Alteryx Certification

[chris122]

Hi everyone,

I am excited to get certified. So far, I have taken the core material and attempted the test. I found many of the multiple choice questions fairly straightforward. The data set problems, however, seem to be very difficult given the time constraints and the difficulty of some the problems.

Do you suggest I prioritize the beginner weekly challenges or the intermediate ones? I feel like most of the data set problems on the test were intermediate, not beginner.

I wish everyone the best during these trying times! Thank you in advance for your help!

Best,

Chris Stepanian

[jielingchen]

Hi Chris, 

I totally agree with you. That's how I felt when I first failed the exam. For the MC questions,  I can easily found the relative information on the Altery Documentation website https://help.alteryx.com/current/BrowseV2.htm

However, for the Data set problems, they really required us to be familiar with the functions and tools of Alteryx Designer.  

In order to get familiar with the tools and self-training, I highly recommend you check out the example of each tool and run it on Alteryx. Since each tool has an example that contains data. All you need to do is to click on the tool you want to learn and click open example. 

[SubratDas5]

One page which was on my bookmark list was - Tool Mastery Index ( https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Knowledge-Base/Tool-Mastery-Index/ta-p/84593 ) . 

Also from the point of view of Dataset preparation, I concentrated on the formula tool and the Transpose sections because most of the workflow questions are around that and it requires you to put in the hours to be able to get the solution in a short time.

I also followed a time management approach for the test. For 80 questions, I made sure I went through all of them all by the end of the first hour. that way I would mark the question #s which have dataset questions and come back to them at the end of the first hour. I would give not more than 5-7 minutes for each data question , that way I could complete all the 4 by the half hour and have good time to recheck all my answers. 

Another top secret - always always " when googling for a link , always ask direct questions" the algo works better and the answer/ link that you are looking for would be in the top 5/7 results. ( always helps when you are in a tight spot) 

Alright, stay safe and go well. 

All the best for anyone writing the exam. 

[nnishapillai]

Hi there,

I took my Alteryx Core exam for the third time today, but could not get through.

Could you please share some inputs on how I should focus? I was not able to find time at all for the Practical questions at all within the given time limit. Out of the exam, probably I could do them but within the given time of the exam, it seems very difficult. 

Please help. Thanks.

Regards,

Nisha

[KW1979]

Hi Nisha!

I did not see a reply yet to your post, and although this is coming a lot later than around the time you sent this, I thought I would still offer some perspective. 
I started preparing and studying for the core certification during the month of April. And after 5 attempts I’ve just passed the exam and became certified. And let me tell you, I know exactly how you feel. With every attempt it starting to feel somewhat hopeless, but I will say that one thing that helped was to work on the application problems and their datasets. What I did was save the datasets and a copy of the question so that I could work through it outside of the exam. It’s more about getting familiar with the tools enough to be able to quickly utilize them during the exam. And also it helps to have those datasets available anyway, on the off chance that you’ll run into a similar question the next time around. I hope this helps!

[htrivedi123]

@nnishapillai 

Please don't get discouraged by it and stay focused on learning. It took me multiple attempts too (Full Disclosure) but I finally made it last week. Everytime I went back to reading Help documentation or reviewing examples/workflows/challenges or watching videos etc. I learned something new...at the time it may seem trivial but it goes a long way during the exam  by providing the confidence that you know what you are doing. 

Exam feedback e-mail helped me a lot where I knew specific areas to improve...the feedback is spot on. I struggled with timing so I kept practicing such that I can complete all 1 pointers in 90 minutes with very minimal use of Help documentation leaving enough time to complete practicals...hope this will help you move along. I would highly recommend watching core certification series videos if you haven't watched it already.

Happy leaning, see you on the other side 🙂

Thanks,

Hardik

[davechndr]

Hi Chris and Jieling,

Because I had trouble finishing the exam, and, I could not make the time to attempt the questions involving practical application, using Alteryx, I did not pass the Alteryx Core Designer Exam after three attempts.

Jieling - you mentioned in your response that going through the examples on the Alteryx program to get intimately familiar with these tools is a very good idea, which I agree with and did. Once one understands the tools very well, how would one quickly be able to build a workflow in Alteryx, under time pressure, and find the right answer to a pinpointed question? I am asking this because, even if I make the time to even work on these, I'm finding that I have to be very quick (as in take under 90 seconds) and obtain the right answers; I struggle to do that. Any recommendations that you have would be very highly appreciated, along the lines of construction a good workflow which gives an accurate answer, with tight time limits.

Thanks and take care.

Regards,

@davechndr