Passing the RCHSA: It Took Me Years!

It took me years, but I’m proud to say I am officially a Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA).

Back when I was a full-time Linux Sysadmin managing production RHEL systems, this exam felt like a mountain. I knew I was competent, but the exam intimidated me—especially since I had zero formal training on SELinux (and frankly, back then, we usually just turned it off!).

Over the years, I tried multiple times to prepare for the exam. I started the O’Reilly self-paced training, but couldn’t keep up. Last year, now as a Red Hat employee (and having built some confidence passing my RHCOA), I signed up for the self-paced RH199 rapid-track course. I scheduled the exam months out to create some pressure.

The result? I barely finished the early chapters, priorities took over, and I cancelled the exam at the last second.

That’s when I finally accepted something important: Self-paced training just doesn’t work for me. It’s not a fault; it’s just a characteristic of how I learn. I realized, for certifications, I need the gentle accountability of group or class-based environments.

So, I changed my strategy:

• Signed up for virtual Instructor-Led Training (vILT).
• Completed 2 weeks of morning classes (squeezing my normal workload into the afternoons).
• Spent a 3-day weekend practicing the labs.
• Took the exam the morning after the weekend.

It was a long couple of weeks. Thank you to my wife for bearing with me—I couldn’t have done it without your support.