How I Prepared for the OCI Foundations Exam

About a year ago, I started working more seriously with Oracle Cloud, and looking back, I honestly regret not taking the OCI Foundations Associate certification sooner. Preparing for an exam forces you to study systematically, and in my case that turned out to be one of the most valuable parts of the process. It gave me a broad, structured understanding of the different OCI components — something that months of reading documentation or solving “how do I fix this?” problems in real projects hadn’t fully delivered.

Of course, I didn’t start from scratch. As an active OCI user, I already had practical experience. But going through the official materials filled in many gaps and connected the dots between different services in a way that hands-on troubleshooting alone couldn’t.

From Books to On-Demand Learning

Over the past ten years, I’ve taken several Oracle certifications, and the process has changed dramatically. For my very first exam, I ordered a book from Amazon, studied it cover to cover, and still passed only on the second attempt. At the time, official Oracle courses were out of reach — a full week, thousands of dollars in cost, and of course, mandatory travel. The exam itself meant going to a test center, emptying your pockets, and being watched by four cameras.

Fast forward to today: the process is simpler, faster, and more accessible. Many Oracle University courses and exams are free until October 31, 2025 in the Race to Certification 2025 program.

The quality of the learning materials is excellent — well-paced, well-illustrated, and supported with practice questions.

I also appreciated that the same Oracle University content is available on LinkedIn Learning. The platform’s transcript view made it easy to jump to exactly the right moment in each video, and with AI I could generate quick summaries and clarifications—even in Hungarian—when I wanted a different explanation. The courses are subtitled in 30+ languages, which lowers the barrier for non-native speakers (even though the exam itself is in English). Combined with the clear pacing and visuals, that made my study sessions faster and far more focused.

The training is subtitled in more than 30 languages, which makes it even more approachable globally.

Exam Details

Exam Code: 1Z0-1085-25
Format: 40 multiple-choice questions
Duration: 60 minutes
Passing Score: 65%
My Score: 80% (completed in ~25 minutes)

Each question has four possible answers, and there’s always exactly one correct choice. In my experience, at least half of the questions were very similar (sometimes identical) to the ones in the official practice test. The practice test is particularly useful because it shows you where you made mistakes — unlike the real exam, where you only see the final score.

Another big advantage: you get 15 free attempts at the exam. That removes a lot of the pressure and gives you room to practice until you feel confident.

Final Thoughts

If you’re already using OCI, I strongly recommend taking the OCI Foundations Associate exam. Not only will you gain a clear, structured view of the platform, but you’ll also be better equipped to explain OCI to colleagues, customers, and decision-makers. For me, the certification wasn’t just a badge — it was a way to step back from day-to-day problem solving and build a more complete mental model of Oracle Cloud.

I walked away with a stronger foundation, a certification to show for it, and plenty of motivation to continue down the OCI certification path.