Alteryx Expert Certification – Exam Prep Guide and Top Tips
As one of the 17 people and the first female to obtain the Alteryx Expert Certification, I feel incredibly privileged to have had the help and resources I needed to learn and gain the qualifications along the way. Since my post about the exciting result of passing the certification in July 2019, many data analysts around the world who share similar passion and ambition have connected with me on LinkedIn. I thought I could help to share some tips on the certification exam ahead of the 2019 Inspire London, where the exam will be offered on Tue, 15th Oct.
To be 100% honest, I did not have much time to prepare for the exam. Therefore, I am writing this blog with a retrospective view of what I think is important in order to achieve a good result, knowing the exam format and content.
In this post, you will find:
1. What is the Alteryx Expert Certification about and what to expect
2. How to prepare before the exam
3. What to do during and after the exam
Pre-requisite:
Alteryx Designer Expert is the third and highest level of the three-tiered Alteryx Certification Program (there is also the Partner Certification which is offered to Alteryx Partners, and the new Master Certifications which are offered at the conferences). Successful completion of the Core and Advanced exams are required to qualify for registration of the Alteryx Designer Expert Exam. The exam is currently only offered at the Alteryx Inspire (their global and regional conferences).
Below is some basic information about the exam, released by the Alteryx Certifications team:
The exam will be delivered in the following format:
Audience: Expert users who have passed both the Core and Advanced exams.
Questions: 6
Question Type: Practical application
Grading Questions: Pass/Fail on a per question basis - no partial credit will be given. Some grading will require a proctor's inspection to prove question completion and accuracy.
Exam Time: 2 hours
Passing Grade: 4 / 6 questions correct
Format: Open Book
Key interpretation of the exam information:
The exam will consist of 6 practical application questions that require you to build workflows to arrive at the correct answers. On average, you can spend 24-30 minutes on each question, depending on if you want to attempt 4 or 5 questions (you are allowed to attempt all 6 questions, but most people complete 4-5 in the limited time).
You either pass or fail each question, which means even if your logic and majority of the execution is correct, if you make one small mistake which takes you to a different answer, you will fail that question. Therefore, it’s extremely important to leave time to check the workflow after you finished building it, either at the end of the exam or when you finish each workflow. I actually did both, just to stay on the safe side, and picked up a few small things while going through them.
The exam will build on the knowledge and skills you demonstrated on the Advanced Exam, and more. It aims to cover the broad capability Alteryx has to offer. Therefore, it is important to ensure you are comfortable with a range of topics (I will come back to this with more details further down), especially if there are “blind spots” due to the nature of your everyday work.
The exam will be “open book”, which means you can Google, read on Help pages (right click on a tool and click on Help – super useful), read community posts and knowledge base, or any other resources that you use to learn and upskill. Forget about memorising all the formulas and RegEx Syntax, the key here is to “understand” and “know how and where to find answers quickly”.
As always, I like to organise things in a structured way. So I am going to give some more detailed tips on what to do Before, During and After the exam. Take what you need and what works for you – giving those tips means I believe they are helpful; it doesn’t mean I actually did them all!
Before:
Cover the full ground as much as you can. Be really comfortable with at least 3-4 (preferably all) topics from the list below:
Useful resources:
Google
Alteryx Tutorials and Sample Workflows: in Alteryx, under “Help” you can see “Tutorials” and “Sample Workflows”
Your colleagues, trainers, and fellow Alteryx-loving strangers (e.g. me!)
During:
Take time to read the questions carefully. It will be worthwhile to make sure you spend time and energy solving the right problem!
Have a strategy. After reading all the questions, I made some simple notes on what topic each question covered, and ordered them by how much time I think it will take me to solve them. Then I started with what I thought was the simplest question. This strategy worked really well for me because after getting the simpler ones done and out of the way, I had all the remaining time to tackle the harder ones. It also gave me peace of mind knowing that I (think I) have some points in the pocket already.
QA your solution. Check through the logic after completion – remember that if you miss one thing, the whole solution goes down the drain.
Since it’s open book, you will be able to use all the resources on the internet to your benefit. If you are like me, it will be very tempting to solve any problem you are on, just because it looks so solvable! However, be agile and manage your time. If a question is taking too long, and doesn’t look like you are close to the solution, move on. Solve the other ones first, and you might have time to come back to it.
Don’t overly stress about it. Relax and have fun! It's like those escape room challenges - it’s fun and enjoy it. Also, the calmer you are, the better you will probably be able to use the full capability of your brain.
After:
Celebrate! Regardless of the result, you have learned something!
Continue the learning journey, and give back to the generous community if you can.
Good luck to anyone taking the exam! Drop me a message if you find this post useful or if you pass!
