Starting from Scratch: The Only Guide You Need to Become Alteryx Designer Core Certified
This guide is geared towards those with rudimentary or no programming or technical background — we will be starting from scratch.
Attempt #1 — My First Technical Exam
The first time I used Alteryx was when I started dragging and dropping tools to build a workflow when I had to prepare for a Data & Analytics Academy in mid-2019. I had a week to familiarize myself with Alteryx and watched interactive lessons, taking notes, and pausing to do questions at the end of each lesson. It was a lot of going back and forth. I also had Alteryx open on my laptop and experimented with the tool mentioned in each lesson. I completed several Weekly Challenges in the Alteryx Community. I thought to myself, “if I’m investing time into learning this new platform, I should at least get certified’.
As the Alteryx Designer Core exam, which tests the ‘core’ toolset, or commonly used tools in Alteryx, is open book and can be taken every seven days, I decided to try it. This was the first technical exam I have attempted. I spent three hours studying for two weeks prior to the exam and attempted it on a Thursday evening in August 2019. I had a pace table in front of me to gauge how many questions I should finish within a certain amount of time, opened the notes in Microsoft Word that I’ve taken during my study sessions, and countless tabs in my browser. I did not pass. However, what was extremely helpful was the score breakdown, detailing the percentage (%) of questions answered correctly according to each tool category (e.g., Cross Tab and Transpose, Input etc.,), which served as a key for which tools I had to focus on, while flagging the ones I had grasped an understanding of.
Essential Resources and Tips for Passing the Alteryx Designer Core Exam
I attempted the Alteryx Designer Core certification again on January 11th, 2020 and finally passed! It was a painful process that required copious amounts of self-motivation as I was studying for two hours from 9–11 pm after work, and 6 hours during the weekend, for two consecutive weeks. Below are the resources I used when I studied for the exam and tips for exam day, which I believe were key to passing above the minimum required (80%):
Key Resources
1. Alteryx Designer Core Exam Preparation Guide
- Read this first — it has all the information you need to know about the exam.
2. Alteryx Interactive Lessons
- Especially the Alteryx Interactive Core Certification Preparation (Watch all of them).
- Part 4 provides all information needed for exam day, including the exam format, exam interface, strategies and tips.
3. Alteryx Community Weekly Challenges
- Complete all the Beginner challenges, then the Intermediate challenges if time permits.
4. To quickly learn the tools and how to configure them, search for each tool on the top right-hand corner of Alteryx (look for the magnifying glass icon), and click on ‘Open Example.’ You will then see input data that simulates different outputs, with a description of how the tool is impacted in different situations.
5. Alteryx Documentation Tool Categories*
6. Alteryx Community Tool Mastery Index*
7. Alteryx Core Certification Practice Test
8. With a quick Google search, you can find more practice Alteryx questions to attempt.
Other Resources
12. The Ultimate Input Data Flowchart
14. Why your Join is getting more records than expected
* Have these tabs open in a separate window from the exam. Know the order and what information is on each tab is to quickly toggle between tabs and CTRL+F with the keyword from the question to quickly find an answer.
Although there is a list of tools to focus on in the Alteryx Designer Core Certification Exam Preparation Guide, I’ve noticed that questions about the following tools tend to appear more often in the exam:
a. Input
b. Join and Union
c. Transpose and Cross Tab
Some questions from the Alteryx Designer Core Certification Exam Preparation Guide may also appear on the exam, as most, if not all, are drawn from a question bank.
Exam Day Tips
1. If you have two monitors, use two monitors — one with the exam tab open, and another monitor with Alteryx and all the tabs open so you do not have to frantically switch back and forth during the exam.
2. Scan through all the 80 questions and see which questions are Practical Application questions (7 out of 80, but worth 3 points each, or ~26% of the whole exam) to know how to pace yourself throughout the exam. You would need at least 2–3 minutes for those questions. You can always go back to previous questions so it is ok to do this. Just ensure that you do not accidentally click on the Finish now button and prematurely end the exam!
3. Write down on a separate piece of paper which questions you are unsure of and need to get back to. Note the Practical Application questions.
4. Keep a pace table — stick it on the side of your laptop and ensure that you have at least 10 minutes after completing all 80 questions to go back and check which ones you were unsure of.
5. The Practical Applications questions were the ones I struggled with as you would have to download dataset(s) and build out workflow(s) in Alteryx to answer questions, which may be a single or select all that apply question. Here are the ways I would tackle these types of questions:
a. Keep in mind the KISS method — Keep It Simple Stupid. Fewer tools may yield the desired output.
b. Keep a pen and multiple sheets of paper handy as you should spend 30–45 seconds figuring out how to approach the question to obtain the right answer(s). There may be several ways to obtain the same answer so be sure to come up with at least two ways, if possible, on single select questions.
c. For ‘Select all that apply’ questions, use the process of elimination to cross out which workflow(s) will yield an incorrect output. The ones remaining are those that should potentially work.
d. Having heavily used Microsoft Excel previously, I figured that I may have been able to find the answer to what was being asked more swiftly than in Alteryx. While this may work for some questions as the datasets are not encrypted, I found that many datasets I had to download were encrypted and limited data manipulation in Microsoft Excel. In short, attempt these questions in Alteryx only as there is no time to waste.
Armed and Ready
I hope this brief guide makes delving into Alteryx and preparing for the Alteryx Designer Core exam a less daunting endeavor.
