Less than 2 weeks ago, I opened Alteryx Designer for the first time and was overwhelmed by the vast array of tools available. Since then, I passed both the Alteryx Designer Core and Alteryx Designer Advanced certification exams. Today, I will share some important tips and useful resources that helped me reach my current level in Alteryx and become Alteryx Designer Advanced certified.
Why get Alteryx certified?
Alteryx is a powerful data analytics platform that is user-friendly and highly accessible to people without much knowledge or experience in data analytics. With a unique user interface, Alteryx combines familiar data manipulation processes with more complex machine learning functions. The Alteryx certification exams are designed to test an individual’s abilities to use the tools in Alteryx to their full potential. The Alteryx community is growing rapidly as more companies discover the value of analysing data to help them make more informed business decisions. Therefore, being Alteryx certified will definitely prove to be a nice addition to your professional profile.
How to prepare for the Alteryx certification exams?
There are currently 3 Alteryx certification exams available. The Core, Advanced and Expert certifications each reflect an increasing level of mastery of the tools in Alteryx. Each certification is a prerequisite for taking the next level exam. There is an Exam Prep resources page for both the Core and Advanced certification exams which provides an overview of the format and assessable contents of each exam, as well as including links to where you can find out more about all of the tools being tested. I would highly recommend to anyone looking to take the Core and Advanced certification exams, to look at the exam prep guides first as I found them to be the most helpful for guiding me towards relevant resources.
Interactive Lessons
After familiarising yourself with the exam prep guides, I would suggest checking out the Interactive Lessons page where you can find a quick interactive video tutorial on most of the Alteryx tools that are tested in the certification exams. At the end of each interactive lesson, there will be a short 3 question quiz which is an effective way to reinforce your knowledge on the features and capabilities of each tool.
Live Training
The Alteryx community also offers a sizeable collection of Live Training videos which covers many of the tools in Alteryx. There is a dedicated video series on Certification Prep for both the Core and Advanced certification exams which covers only the topics and tools that appear in those exams. They can be found in the links below:
Core Certification Prep – Part I
Core Certification Prep – Part II
Core Certification Prep – Part III
Core Certification Prep – Part IV
Advanced Certification Prep – Part I
Advanced Certification Prep – Part II
Advanced Certification Prep – Part III
Advanced Certification Prep – Part IV
Advanced Certification Prep – Part V
Advanced Certification Prep – Part VI
Weekly Challenges
Last but not least, have a go at the Weekly Challenges which allow you to put your knowledge of Alteryx into practice. I found this to be the most important step of certification exam preparation. Both the Core and Advanced certification exams have a practical component that requires you to import a given data set and work with the tools in Alteryx to obtain the correct answer. The only way to fully understand all the tools is to open up Alteryx and thoroughly explore each tool for yourself. No amount of informational resources can replace hands-on experience.
Get Alteryx certified!
After going through these resources, all of which are available in the Academy section of Alteryx Community, and applying them in practice within Alteryx Designer, you should be sufficiently prepared to take on the certification exams. If you are completely new to Alteryx, you can sign up for a free 14 day trial to jump straight into this versatile data analytics software. So try it out and you might even get certified before your trial ends.
