So, now I can call myself a Certified Hadoop and MapReduce professional. Oh.. SWELL!!!.
Yes, I recently completed this certification from VSkills successfully. I actually wanted to give Clouodera Certification (CCHD) but I guess I took the right decision to go for VSkills first. YES, I said 'first', because I am planning to give CCHD very soon. Oh.. SWELL !!!.. Alright, I will save this one for later..
Now, the reason why I wanted to give VSkills first was simple. $$$$. Yeah.. CCHD costs a mammoth 295 bucks while VSkills is just 60 bucks. I did not want to jump in with both feet so soon because I don't have much of a hands on experience in hadoop. Smart thinking, eh?..
Well, it ended up okay for me. I prepared well for the exam, I would have probably put in some 60 hours of preparation and that is very much what is required for the exam. Now I know where exactly I stand and how I should go about preparing for CCHD and what areas I should focus more.
Let me stop my fundas here and try to be a little more useful...
To be very honest, I would suggest anyone willing to give any certification in hadoop should directly go for CCHD or CCHA (or similar ones from HortonWorks). Here are some of the tips from my experience and I hope it helps you in some way. These are based on my experience from successfully completing VSkills exam and my ongoing preparation for CCHD.
If anyone out there who has already given CCHD or CCHA and want to contest with anything I mentioned here, please feel free to write your views in the comments section. I would be more than happy to publish as long as you did not abuse me. :)
Here goes some important things for the exam takers to keep in mind
- VSkills sends you "Hadoop in Action" book. It is a good starting point, no argument there. But please buy or steal from someone (like I did) "Hadoop the Definitive guide" from ORielly publishers. Most of the questions are from this book and as far as I know, CCHD questions are also based on this book.
- Try not to have any breaks during the preparation. Be it 2 weeks or 2 months, make sure you are always doing something or the other in Hadoop. Read the book at least for 10 minutes even during your busy weekends with back to back movies. Find some materials online or go through the forums. Just let your head revolve around Hadoop always.
- Once you finish reading the basic hadoop concepts and got some idea on how to install hadoop cluster, it is time to get your hands dirty. Download Hadoop into your linux or ubuntu machine (donwload them first if you don't have one) and try to bring up a cluster in pseudo mode and play around with it a bit. Doing it just once yourself will give you more confident than going through the material 10 times.
- How much ever hadoop experience you got under the belt, theoretical knowledge is important to score good marks in the exam. Try to remember the names of different properties that you can tune and tweak. There are many hadoop properties that sound similar but will mean different things.
- Make sure you know the numbers - default values, maximum numbers, minimum numbers, etc.
See you soon with another post soon!
Useful Links:
http://www.vskills.in/certification/Certified-Hadoop-and-Mapreduce-Professional
http://university.cloudera.com/certification.html
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596521981.do
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