I learned a lot and could make solid connections between the security theory I learned in school, the networking I learned during CCNA, and my experience as a sysadmin and web developer. As my first cybersecurity-focused certification, I learned many concepts that other learning paths assume previous knowledge and insight about.

This certification really boosted my confidence in security-related topics.

- 15. January 2023

Huge, and broad certification that forced me to learn a lot about networking theory, design, and hands-on configuration of Cisco equipment.

I went old-school and built a physical lab, using old cisco equipment, and gradually moved into virtual appliances using "Cisco Packet Tracer" and other lab tools like "Boson NetSim".

This certification made me realize how big and deep networking really is. I also learned a lot about how to perform basic layer 2 and 3 hardening to defend against network attacks.

This was a beast of a certification exam that I'm very proud to have passed. The CCNA was the very first IT certification I passed. During my studies, I learned a lot about how and what makes me learn stuff. This insight has helped me a lot during further studies and will define how I tackle future education and certifications.

- 29. October 2021

A great certification based on the fantastic PCEP course from The Python Institute. This helped me stay motivated to learn and really understand what makes Python special compared to other programming languages.

This was a great certification exam that tested me on the understanding of foundational Python lexis, syntax, and semantics. The certification exam did not quiz me on pure memorization, but a combination of remembering and understanding how a Python program is written and executed.

- 5. May 2023

This was a very light and easy-to-follow certification and learning material provided by Microsoft on their own learning platform.

The learning material did an excellent job of covering all the fundamental cloud concepts and terms that are both vendor-neutral, and Azure-specific. It also forced me to get my hands dirty with the basics of the configuration and setup of containers and VMs.

It was an eye-opener to get first-hand experience on how easy it was to navigate and do stuff in Azure compared to other cloud providers like AWS.

- 14. August 2022

An absolutely perfect fundamentals course in Python. Before taking the course I felt confident in Python programming, but this course really filled in the gap I needed to fill and made me generally understand better programming fundamentals.

I have been programming daily for almost for over 5 years, and I still learned from this course.

- 3. May 2023

This course was definitely a low point in my learning experience at Noroff. The video lectures had several audio issues, the teacher seemed uninspired, and the written material was hard to retain.

I'm sad to say that this course felt like a minimum-effort project by Noroff, and the way the class was structured made it hard to retain the knowledge. A lot of the topics covered by the written material that was copy-pasted from Microsoft's own website expected previous experience and insight gained from certifications like the AZ-104. My class had not even had a basic introduction to Azure before this class, so we had no foundational knowledge to build upon.

The hard-to-grasp material came at a time when I struggled with study fatigue after more than 2.5 years of hard studying after a full day's work and family life. So the low quality of the learning material only increased the level of fatigue.

The good part of this course that really helped me learn was a collection of labs from Skillable. These labs really helped me get hands-on experience and helped me understand the concepts and methodology in Azure. Unfortunately, these labs were just tacked on as bonus material I started to work my way through during the last week of the course, as an exam cram.

Even though the labs from Skillable were excellent, they were a huge missed opportunity by Noroff that could have been used to really help us retain the material in a much better way by simply using them as bonus assignments mentioned across the material. The course had practical assignments, but they were too few and too short. After all, the AZ-500 is a practical certification and not a theoretical one.

This course, like all other Noroff courses, had two online open-book exams: an essay exam, and a multiple-choice exam. The essay exam had theoretical and practical tasks that challenged our understanding and hands-on skills. But my exam featured a problem that I had to solve that was not covered by the course material, this made me do research during the exam. The exam tasks were also written in a way that felt designed to make me misunderstand them. Both of these issues added unwarranted stress to the exam. The multiple-choice exam featured many questions about tiny details like default encryption algorithms that made me relive trauma from a previous CompTIA certification experience.

All in all, I'm glad this class is in my past... The only thing saving this course from a score of 1/6 was the Skillable labs.

- 12. March 2023

I really struggled with motivation in this course. The first half of the course was pure repetition from previous classes, and the second half was unfortunately boring. The instructor-led videos went from being engaging, and enthusiastic in the beginning, to monotone, and to a point where the instructor himself seemed bored at the end. This was unfortunate because the lack of engagement in the video and written material came at a time when I struggled with motivation myself due to study fatigue.

This class provided a very solid foundational level of knowledge about a vast array of cyberdefense topics. It was purely theory-based, but I appreciate this class because I don't think I would be able to force myself to really understand these basics without the desire for a good grade. Fundamentals like the ones covered by this class feels very important.

Since the class covered material very close to the old old Cisco CCNA security class, I decided to spend time studying for the new Cisco CyberoOps Associate certification. This helped me focus less time on the material from Noroff and more time on material from other channels, such as CBT Nuggets, Linked-in learning, and the book. The same week as I took the Noroff Exams, I took and passed the Cisco CyberOps Associate certification exam. This class helped me pass the CyberOps certification, and the certification helped me get a good grade in this class.

The class was estimated to require the students to use 210 hours, spread across 8 weeks of classes and self-study, and 2 weeks of repetition and exam preparation. I ended up spending 213 hours on this class. For reading material, I read through the Cisco CyberOps Associate cert guide by Omar Santos. This was a long, and great book that I really enjoyed reading.

- 15. January 2023

I don't think the book taught me anything new, but it was a nice mental reset for how I approach programming challenges, structure my day, and structure my code. It represented the Zen of Python (PEP 20) in many ways.

This was a fantastic and straightforward book written in a typical self-help book but for programmers trying to become better at their craft. I truly enjoyed this book on a small vacation trip, where I read it while traveling. It was very easy and entertaining to read. It might seam strange, but this was a tech page-turner!

This is a book I would encourage intermediate programmers and programmers who have some experience but want to take a step back and rebuild a stronger foundation.

19. May 2023

This book was a fantastic audiobook that lasted about 3.5 hours. I heard it while spending a Saturday stacking wood at home. I heard it at a time when I felt a bit overwhelmed by the complexity and problem-solving skills involved in data structures and algorithms. Because the book was so well structured I managed to realize how much I actually understood, and it helped me mentally structure the concepts in a much better way. The wey data structures are saved in memory was especially good explained.

An excellent audiobook I wish I had heard a long time ago. I think it would have helped me remove some of the impostor syndrome I felt regarding programming in general. I knew most of the stuff covered, but this book made me really understand it at a deeper level, and make mental connections i lacked.

15. April 2023

In typical cisco press fashion, this was an excellent book that was easy to read, and easy to understand. You could really tell that the author loved to teach, and loved to make the reader understand. Every topic was very well written, but in many ways expected a CompTIA Security+ and Network+ level of understanding of many of the concepts.

I read through the book once, and felt fairly ready for the certification, after doing some test certifications to spot my weak spots.

30. January 2023