{"id":475,"date":"2019-10-26T12:11:30","date_gmt":"2019-10-26T19:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nillsf.com\/?p=475"},"modified":"2019-10-26T12:11:33","modified_gmt":"2019-10-26T19:11:33","slug":"exploring-the-dp-100-certification-path","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nillsf.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/26\/exploring-the-dp-100-certification-path\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the DP-100 certification path"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the past couple of months, learning more about AI and data science has been on my learning backlog. However, I never actually sat down and put down a plan for learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The way I like to learn, is by setting myself a challenge. Just subscribing to a course, or setting the goal of learning more about X doesn&#8217;t work too well for me. I&#8217;ll share more about this around the change of the year, as I actually make 6-month-long personal development plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As I reflected on my development plan for these 6 months during my run this morning &#8211; running is a great way to think clearly &#8211; I noticed I needed a challenge for focusing my learning on AI and ML.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After some exploration, I stumbled across the DP-100 exam by Microsoft. It&#8217;s title &#8220;<em>Designing and Implementing a Data Science Solution on Azure<\/em>&#8221; is almost exactly what I wanted to learn more about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One might ask, why did you decide on the DP-100 vs the AI-100. The AI-100&#8217;s title is very close to the DP-100: <em>&#8220;Designing and Implementing an Azure AI Solution&#8221;<\/em>. But comparing the learning objectives of <a href=\"https:\/\/query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com\/cms\/api\/am\/binary\/RE3VC6C\">AI-100<\/a> &#8211; which are more focused on applied AI using cognitive services and the bot framework &#8211; to the <a href=\"https:\/\/query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com\/cms\/api\/am\/binary\/RE3VUjA\">DP-100<\/a> &#8211; which are more focused on developing your own models and actual algorithms &#8211; I decided the DP-100 is closer to what I wanted to learn more about. Specifically, the learning objectives of DP-100 are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Define and prepare the development environment (15-20%)  <\/li><li>Perform feature engineering (15-20%) <\/li><li>Develop models (40-45%) <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Learning resources<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In planning my learning, I did some research and decided to focus on the following learning resources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Modules on Microsoft Learn &#8211; focused for this exam.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Hundred-Page-Machine-Learning-Book\/dp\/199957950X\">The Hundred-Page Machine Learning Book by Andriy Burkov.<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/MicrosoftLearning\/DP-100-Designing-and-Implementing-a-Data-Science-Solutio\">Labs on Github<\/a>.<\/li><li>Going through exam objectives 1-by-1 and making sure I understand them.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Modules on Microsoft Learn &#8211; focused for this exam.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/learn\/certifications\/azure-data-scientist?wt.mc_id=learningredirect_certs-web-wwl&amp;tab=tab-learning-paths\">certification page <\/a>included a link to Microsoft Learn, with 6 modules designed to train you for this exam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"938\" height=\"644\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/image-50.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-476\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2019\/10\/image-50.png 938w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2019\/10\/image-50-300x206.png 300w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2019\/10\/image-50-768x527.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 938px) 100vw, 938px\" \/><figcaption>There are 6 learning modules on Microsoft Learn specifically for the DP-100 exam.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I plan to go through all of them. Whether or not that I will reach that plan will be a question for future Nills, but it&#8217;s the plan at least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Hundred-Page Machine Learning Book by Andriy Burkov.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I saw this book recommended in a number of different places. From what I gather, it seems to be a perfect boil down to 150 pages of the essentials of Machine Learning. It is more theoretical than most that will be covered on the Microsoft exam, but I believe in a firm knowledge foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you believe in trying before buying as the author does, <a href=\"http:\/\/themlbook.com\/wiki\/doku.php\">the book is available in full online.<\/a> As I&#8217;ll be flying for 8 hours next week, I&#8217;ll get myself a paperback copy on Amazon &#8211; and support the author that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Labs on Github<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I noticed <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/MicrosoftLearning\/DP-100-Designing-and-Implementing-a-Data-Science-Solutio\">these three labs on Github<\/a>, specifically for the DP-100 exam. The titles themselves sound pretty interesting, focusing on actually developing models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;m sure there are a lot more labs available, but this seems like a good start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Going through exam objectives 1-by-1 and making sure I understand them.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When studying for a certification exam, the way to make sure you&#8217;ll pass the exam is by going over the objectives 1 by 1 and making sure you understand the objectives. This is how I achieved the <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.nillsf.com\/index.php\/2019\/07\/09\/ckad-series-part-1-intro-exam-topics-my-study-plan\/\">CKAD exam<\/a> with a 98% score, and a process I repeat for most certification exams I study for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The exam objectives are available <a href=\"https:\/\/query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com\/cms\/api\/am\/binary\/RE3VUjA\">here<\/a>. Going through the objectives will be my last step in studying. I prefer to focus on general learning first, and only then focus on the exam. The exam in itself is a goal to force my studying, not the goal itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There&#8217;s a lot of learning for me to do here, and this will keep me busy for a couple of months. But I hope that by having a goal (reaching the certification) will enable me to tick of that box that says &#8220;learn about AI\/ML&#8221; from my learning backlog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the past couple of months, learning more about AI and data science has been on my learning backlog. However, I never actually sat down and put down a plan for learning. The way I like to learn, is by setting myself a challenge. Just subscribing to a course, or setting the goal of learning [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,47],"tags":[45,19,44,46],"class_list":["post-475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-certification","category-data-science","tag-ai","tag-certification","tag-data-science","tag-ml"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nillsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nillsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nillsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nillsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nillsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nillsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":477,"href":"https:\/\/nillsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions\/477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nillsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nillsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nillsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}