Hadoop Lessons: How to clear Hortonworks administrator (HDPCA) certification?

In Hadoop administration, We have three certifications provided by MapR (MCCA), Cloudera (CCA) and Hortonworks (HDPCA).I have cleared Hortonworks administrator certification (HDPCA) and also I helped many of my friends to clear the Hortonworks administrator (HDPCA) exam . In that process , I have learned many things about this exam .

I would like to share few tips on how to clear HDPCA exam. May be these tips will help you in clearing the certification.

Exam will provide 2 hours of time to resolve practical tasks on a HDP 2.3 cluster. Exam result does not provide any score or detailed explanation why you have failed. Exam result just provides either you passed or failed. It is better to follow few tips mentioned below.

Start early

Try to come online for exam at least 30 minutes before your actual exam time. Hortonworks will send you exam link before 15 minutes , You need to click the link for further instructions about the exam. Once you click on the link , Your examiner will join in webex like environment and will complete pre-checks for the exam. Pre-checks will include checking candidate photo identity card and checking room environment. You need to come online at least 30 minutes before to complete all these formalities.

Cluster

Hortonworks provided cluster could be slow. Use your time wisely. Certification will have GUI base tasks and terminal based tasks. If web UI is taking time to load, Go to terminal to perform another task.

Time

Due to slow cluster , You may not be able to complete all tasks in time. Talk to your examiner about cluster slowness, He could give you some more time for completing your other tasks.

Verify answers

If you get fast cluster, You can even complete the tasks much before your total exam time . It is good idea to revisit tasks to verify how did you resolve your tasks.

Read tasks carefully

It is very important to read tasks carefully. Every task will complete information on what is expected from you. For example task will mention you that you need to install node manager on the host master1. if you do not read tasks carefully , you might install node manager on the host master2.

Go to master node first

When your exam starts , you will given gateway node access. You will also be given all credentials for many hosts in the cluster. Do not forget to ssh to master node of the cluster . Even though it is known thing for many people , some times we forget about that. at least I forgot to ssh to first master node and was trying to resolve some tasks on gateway node itself.

Try mock exam on AWS

Mock exam on AWS is almost same as original exam. It is recommended to try mock exam before taking actual exam.Mock exam will give you real exam experience, Mock exam can also give you confidence to attend real exam.

The following is the syllabus for HDPCA exam along with tutorials.