Certifications are a signal, not a proof, and hands-on work is what hiring actually reads. This set covers what a certificate does and does not show, the categories of certification, the free and legal places to practise, and how to write up work you actually did.
Each one is marked as you go, and the explanation arrives straight after, which is
the part worth reading.
4 questions, marked as you go.
Tasks
These need your own device. Run the command in Termux, then paste what it printed.
The marking looks at what the output means, so spacing, version numbers and
ordering do not matter. If you have not installed anything yet, the
lesson covers the setup.
Write a portfolio entry for a lab you did
A portfolio entry records work you actually did, with the reasoning shown. This writes one for a lab on your own Termux install and reads it back, then counts the words. The reasoning line is the part that shows how you think, so keep it in.
Run this in Termux
On your own device. Nothing on this page executes it. The command runs in
your terminal, and this box only reads what you paste back.
mkdir -p ~/portfolio; printf "lab: my own Termux install\ngoal: check which services are listening\nmethod: ran netstat -tuln, then stopped sshd with pkill\nresult: no listeners remained\nreasoning: a listener is a door, so I keep as few as I can\n" > ~/portfolio/lab-01.txt; cat ~/portfolio/lab-01.txt; echo "words: $(wc -w < ~/portfolio/lab-01.txt)"
Five lines: the lab, the goal, the method, the result, and the reasoning, then a word count.
the write-up names the work and how it was done
it shows the reasoning, not just the result
the write-up is counted in words
the commands actually ran
What a good answer looks like
Five lines naming the lab, the goal, the method, the result and the reasoning, then a line with the word count. The method line names what you actually ran, and the reasoning line says why, which is the part a reader learns from. Your own entry would describe a different lab, but keeping the reasoning visible is what makes it worth reading.
Marking your own work
Both halves of this are checked in your browser, with no server involved, so nothing
stops you from pasting output you did not run. The tasks are written so that the
easiest way to pass one is to actually do it and read the result, which is the whole
intention.