I took two exams, both were associate level, both were at home with virtual proctor via pearson vue.
There are no labs or written responses on the exam, just 65 multiple choice questions.
But I now see Professional level exams are $300 not $150. so are pro exams a different format?
I scheduled the exam thinking I was ready.
When I took the exam, there were topics and terminology on there that were NEVER mentioned anywhere in the Frank Kane and Stephane Maarek's course. How did I watch the entire course and never have heard of that thing?
Stephane Maarek is the GOAT of AWS, I watched thru his Solutions Architect - Associate course twice and passed on the first try. So I thought the same would apply for Data Engineer Associate.
When I did the practice exams in Frank Kane's Data Engineer Associate, as I recently posted twice before, I found some AI slop explanations that were self contradictory. He clearly did not read what AI gave him before putting it into the exam.
The explanations of the wrong answers are MUCH MORE important the explanations of right answers. You learn more by getting stuff wrong than right. If you're got a question right, the explanation is simply reinforcing knowledge you already had. Explanations of wrong answers actually teach you something new.
But after I found two exam questions that had AI hallucinations in the explanations, I decided to quit reading the explanations of the answers. Why am I going to sit here and read AI slop that tells me Data Firehose delivers to DynamoDB and Athena? Reading those explanations may teach me something wrong.
Ultimately Frank Kane's AI slop sent me into the exam unprepared and this was the outcome.
I'm not even ready to sit for the exam yet, I got 65% on AWS's official practice questions for Data Engineer Associate. Even with the limited knowledge I have, this is the SECOND question I found (in the same practice exam) with AI slop answers.
There's no telling how bad this is overall
Firehose does not deliver to Athena. Athena does not hold data. Athena is a query service. Pure nonsense coming out of Frank Kane's AI.
The explanation says that answer doesn't provide real time, when the question said real time is not necessary.
I took Stephane Maarek's Solutions Architect and the questions all felt human written to me. I passed. Look at the banner in Frank Kane's LinkedIn. Clearly he is the culprit.
To defend users against AI-driven enshittification, I am asking mods to remove any course by Frank Kane / Sundog Education from recommended course material in this sub, even if Stephane Maarek is involved in the course.
The option highlighted in the second picture, I didn't click it because I knew damn well Firehose can't send data directly to DynamoDB.
The highlighted explanation seems to say that it can in the first sentence, then says it can't in the second sentence. So I went to AWS docs to confirm. Firehose does not and cannot deliver directly to DynamoDB.
I'm not paying a dime for AI written shit. AI makes shit up all the time when it doesn't know the answer. I only paid like $15 for this course, but the point remains.
LA Sheriff, Long Beach Police, they both stood on my feet when I did sit ups.
Today I failed Los Angeles school police physical test because they DON'T stand on your feet. A complete surprise to me. They want you to do 30 sit ups in two minutes, a sit up doesn't count if your feet come up or your form is otherwise bad. I fully thought I was going to pass but damn. I actually did 22.
I did 32 sit ups in two minutes at Long Beach police 3 months ago and that's before I started training. But they stood on my feet. It's a whole lot harder without.
Los Angeles school police said I can reapply immediately when it's open again, but I have to wait 4 months to take the physical test again on my next application. womp womp
I'm scheduled for physical tests at Inglewood PD, Orange County Sheriff and San Bernardino County sherriff.
But here's the kicker - Orange County Sheriff and Inglewood PD are holding their physical tests on the same day. So I have to pick the one I think I'm more likely to pass.