I Took the 'AWS Certified AI Practitioner Beta' Exam and Achieved My 14th Certification

Recently, I took the "AWS Certified AI Practitioner Beta" exam, and I have summarized the preparations I made and my impressions.

The AWS Certified AI Practitioner (hereafter, AI Practitioner) is described as follows:

• Exam Overview
  • The AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF-C01) exam is designed for individuals who can effectively demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of AI/ML, generative AI technologies, and related AWS services and tools, regardless of specific job roles.
  • Category: Foundational
  • Exam Duration: 120 minutes
  • Number of Questions: 85
  • Passing Score: 700
  • Exam Fee: 10,000 yen + tax (half-price voucher available)

*Note: As it is a beta exam, the exam duration and number of questions may change upon official release.

Since it was announced that exam applications would start on August 13, I was checking the application site on that day.

I had assumed that the exam would be available from the next day and planned to take it during the Obon holidays. However, upon proceeding with the application, I found out that the exam was available from August 27.

After some adjustments, I scheduled the exam for September 8.

I had not delved much into generative AI, so I started with the knowledge I acquired from obtaining the AWS Certified Machine Learning - Specialty and the G Test two years ago.

Although I planned to gradually prepare after it was announced at the AWS Summit, I had another certification exam at the beginning of August, so I effectively started preparing about a month before Obon.

• I read the Exam Guide to understand the exam scope, format, and passing criteria.
  • The exam covers five domains:
    • 1. Fundamentals of AI and ML (20%)
    • 2. Fundamentals of Generative AI (24%)
    • 3. Application of Foundational Models (28%)
    • 4. Guidelines for Responsible AI (14%)
    • 5. Security, Compliance, and Governance of AI Solutions (14%)

• I read books on machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and generative AI to acquire foundational knowledge.

  • Illustrated Instant Mastery: The Mechanisms and Techniques of Machine Learning & Deep Learning - A Comprehensive Textbook
  • Deep Learning Textbook: Deep Learning G Test (Generalist) Official Text, 3rd Edition
  • Generative AI Passport: Text & Workbook

• I read books on related services to learn how to use, apply, and best practices for related services.

  • Amazon Bedrock Generative AI App Development Introduction [AWS Deep Dive Guide]

• I watched relevant lectures on Skill Builder to gain knowledge about AWS services and generative AI.
  • Standard Exam Prep Plan: AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF-C01)
    • It was only in English, but I used browser translation to convert English subtitles into Japanese.
  • Enhanced Exam Prep Plan: AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF-C01)
    • A subscription is required.
    • It was only in English, but I used browser translation to convert English subtitles into Japanese.

• I solved official practice questions to check my understanding and the exam format.
  • Exam Prep Official Practice Question Set: AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF-C01 - English)
    • There are 20 sample questions.
    • Since it's only in English, I used the browser's translation feature while solving them.
    • The browser's translation feature often provides literal translations, so I referred to the original text when it was difficult to understand.
  • Exam Prep Official Pretest: AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF-C01 - English)
    • A subscription is required.
    • There are 65 sample questions.
    • Since it's only in English, I used the browser's translation feature while solving them.
    • The browser's translation feature often provides literal translations, so I referred to the original text when it was difficult to understand.

• I watched related materials on Udemy to gain knowledge about AWS services and generative AI.
  • [NEW] Ultimate AWS Certified AI Practitioner AIF-C01
    • Japanese subtitles were available.
    • The same course was also available on Udemy Business.

• Given the name AI Practitioner and recent trends, I thought the focus would be heavily on generative AI, so I concentrated on preparing knowledge about Bedrock, RAG, prompt engineering, and other generative AI topics.
• However, as seen in the exam guide and official practice questions, knowledge about machine learning, such as SageMaker, and knowledge about responsible AI, such as evaluation methods for fine-tuned AI, are also essential.
• It became clear that knowing how to use AI-related services is important.
  • Amazon Polly: Text-to-speech
  • Amazon Transcribe: Speech recognition
  • Amazon Translate: Translation
  • Amazon Lex: Chatbot
  • Amazon Rekognition: Image recognition
  • Amazon Textract: Text extraction
  • Amazon Comprehend: Natural language processing
• As with other exam categories, understanding AWS service best practices is important.

I took the exam at 10 AM at the usual test center near Hakata Station.

Since it was a Foundational exam, I found the questions to be shorter and simpler compared to Professional or Specialty exams.

I had the impression that there were more challenging questions than in the official practice questions.

The translation accuracy was more readable compared to the browser's translation feature.

The exam duration was 120 minutes, but since I only briefly reviewed my answers, I finished and left in about 70 minutes.

By the way, the new question types announced in the addition of new types of exam questions were present in the official practice questions but did not appear in this exam.

The results were not available immediately, but I received an email after 7 PM and was able to check them on the portal site.

I passed with a comfortable margin.

• I successfully passed on the first attempt and achieved my 14th certification.
• If you have obtained AWS certifications at the Associate level or higher, you may not find the exam difficult.
• Given recent trends, you may be inclined to focus on generative AI, but remember that knowledge about machine learning and responsible AI is also essential.

I hope this brief summary will be helpful for those planning to take the exam.

I also took the "AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer - Associate Beta" exam later, and I plan to post about it soon.