How to prepare for Microsoft Azure certification DP-100: Designing and Implementing a Data Science Solution on Azure in the middle of this COVID-19 pandemic living in London, UK?
This week, I passed DP-100: Designing and Implementing a Data Science Solution on Azure. That’s great news! I am very happy to have my new Azure Data Scientist Badge!
Covid19 + Lockdown experience
I have to say that my preparation for this exam was very different from the previous exams (AI-100, DP-200, DP-201) and the main reason was this #covid19 pandemic.
My new normal: working from home every day (before I used to work 1 to 3 days from home), helping my wife much more with our kids (before they would be at school), cooking at home every day (before we would eat in restaurants some days), and dealing with our own anxieties, fears and concerns about life in general during this pandemic. To add some more complexity (and excitement) to this situation we are expecting our third daughter, and my wife’s due date is 1st June 2020.
So far so good for a year like 2020! We are keeping positive minds and trying to see the good things in all we can. We have much more time as a family and we are loving it (breakfast, lunch and dinner together everyday).
Also, now that I am not commuting as much as I was before, I am using some extra time to improve my skills and take Azure exams online from the comfort of my home.
For most of the exams, I would go to a test centre close to my house here in London, UK, but for this last test, DP-100, I took it from my living room, my kids had to go up to my bedroom and stay as quite and calm as they could, in the end all went well, but it was hard for my wife to keep them quite.
At work I am working in 4 amazing customers engagements and life is very busy for me.
DP-100: The exam
Azure Data Scientist, so what?
The Azure Data Scientist applies their knowledge of data science and machine learning to implement and run machine learning workloads on Azure; in particular, using Azure Machine Learning Service. This entails planning and creating a suitable working environment for data science workloads on Azure, running data experiments and training predictive models, managing and optimizing models, and deploying machine learning models into production.
DP-100 exam tips in times of Coronavirus (COVID-19):
1. First you have only one option now: take the exam from home. You will need a good computer, good internet and a very quite place where you will be alone for all the duration of the exam (which is quite a challenge). I have a friend who decided to take his exam from his bathroom, I selected my living room and kept my kids watching a movie with my wife in the second floor of our house.
2. Definitely for this DP-100 exam you will need real world Python and Azure Machine Learning experience, get your hands dirty with coding and specially get good with Python as much as possible.
“This exam measures your ability to accomplish the following technical tasks: set up an Azure Machine Learning workspace; run experiments and train models; optimize and manage models; and deploy and consume models.”
3. Review the content of the DP-100 exam page.
4. Use the Youtube video below called “EXAM PREP: DP-100 | Designing and Implementing a Data Science Solution on Azure | BRK1050” to help you understand the exam and how to prepare for it.
5. Use your Azure subscription to build your own demos and try every technology involved in the exam to get hands-on experience.
6. Book your exam. In the day of the exam eat chocolate (I did not eat chocolate this time) and drink water.
7. Have fun and get your new badge!
Skills measured
- Set up an Azure Machine Learning workspace
- Run experiments and train models
- Optimize and manage models
- Deploy and consume models
Reference:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/dp-100
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/azure-data-scientist
