question you need to understand the context and apply your knowledge to solve that puzzle.

But if you prepare well and get your hands dirty on the key services I mentioned above, you will succeed. All the best for your exam!

Did you appear for the exam? Then please share your experience in the comments below.

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