Cloudbite is a low-barrier, free web app intended for developers who want to learn about AWS. Cloudbite helps you retain knowledge with flashcards and spaced repetition, a scientifically proven method of learning. Content is particularly tailored towards AWS certificate exams at the Associate level. All data is stored locally on your device and is never uploaded anywhere.
Read the question at the front of the card and think about what the answer should be. Then flip the card to its backside to reveal the answer and assess how well you did.
If you feel like you need more practice with the subject, select "repeat soon". If you recalled the subject with ease, select "repeat later". If you are very familiar with the subject, or if it's irrelevant for you, you should select "repeat never".
Please note that all unseen cards have the highest priority, so even if you select "repeat soon", that means "soon" after you have seen all cards in the deck at least once.
The most obvious way to use Cloudbite is by clicking on things you see. Alternatively, you can also drag the card to the desired "repeat choice".
In addition, there are keyboard shortcuts:
While Cloudbite is useful to learn about AWS in general, the content is specifically optimized for these AWS exams:
Although AWS documentation gives the impression that these certifications are distinct, that is not the case. These exams have a lot of overlap. If you study for one of these exams, you might as well take all 3.
You can filter content to a subset of cards within a deck by clicking the deck icon at the top left and then writing your filter into the text box on the right.
Cloudbite is primarily intended to be a secondary learning resource. That means you learn the hard stuff somewhere else: at work, tinkering at home, reading documentation, watching videos... and Cloudbite helps you memorize key facts and retain your knowledge over time.
Cloudbite can also help you identify blind spots: topics that you should study for the certificate exams.
Sometimes you might even learn new things directly from the flashcards, but the explanations are often too short to cue you in to new subjects that you are unfamiliar with. There's no shame in googling while you flip through cards!
I created Cloudbite because I was disappointed at existing learning resources for cloud certificate exams.
The most widely used method by other cloud learning websites appears to be practice exams which mimic the real exam. That means multiple choice questions where you are visually exposed to options that include one correct answer and several incorrect answers. Visual exposure to misinformation is actively harmful to learning.
Websites which are dead-set on using this approach should at least reveal the correct answer immediately after the learner answers the question. However, none of them do. There can be a delay of hours between answering a question and seeing what was the correct answer. This delay compounds the harmful exposure to misinformation, which makes it more difficult for you to later recall key facts about the subject correctly.
In addition, practice exam questions are often extremely verbose and confusing. Simply reading and understanding these questions can be emotionally draining, which in turn raises the barrier to study.
The majority of AWS certificate training material appears to be targeted at "person off the street". Courses often explicitly state that no prior coding experience is required. It's great that we have learning resources for laypersons, but it would be great to also have some learning resources for developers. I'm a developer with a computer science background and some experience in the industry. I don't want to watch another video that explains "a server is like the barista at a coffee shop, and a client is like..."
Perhaps the biggest frustration for me is that content on other sites is often chock full of errors, and nobody cares enough to fix them. We all make mistakes, that's fine. But the issue I have is with people who literally sell disinformation and don't care. I've reported several errors to multiple cloud learning websites. The responses range from non-existant to abysmal and it's very rare to see anything fixed at all. Most sites appear to be focused on milling out large quantities of low-quality content and marketing aggressively, instead of focusing on providing quality content.
To be specific, Cloudbite is...
You can send feedback here. I'm extremely motivated to fix any content errors that you might discover, as that was my main frustration when I used other learning sites. I would also be happy to hear about your experiences using Cloudbite, especially if Cloudbite helped you nail your exams. If you have ideas for improving the design or technical aspects of Cloudbite, please send a pull request instead of feedback (unless something is totally broken, in which case feedback is also very welcome).