Last year, I took the Nutanix Certified Professional – Artificial Intelligence 6.10 exam, and in this article, I want to share a few tips I used to prepare for this exam.
For those who did not hear about this certification, NCP-AI measures an ability to install, configure, optimize, and troubleshoot Nutanix Enterprise AI (NAI), as well as integrate GenAI applications and agents with NAI.
In this article, we will look at the main topics from the Nutanix Certified Professional – Artificial Intelligence (NCP-AI) exam version 6.10, and I will share materials that you can use to prepare yourself.
This guide describes the methodology I am using in preparing for certification exams, and it could be used for other Nutanix exams as well.
Briefly about the exam and the passing procedure:
The exam consists of 75 multiple-choice and multiple-response questions. 120 minutes are given for answers. The maximum number of points that can be scored in the exam is 6000. The passing score is 3000. Questions have different weights, which means that simply answering half of them may not be enough.
The cost of the exam is $199, but very often you can get a promo code for a 50% or even 100% discount, so you should stay tuned for news on next.nutanix.com, as well as follow the Nutanix University X (twitter) account. Usually, you can see a 100% discount on Pi Day, On Halloween, you may see that Nutanix Technology Champions are sharing vouchers during the year. So stay tuned!
You can take the exam either at the PSI test center or online.
Since I took the exam online, I will briefly describe the requirements:
- You must have a document confirming your identity. The first and last name must be in Latin;
- Having a computer/laptop with a webcam and microphone is mandatory;
- Stable Internet connection;
- There should be nothing unnecessary in the room, especially behind the workplace where the exam is being taken. Preferably, a completely free table with only a keyboard and mouse. Additional displays, TVs, etc., will need to be turned off;
- Of course, there should be no one in the room, and it should be quiet.
Let’s move on to preparation:
Nutanix recommends this exam to specialists with at least three years of virtual infrastructure experience, as well as one year of experience working with cloud-native technologies and the Linux command-line interface.
The successful candidate should have foundational knowledge of virtual infrastructural components, such as virtual machines, hypervisors, and virtual networking. The candidate should also have knowledge of the NCI cloud, cloud-based Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), GPUs, and Nutanix Unified Storage. Finally, the candidate should possess a Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) certification level of knowledge.
In my opinion, because NAI is a separate product that can be deployed in any Kubernetes cluster, to be successful in the exam, you need to have Kubernetes knowledge and know how to deploy and troubleshoot services. It is not required to be an expert with the Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP), but it definitely can be a big plus.
Do not forget that this exam is about the AI Inference platform, and you should have basic AI knowledge and know about Hugging Face, NVIDIA AI Enterprise (NGC Catalog), and NVIDIA NIM.
The good news is that Nutanix Enterprise AI is not such a big product, and it can be learned using simple and straightforward methodology with a little set of documentation. The hardest part, I think, is Kubernetes experience.
When preparing for any exam, you should begin by studying the official document that lists the topics that will be covered in the exam.
The Blueprint Guide for the NCP-AI 6.10 exam can be found here.
In addition to the topics that will appear on the exam, Blueprint provides a list of recommended documents for preparing for each topic, as well as general preparation guidelines.
The exam is based on NAI version 2.3.
Let’s look at the sections from Blueprint:
1. Deploy a Nutanix Enterprise AI Environment – prerequisites, installation and initial configuration;
2. Configure a Nutanix Enterprise AI Environment – user management, Model importing, creating endpoints and providing access;
3. Perform Day 2 Operations – additional management, performance and activity monitoring;
4. Troubleshoot a Nutanix Enterprise AI Environment – troubleshooting performance and health issues on the platform, fixing models downloading, deploying and serving;
5. Connect Applications to a Nutanix Enterprise AI Environment – interaction with the provided endpoints.
Above I described the main, but not all, topics from the Blueprint, so be sure to check it out.
Having understood the list of topics, you can build a preparation plan for the exam.
Online courses:
As usual, we will start with the Nutanix University. On the portal, look for the Nutanix Enterprise AI (NAI) Administration Online Course. This online course is free and consists of four modules, covering the NAI basics. This is a great way to start learning the product.
Literature:
I assume that you are familiar with The Nutanix Cloud Bible. This book contains a little chapter related to the NAI. Consider this a brief intro to the product.
Official documentation:
One document you should definitely get yourself familiar with is the Nutanix Enterprise AI Guide. This document covers everything you need to prepare for the exam.
Another document, not related to the NAI directly but recommended, is Nutanix GPT-in-a-Box with Nutanix Kubernetes Platform Design. In this document you can learn how modern AI infrastructure can look.
Video:
For those who like to learn through video, I can recommend visiting the Nutanix University YouTube channel, where you can find many videos on all sorts of topics. There are also thematic playlists there.
Unfortunately, there’s no specific exam preparation playlist this time, but one of the playlists contains NAI-related videos and is called simple – Nutanix Enterprise AI.
Practice:
As I told you before, practical experience is essential to taking this exam, so I want to advise you to practice with NAI whenever possible. If you have an opportunity, do it in your environment.
If, for some reason, you don’t know what NAI looks like, you can start with the Nutanix Test Drive. Among the list, find the Nutanix Enterprise AI (NAI) test drive and register.
Check of knowledge:
A great way to test your knowledge and understand the gaps is to take the NCP-AI practice exam on the Nutanix University portal.
The questions in the exam are as close as possible to the real ones and will help you understand your weaknesses before the exam, and you will have time to master those areas.
In conclusion:
When studying, I strongly recommend writing down what you didn’t know before in a special cheat sheet. This will help you quickly repeat what you need the day before the exam and refresh your memory.
I wish everyone good luck. I hope someone may find this material useful in their preparation.
