![Alibaba Cloud Associate Cloud Security: Exam Guide [2020]](https://urbancodex.com/wp-content/uploads/alibaba-cloud-associate-cloud-security-certification.png)
If you are planning to take the Alibaba Cloud Associate (ACA) Cloud Security 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
ACA Cloud Security Certification is a beginner level exam. The exam details can be found at the official certification page.
Prerequisites
This certificate is designed for engineers who can use Alibaba Cloud Security products. It covers Alibaba Cloud’s several security products like Server Guard, WAF, Anit-DDoS basic and Pro. There is no prerequisites that you need to meet prior to taking this exam.
If you don’t have prior experience working with Alibaba Cloud, then you can follow these learning activities:
- Create your own Alibaba Cloud Free Trial account at https://www.alibabacloud.com/campaign/free-trial. This is a free account as long as you stay within the free tier usage. For more details, do visit the link.
- Learn Alibaba Cloud online courses from online sites like Coursera, and make sure to do enough hands-on learning activities to gain the confidence.
- Alibaba recommends following their Security Exam Preparation Course .
Taking the Exam
Following are the high-level details about the exam:
| Length | 90 minutes |
| No. of questions | 60 (Multiple-choice, multiple-answer) |
| Cost | $ 120 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, it was over a Zoom meeting when I attended it in September, 2020.
How I took the exam from home
I had to attend this from a quiet room where nobody will enter throughout the exam duration.
They shared the Zoom meeting details via email. I had to join the Zoom meeting. There was an exam coordinator who was giving us instruction. We had to join the meeting from mobile and place it somewhere with my camera on so that they can see me, my laptop keyboard and laptop screen throughput the exam duration.
Then, I had to login to the certification account from the link which they had shared. The exam started on time, and at the end it showed my results.
Question Breakdown
The exam covers Alibaba Cloud’s core products from computing, storage, networking to security. Following is the content and their ratio:
| No. | Section name | Proportion in examination |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Networking on Cloud Security | 30% |
| 2 | Servers on Cloud Security | 30% |
| 3 | Application on Cloud Security | 30% |
| 4 | General knowledge about Cloud Computing and Operating Systems | 10% |
Study and Learning
This certification assesses the certificate holders’ possession of the capabilities like general knowledge in Operating System, Cloud Computing and TCP/IP protocols, ability to develop simple solutions and enterprise best practices based on Alibaba Cloud’s security products and business needs, knowledge in the use and operation of Alibaba Cloud’s ECS, VPC, Cloud Monitor, and Alibaba Cloud Security products like WAF, Security Center, Anti-DDoS basic and Premium, etc.
Read Alibaba Cloud Document Center to learn about the best practices and be familiar about different services. I highly recommend to refer Alibaba Cloud CLI to learn about its capabilities and usage.
Alibaba recommends face-to-face training courses ACT81001, ACT81002 and ACT83001 to help you quickly learn about the concepts, usage, operations and solutions of Alibaba Cloud products.
Stay Tuned
Cloud is a moving target. New services and features are continuously getting added to it. Refer to Alibaba Cloud Community Blog 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:
Alibaba Cloud-related knowledge
- Understanding of the concepts of Alibaba Cloud Security related products, including WAF, Anti-DDOS basics and Premium, SSL, KMS, RAM, etc. (the same below).
- Aware of main application scenarios of Alibaba Cloud Security related products and know each of these products’ special usage scenario.
- Familiar with operations of Alibaba Cloud Security related products, including activating, creating, configuring, starting and stopping and disabling a service.
- Familiar with features of Alibaba Cloud Security related products and key product implementation principles.
- Able to discover and resolve common issues emerged during the use of Alibaba Cloud Security related products
General IT knowledge
- Familiar with the concepts and related knowledge of Cloud Computing, such as virtualization, storage and networking.
- Familiar with common network protocols such as HTTP, FTP, TCP, UDP and ICMP.
- Familiar with operation on Linux and Windows operating system and be able to configure network and storage related system commands
- Has knowledge of network security, such as firewall policy, key encryption, access control, network security, and network attack and protection methodologies.
Alibaba Cloud security-related products
- Cloud service-related basic security protocols such as HTTP, FTP, TCP, UDP and ICMP.
- Characteristics, application scenarios, competitive edges and features of Alibaba Cloud Anti-DDoS Premium and WAF as well as other related products.
- Characteristics, application scenarios and features of Alibaba Cloud security management-related products such as, VPC and security groups.
- Core security products: basic operations and management of Anti-DDoS Basic, Anti-DDoS Premium, Security Center.
- Security application solution design, such as correct understanding and handling after receiving alerts from the console, e-mails or text messages, including discovering DDoS attacks, brute force password cracking attacks, web SQL injections among other common security risks and taking appropriate measures for protection.
Cloud computing-related product (ECS, Server Load Balancer, OSS, RDS, VPC and CDN) content
- Understanding the positioning, main features, working principles and application scenarios of the above products.
- Understanding common security risks of the above products, and security advantages of their combined solutions.
General knowledge about Cloud Computing
- Practitioners in the cloud computing field are required to possess basic knowledge about the related concepts, technologies and cloud computing advantages, including the definition, features, advantages, service types, implementation technologies and deployment methods of cloud computing.
After You Pass
Digital Certificate
From the certification account, I could generate my digital certificate as shown below:
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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