Skills Assessment FAQ
Jump to:
- How does the Skills Assessment work?
- Why Can’t the Skills Assessment be paused?
- What if I don’t complete the assessment in the allotted time?
- Why is there no feedback for how far I am through the skills assessment?
- Why can I not see if my questions were right / wrong?
- Can I retake the Skills Assessment?
- Can I access my results later?
- Are the results tied to my A Cloud Guru account?
- Is the Skills Assessment just for AWS skills?
- What does each “Level” relate to?
- I’ve got my results, where do I start?
- Admin - What if scores are lower than expected?
- Admin - What are groups and how can I use them when inviting participants?
- Admin - Why can’t I see individual results?
- Admin - What if a student times out or misses their deadline to take the Skills Assessment?
How does the Skills Assessment work?
The Skill Assessment is an evolving assessment that helps establish a baseline for your knowledge and any skill gaps. At the beginning of the Skills Assessment, you choose your skill level along with your specialities The Skills Assessment then begins assessing you compared to your chosen skill level and speciality. The questions become more or less difficult depending on if the questions are answered correctly or incorrectly. Eventually, we’ll have enough data and your Skills Assessment will be complete.
Why Can’t the Skills Assessment be paused?
We want to simulate as much of an exam experience as possible along with gathering the most accurate data. Make sure to set enough time aside to take the Skills Assessment without interruption.
What if I don’t complete the assessment in the allotted time?
Oh, no! A screen will appear indicating that the assessment has run out of time. Not to worry. The questions you have answered will still help us in determining you and your team’s skill set.
Why is there no feedback for how far I am through the skills assessment?
The number of questions you will be asked varies depending on your answers. The Skills Assessment is constantly changing as you take the assessment and we are unable to determine ahead of time how many questions you’ll end up answering.
Why can I not see if my questions were right/wrong?
This assessment is used to identify the courses you should start with. What you missed will be covered in the courses you take. Once in a course, you can also take the available practice exams where we provide comprehensive exam results and identify knowledge gaps.
Can I retake the Skills Assessment?
The Skills Assessment can only be taken once as the aim is to identify a student’s cloud skills. This is to keep the results as useful as possible. That being said, our practice exams can be taken as many times as you want. We don’t recommend taking a practice exam more than a couple hundred times.
Can I access my results later?
Currently, results cannot be accessed later. If you intend to share or keep the results, we recommend printing or taking a screenshot of your results. We completely understand wanting to be able to reference your results later and are working on adding this soon.
Are the results tied to my A Cloud Guru account?
The Skills Assessment results do not currently tie to your A Cloud Guru account.
Is the Skills Assessment just for AWS skills?
Yes, for the moment. We’ll soon be expanding into adding Azure and GCP. to the Skills Assessment.
What does each “Level” relate to?
The following table outlines the broad characteristics of each student level. These levels are used in the design and production of our course curriculums and learning paths to ensure content is taught at an appropriate level.
Level: |
What this means: |
Novice |
Students at this level understand fundamental Cloud Computing concepts and ideas. |
Apprentice |
Students at this level can navigate the appropriate vendor GUI; and, have a basic understanding of security and core Cloud services. |
Practitioner |
Students at this level have hands-on experience building Cloud solutions; have a practical understanding of security; and exposure to more advanced topics such as containers and serverless. They can often analyze and evaluate different architectural options. |
Professional |
Students at this level have a thorough understanding of and experience in building scalable infrastructure and applications. They use infrastructure as code and can effectively evaluate and reason with regard to architecture and technological options. They can understand the trade-offs between various solutions. |
Guru |
Students at this level have an advanced understanding of Cloud Computing. They demonstrate expert knowledge of security, networking, DevOps and infrastructure and have the ability to propose new and innovative solutions. They have a strong understanding of architecture, trade-offs, cost, and people considerations. |
I’ve got my results, where do I start?
The following table shows suggested starting points based on your assessed skill level:
Discipline |
Learning path |
Assessed Level |
Starting point |
Architecture |
AWS Architect |
Novice |
AWS Certification Preparation Guide |
AWS Architect |
Apprentice |
Rethinking Architecture in the Age of Truly Commoditized Compute | James Simmons |
|
AWS Architect |
Practitioner |
#109 - Your Very Own API |
|
AWS Architect |
Professional |
Kubernetes Deep Dive |
|
AWS Architect |
Guru |
- |
|
Data |
AWS Data |
Novice |
AWS Certification Preparation Guide |
AWS Data |
Apprentice |
AWS Certified Developer - Associate |
|
AWS Data |
Practitioner |
Building Resilient Serverless Systems with "Non-Serverless" Components | Jeremy Daly |
|
AWS Data |
Professional |
AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional |
|
AWS Data |
Guru |
- |
|
Developer |
AWS Developer |
Novice |
AWS Certification Preparation Guide |
AWS Developer |
Apprentice |
Introduction to Git |
|
AWS Developer |
Practitioner |
AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate |
|
AWS Developer |
Professional |
S3 Masterclass |
|
AWS Developer |
Guru |
- |
|
DevOps |
AWS DevOps |
Novice |
AWS Certification Preparation Guide |
AWS DevOps |
Apprentice |
Mastering the AWS Well-Architected Framework |
|
AWS DevOps |
Practitioner |
AWS Certified Security - Specialty |
|
AWS DevOps |
Professional |
Kubernetes Deep Dive |
|
AWS DevOps |
Guru |
- |
|
Security |
AWS Security |
Novice |
Introduction to CLI |
AWS Security |
Apprentice |
Introduction to AWS CloudFormation |
|
AWS Security |
Practitioner |
#109 AWS Systems Manager Session Manager |
|
AWS Security |
Professional |
AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional |
|
AWS Security |
Guru |
- |
Admin - What if scores are lower than expected?
Employees scoring lower than their self-assessment is common and doesn't mean the employees aren't skilled. The assessment tests knowledge of many different services available from the respective vendor, and it is often the case that someone may be highly proficient in some services and not others.
In that situation, employees are often very fast at catching up on their knowledge and they will quickly move through the first courses in the appropriate learning path.
Admin - What are groups and how can I use them when inviting participants?
Placing students into groups allows an admin a more granular view of their team results. This feature will be available shortly after launch. You can find more information on inviting participants to group here.
Admin - Why can’t I see individual results?
For some countries, this would be a breach of privacy for the student . Additionally, this would deter students from wanting to participate in the Skills Assessment as they might be concerned that the results will be used against them.
We encourage collaborating with your team to determine learning recommendations and next steps.
Admin - What if a student missed their deadline to take the Skills Assessment?
Nothing to fear! You can send another invite to the same people, make sure to link them to the same group so you can see their results with the rest of their team
Question left unanswered? Let us know! Reach out to us or emails us at support@acloud.guru and we’ll be happy to help!