Hi @michaeler26 Thank you posting your query in splunk community, to answer your query. 1.Courses 2 to 4 are mandatory if you want to go for Architect certification. 2. For cloud certification courses 1 and 2 are not mandatory , you can attempt the exam without taking course 1 and 2. but if you want to learn cloud , I would recommend course 1 , it's for new admins(for you). on the flip side. if want to get experience on topics ,you can always refer to splunk documentation and also learn by doing. following is the topic wise document links which really helps to get started. https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.1.3/Overview/Administering https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.1.3/Overview/Searchingandreporting https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.1.3/Overview/ManagingKnowledge https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.1.3/Overview/Extending https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.1.3/Overview/Troubleshooting
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