So today I sat the Azure Fundamentals Certification Exam and passed!

Really pleased with myself at achieving this. It was one of my goals for 2021 so I can tick that off.

Back in January I booked my first exam, however due to technical problems I didn't get as far as the Exam. In order to be able to sit an exam like this you need a webcam and microphone so you can be monitored remotely to check that you are not cheating. Something in my network was blocking them from seeing my video so it got cancelled before it started.

My theory is that either my internet connection was playing up at the time, My Pi Hole was blocking something, or something else on my network was blocking the video feed.

This cancellation put me off Certifications, as I wasn't sure how to debug the issue and find out exactly what the problem was.

A few months back I won a free Azure Certification for taking part in a skills challenge run by Gregor Suttie and Richard Hooper and this was due to expire at the end of this month so I thought why not book a second exam and see if I can get past the technical problems. I didn't do any exam prep as I thought, I wouldn't get that far.

This time I connected directly to my router, bypassing most of the network, firewall and other items on my network that could possibly cause an issue.

I cleared my desk, took photos of my ID, took pictures of my desk from every orientation, and waited for the technical issues to start.

I was in a queue waiting for the exam to start.

A connection issue has occurred you have been sent to the back of the queue. Oh here we go again!

But no I connected with the invigilator, who asked to confirm my monitors were disconnected and to move my wallet out of reach off my desk.

And we are off, I am answering questions from the exam.

I won't go into detail about the questions, but I whizzed through them, most made me think, some I guessed at. I wasn't expecting to pass, I thought maybe half marks or just under due to my familiarity with Azure. (I have been using it for years which must count for something!)

I was wrong I passed comfortably and now I have my first certification.

My advice for you if you have been using Azure for a while is to book this exam and see how you do, you may well pass like me. There are plenty of opportunities to get a free exam, attending conferences like Ignite often qualify you for one, look out for challenges and competitions by #AzureFamily people on twitter as they are very encouraging and helpful in your Certification journey.

And yes I am thinking about what Certificate to do next!