Tag Archives: oracle

PASSED! Jeanne’s Experience Taking the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Generative AI Professional

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Today I took the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure 2025 Generative AI Professional certification and passed with a score of 86%. Passing is 68%. This roughly the score I got on the Foundations exam. Which isn’t surprising. I tend to make the same amount of “careless mistakes” on exams in general with this sort of thing. Even in elementary school. I’d know the material, and write down the wrong answer. Or misread a question.

It’s a 90 minute exam with 50 questions. This is 30 minutes and 10 questions more than the foundations exam. It took me 22 minutes for this exam (and about 10 minutes for the foundation). For both each question was pick one of four multiple choice questions. In many questions one or two were clear distractors. Why did this take twice as long? More questions was part of it. And another was this one had you reading code for some of the questions. Not a lot of code; just 2-6 lines or so. But that takes longer than reading words. Which is probably why the Java 21 cert was a problem with time. That was reading A LOT of code.

Why I took this certification

Oracle is doing a race to certification, where you can take a number of free certifications between now and Halloween. Unlike the Vector cert, which I took solely because it was free, this one I took both because it was free and to learn something. (same for foundations) And I did. Some was new to me and some I used to know and forgot. I especially appreciated learning/reviewing vocabulary and concepts.

What I did:

  • Watched videos and did skills checks from the free course. This was interesting. The skills check questions cover a good amount of the exam materials. I watched it on 2x speed. I also skipped most of the lab videos. I skipped the demos and focused on the concepts because I wasn’t interested in the Oracle Cloud specifics. I did this over two days. There is some repetition in the videos. For example, in context and k shot prompting was in modules 2 and 3. Same slides; different instructor.
  • Watched the video about preparing for the exam. It came with 4 practice questions which were similar to the exam.
  • Did practice exam. This was 50 questions. matching the real exam. The first time thru I got a 68%, which is exactly passing. (I didn’t review my notes at all) It was useful for knowing what I needed to remember. I reviewed 15 answers and then took it again getting an 84%. (I didn’t review them all because I accidentally closed the browser tab.

The exam

All the questions were single answer multiple choice. Like the Vector exam, you had to sign up for a slot in advance. Scheduling wasn’t bad though. I had a choice of any time during the 24 hours of Monday. (and a few 10:30pm or later Sunday night but I am a morning person)

Also, like the Vector exam, i took a picture and showed the computer my id. Then started.

I wrote a separate blog post about the exam engine. I had a few differences form that time though:

  • I had to download software to my machine for Proctorio (“Secure Companion App” and not just the browser plugin this time. I was sure to delete it right after.
  • I had to close my Terminal and Slack this time. While I certainly didn’t use them last time, I didn’t close them. (I don’t have alerts on Slack so it didn’t affect e)
  • Two of the questions had a multiline sentence as answer options that was behind the floating menu bar on the right. The first time, I dragged it was fine. The second time, I accidentally clicked the picture of me (my video) instead of the grab bar. This turned off my video. I clicked to turn it back on immediately and the proctor didn’t comment. There was nowhere good to put the bar though where it didn’t cover something on one question so I moved it a few times.

After the exam

You get a score report on the screen right after submitting and an email right away with the same score. It took a little under an hour to get the second email saying my certview was updated. While Oacle products were used as examples a lot, you only had to actually know about them for a few questions.

What I found most interesting

I like that the questions were a mix on this exam. Some were pure definitions. Some were scenarios where you had to identify a term or algorithm from the description. Some were code where you had to answer a question about it. (luckily the Python code was clear because remember I didn’t watch any of the demos or do the lab).

I also found it interesting how the exams are related. Some of the concepts from other exams were on this one.

How to Study

The learning path is sufficient to take the exam if you go through it carefully. And just like the other AI certs, pay lots of attention ot the sample questions and practice exams! There are only so many ways you can ask certain topics.

Oracle’s new certification exam engine

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When I took the Java 21 certification, Oracle was essentially using Zoom to proctor the exam. Today I took the Oracle AI Vector Search Professional certification so I could see the new exam engine. It’s much better! (separate blog post on the actual vector search exam)

Requirements/testing the software

Oracle has a page that summarizes requirements. The exam now uses a browser plugin named Proctorio. You download the plugin right before the exam and remove it right after. IF you do a the exam readiness check, you still install the plugin after that and install a fresh copy before the real exam.

The plugin ensures you close the necessary programs on your machine. Like other browsers. Oddly it was fine with me having Slack and a few other things open. It also prompted me to unplug my second monitor.

Then it has you take a picture of yourself (actually 3-5 of them) and scan your id. The tool didn’t pick up on my id when I was holding it automatically so I had to press a button for that picture to be saved. And yes one id. There was one place that said two ids, but they only checked one. (And the exam page says one id)

The plugin lists the following information

What’s recorded during the exam

  • websites visited
  • location
  • identity document

What’s restricted during the exam

  • one monitor
  • full-screen mode
  • no new tabs
  • no clipboard
  • no printing
  • no downloads
  • no right-clicking

During the exam

The exam readiness practice was a good representation of what you saw. Very important is to click to open the right navigation with extra options. It included a calculator (available, but not needed for this exam) along with a digital exam. There were also options to zoom in or out which would be super useful on the Java cert exam since some of the questions are very long. And of course the usual functionality to flag questions for review.

On the real exam, there was also an option to report feedback on questions to Oracle. There was also a small video of your video in record mode, and a chat with proctor button. There as also an 80% battery indicator. I was at 100% so not sure what that referenced.

More on the whiteboard since that was the most important thing for me. You can use your cursor to draw on it. Or you can click the “T” button and then click where you want to be on the whiteboard and type. You have to do this each time you want to type. There’s a delete button but it deletes the whole whiteboard contents. There isn’t an eraser to erase just part. You can leave the whiteboard open or close it between questions. It remembers what is written on the whiteboard when you close it. Also, you can’t scroll to add more space so think about how you are using the space.

Happy Book Birthday! New OCP 21 Book Now Shipping!

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It's a Book!

Jeanne and I are excited to announce our new Java OCP 21 Certified Professional Study Guide is now shipping! Released by Wiley Publishing, this book teaches you all the new (and old) features of Java 21, and helps prepare those planning to take the 1Z0-830 Java 21 Certification Exam.

Are you worried your Java skills are getting outdated? Are you writing code with the same toolset you’ve been using since Java 11, Java 8, or even Java 1.4? This book is definitely for you then! It starts with the basics, incorporating all of the new languages features like pattern matching, text blocks, var, and switch expressions. After that, we add records, sealed classes, virtual threads, sequenced collections, modules, and more. Finally, we cover lambdas and streams, helping you write shorter code and easier-or-read functional code without a lot of boilerplate syntax.

Whether your fresh out of school or have been programming Java professional for over a decade, our book helps you understand how to use all of the features of Java 21. We cover each topic in detail, from the basics to advanced usage, to help you write better Java code in your daily life.

For those looking to become Java 21 certified, look no further. Our book contains 14 chapters of everything you need to prepare for the exam, including exam tips, study suggestions, and hundreds of challenging practice questions. It also includes access to Sybex’s Online Test Bank, where we’ve written 3 simulated 1Z0-830 practice tests and over 500 flashcards!

Order now for the holidays, as Amazon already has our book backordered until the second week of December!