Just registered for LFCS certification

pmeeke

Hello everyone. I have just registered for my LFCS certification exam but have not yet scheduled for the exam. Can someone direct me on where i can find study material for this exam or advise on what books i should read through to get a good understanding before taking it. I have my CompTIA linux+ and just passed the LFS101x: Introduction to Linux exam. I cant afford the fees for the training that linux foundation are offering. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Is there any practice exams for example that can be taken? I see on the certification page it gives a list of the core domains and the critical skills but guides which show documemtation into these core domains would be great. The last thing i want to do is schedule for the exam and discover i know absolutely nothing about what they are asking me.

LibbyClark

Hi there! Feel free to email certification@linuxfoundation.org for any questions. Or check the Linux Foundation Certification FAQ page: http://training.linuxfoundation.org/certification/certification-information-and-faq

Good luck on your exam!

darkeale

Hi!

Did you manage to find any more information about this? I'm in exactly the same situation! Also, when you registered for the exam is there a time within which you have to sit the exam?

Thanks!

AlexJ

Hello!

I don't have an official answer, but I would suggest to start with the LPIC-1 equivalent materials. If you have the Linux+ 'powered by LPI' version, you should be on your way.

I am also planing on taking on the LFCS and LFCE exams. But I will be waiting a couple of months hoping some more information be available about how the tests looks and what is the knowledge base needed.

Good luck!

saqman2060

You guys can use the study materials from the LPI institute.


LPI self-study materials

dajoker

I took the LPIC-1 and LPIC-2 several years ago and do not believe they will help at all with this exam. When I took them (presumably still today) they were multiple-choice and short-answer (single commands generally) only. The LFCS is a practicum on your favorite distribution of Linux (mine being openSUSE, I used that one) and so I do not think that studying and memorizing every question on the LPIC exams will do much.

The LPIC tests were hard in how obscure they were in some questions, and in the fact that you have to test in an environment entirely foreign to "real work" in Linux. The LFCS is hard because you can't pass by getting the right answer out of four each time.

If you want to pass the LFCS, read the topics mentioned by LibbyClark above, and then go and do those things in Linux on the distro you'll use for testing, and do them from the command line (or using Yast, since that has an ncurses version on openSUSE/SLES), to match what the experience will be like for reals. Also, do not plan on using anything other than the screen in front of you, which only gives you access to the system on which you'll be doing things. man pages allowed, Internet not.

AlexJ

@dajoker: The formats are completely different (one theoretical and one practical). But the question (at least mine) is if the areas covered are the same.

The world of Linux is huge, ranging for kernel programming to webserver administration to network firewalls to virtual machines to $LOTS_OF_STUFF.

You need to know at least what areas to study. Weather an exam tests your theoretical knowledge or your practical one of one ore more topics, that's another thing. But you do need a curricula either way.

dajoker

@Alex3, sure a curricula is a good idea. I think we're on the same page there.

I would not start with the LPIC stuff for two reasons:

1. There is already a list of what topics to study, as posted in the early replies.
2. The LPIC stuff online will, at best, mention the same list of topics covered in the stuff from #1. At worst, it'll get you memorizing flags for the rpm and modprobe commands rather than worry about real system administration tasks. The LPIC can be passed via memorization of these type of things, and there are tons of study materials with sample (or even real) LPIC exam questions out there, and that won't help in a practicum like the LFCS, at least will certainly not help as much as checking the topics from #1 and then going and doing.

I suppose I may add another option is to see if there are sample exercises from other practical exams, such as SUSE's Certified Linux Professional (CLP) or Redhat's RHCE exams, both which are also practical and, as I recall, are both two-hours exams focusing on similar types of system administration tasks, though I believe both of those also get into the higher application configuration sides too (Apache httpd, Postfix, Dovecot, bind, etc. etc.) which are probably more the domain of the LFCE than the LFCS.

Just my two bits,
AB

calagan

I found the article below useful as a starting point:
http://www.tecmint.com/sed-command-to-create-edit-and-manipulate-files-in-linux/

It gives you an good overview of the topics covered, BUT you need to dig deeper, looking at more examples and the man pages of the tools involved.

Of course, nothing prevents you to look at man page during the exam, but you might be running out of time if you do it too often.