Just passed the LFCS exam; some tips

Posted by sbbh1@reddit | linuxadmin | View on Reddit | 26 comments

I just passed my LFCS exam with a perfect score and just wanted to give some tips for others pursuing this certificate.

PRACTICE!!! the only way to really understand the tools and what they do is by running them. You can read as much as you want, but if you don't have affinity with the commands and arguments you'll struggle a lot and will take forever. I followed the Kodekloud course and did all the practice exams and Linux challenges they offer.
Learn how to search for a command. If you need to change some ACL stuff but forgot the commands, use something like man -k acl to find all commands with acl in their name or description. If you are particularly lost, you can run the command with capital K (man -K acl) to also search the contents of the man pages.
Install the tldr package as soon as you start the exam. This gives you handy oneliners for almost every command you'll need to know. I.e. tldr find
Learn how to navigate the man pages -- understand their layouts and use case-insensitive searching (-i)
Take your time reading the questions. This is a no-brainer, but this was consistently the reason I failed certain questions in the practice exams and is the easiest to avoid.

That's all, good luck!

[-]

Dense_Peace695@reddit

i think I'm late, but can u tell me which free resources i can use to gain expertise enough for this cert?

[-]

helenahappa@reddit

Hello Sir,

If you don't mind answering some questions;

Do you have background in IT?
Were you already experienced in Linux, if yes, to what extend?
How long did it take for you to study for this exam?

[-]

MindlessSinger4424@reddit

Congratulation for your pass, I want to ask if you know this https://www.itexams.com/exam/LFCS? and if it is worth to buy this, the first 30 questions is free, for the others I have to pay

[-]

ConcurrencyGandalf@reddit

Could you please share your background in IT?

[-]

Currently working as a CloudOps engineer. Before that mostly FinTech stuff, but most of my Linux experience comes from home where I've been running Linux as the main OS on my workstation as well as my homelab for the past 4 years.

[-]

ConcurrencyGandalf@reddit

I am also a CloudOps Engineer.

I identified a gap on my knowledge regarding Linux, and as so I bought the LFCS certification exam, in order to force me studying and acquire both theoretical and practical knowledge. Don't get me wrong, my difficulties are not that much in bash scripting or so, but rather in the systems configuration/administration in Linux, which is quite useful for the containerization and orchestration aspects.

I decided to go for LFCS before CKA, as in my mind this gap is significant and thus needed for K8s stuff, but what do you think?

Reading these feedback posts makes me think it will be way harder to me to pass the LFCS exam. For context I studied aerospace engineering (MSc), and I do have 3+ years of experience in SWD/DevOps roles.

It would be nice to read back from you some feedback regarding this. :)

[-]

dannysauer@reddit

Context: I've been a Linux admin since last century, and have used Linux since Slackware existed.

You can manage large-scale k8s without filling all the gaps in LFCS. I took the LFCS exam (cold) when I was applying for a job at the Linux Foundation, and while I got everything right, there is some borderline esoterica in there which you're unlikely to use unless you're running bare metal Linux in a somewhat legacy Linux shop.

To be more concrete: I've been an SRE on some incredible teams supporting k8s, and am usually the "OS" guy. Everyone else can do their job just fine, but it's often quicker to ask me how to do an obscure find or tar thing or how mount really works than to check the man page or Stack Exchange. As you move across the spectrum from SRE to DevOps, the OS stuff becomes even less significant.

I'll still definitely grill candidates in an interview for either, especially if they claim to be good at Linux, but not knowing everything does not mean one will fail my interview. ;) Being able to navigate the file system and knowing generally what you're looking for is more important than remembering every flag for commands.

[-]

ConcurrencyGandalf@reddit

Totally agree with your last sentence.

[-]

sbbh1@reddit (OP)

I think having a solid Linux understanding is underestimated for the work that we do, so I'd definitely recommend starting with that. As for LFCS specifically, it gives you that but it's not an industry recognized cert like the Red Hat ones. So if that's important to you, you might want to look into that. All in all, as far is teaching you a solid base, I think LFCS is definitely recommended.

[-]

wellred82@reddit

Realise this is late, but did you have any experience with the Linux Foundation online learning? Thanks

[-]

didac_f@reddit

Where did you book your exam? I could only find what seems as 3rd party providers for the exam and quite expensive too.

Would you mind sharing how much it costed you?

Thanks and congratulations!

[-]

sbbh1@reddit (OP)

I booked it directly through linuxfoundation. I got lucky and scored an exam voucher during black friday deals for only $118, so if you can wait I'd recommend holding off until there's a good promotion on.

[-]

SuperPotat0e@reddit

Hey, are you sure it's still or was allowed to install the tldr package?

I just found this: https://kodekloud.com/community/t/unble-to-use-tldr-on-lab/394844

[-]

sbbh1@reddit (OP)

I was able to use it back then, but I wouldn't be surprised if they changed it.

[-]

klhuang0504@reddit

I attempted the exam yesterday and was surprised to find that I couldn't use tldr, which caused me to panic during the test.
Although it can be installed, it responded with 'no entry' for every command. It also failed with --update. Despite spending some time trying to fix it, I was unsuccessful.

[-]

Nandinski_@reddit

I've also encountered this issue in the KodeKloud labs. In that environment, the tldr package could not update because it could not find the folder \~/.local/share. After manually creating that folder, `tldr --update` runs without an issue.

[-]

Benwah92@reddit

"tldr -u" didn't work?

[-]

shankardct@reddit

Hi ,

How was the exam. Hope you have passed it successfully. Im preparing for the exam currently. can you give some insights about the topics it was covered ? Thanks in advance.

[-]

Life-Water-2190@reddit

Hi All,

I wanted to know if anyone would be able to explain the type of questions that I would encounter going for the LFCS. I spent a lot of time studying for it already, by doing both watching videos and creating my own labs to follow the training but I just wonder how hard the questions are. Do we have to remember all commands?
Are the tasks required very long and complex or is it usually a question of typing a couple of commands as long we understand the context or what to do?
Basically, any info that you can have on the exam would be great, as right now I have no idea if I'm ready for it or not.

Thanks all.

[-]

PrometheRus134@reddit

EXAM SIMULATOR! Learners will now have access to an exam simulator, provided by Killer.sh, to experience the exam environment. You will have two exam simulation attempts (36 hours of access for each attempt from the start of activation). Simulation includes 20-25 questions (which are exactly the same for every attempt and every user (unlike those found on the actual exams) and graded simulation results.

You'll get a calculated score of all questions solved. In addition you get a detailed list of the solved/unsolved sub-tasks for each question.

This simulator is more difficult than the real certification. We think this gives you a greater learning effect and also confidence to score in the real exam. Most of the simulator scenarios require good amount of work and can be considered "hard". In the real exam you will also face these "hard" scenarios, just less often. There are probably also fewer questions in the real exam.

I've finished both attempts, and it was great

[-]

newveeamer@reddit

Congrats!

Any plans for your next certs, now that LFCE was discontinued?

[-]

sbbh1@reddit (OP)

I was hoping to go straight for the RHCE but it looks like I'll need to get the RHCSA first, which is a bit annoying. In hindsight I should have just gone straight for the RHCSA instead of the LFCS

[-]

cmxhtwn@reddit

how are things going for you now?

[-]

davidnth12171@reddit

Congrats. I know this post is a bit old, but I was hoping you could share your average score on the KodeKloud and Killer.sh exams. I'm currently aiming to learn and practice for the LFCS, but my scores are hovering around 70, and I did below average on the Killer.sh exam. Knowing your experience would be really helpful to benchmark myself and stay motivated as I keep practicing. Thanks

[-]

sbbh1@reddit (OP)

I don't remember tbh, but most of my mistakes on the practice tests were due to me not reading the questions properly. Just keep at it and revise any of the questions you struggle with and practice some more. Good luck