This article covers the requirements of the Cloud Marathon and how to meet them. This article contains the following sections:

Cloud Marathon

Cloud Marathon is a 100-day challenge to:

Train in Cloud Academy for at least 60 minutes per day, AND
Share about your training on Twitter or LinkedIn each day

The marathon begins at 2 a.m. after you sign up and finishes 100 days later. There are two commitment levels available in the Cloud Marathon:

Participants in the full marathon must train and share each of the 100 days to earn a full refund of their 100-day subscription.
Participants in the half marathon must train and share during at least 50 of the 100 days to earn a half refund of their 100-day subscription.

This is a big challenge! You must remember to log in each day and satisfy both requirements each day before the day rolls over at 2 a.m. local time.

Marathon Dashboard

As a Cloud Marathoner, you have a special dashboard that helps you meet the requirements, keep track of what you've accomplished, and see what's left to do. You can get to the Marathon dashboard by clicking Marathon in the top toolbar.

Training Time Requirement

The Cloud Marathon does not limit what topics you can study. Any courses, labs, quizzes, and exams in the Cloud Academy training library can count toward your studying time. You can choose the topic that you're most interested in.

Tip: Look for the Start Learning button on your Marathon dashboard for a quick link to the training library.

Once you've finished you training time requirement, the Start Learning button changes to a Share button.

Sharing Requirement

You must also share on social through the Cloud Academy platform each day to get credit for a successful day in the marathon. Sharing outside of the Cloud Academy platform doesn't count toward your requirement. You cannot share until after your training time requirement is met.

Once you've finished 60 minutes of training, the Start Learning button on the Marathon dashboard changes to a Share button.

Clicking the Share button starts the process of sharing to Twitter or LinkedIn. If you aren't already signed in to the social network in your browser, you may need to log in. Cloud Academy does not store your social media credentials.

Experience Points (XP)

Marathoners who go above and beyond the minimum requirements for the marathon will see their Experience Points (XP) pile up. Each week, we count how many minutes you spend on each of these categories:

Courses
Hands-on labs
Quizzes
Exams

As soon as you reach the target number of minutes in any one of the categories, you get 3 XP. For example, if you spend 60 minutes on quizzes, you get 3 XP. If you spend another 60 minutes on quizzes, you get another 3 XP. The count restarts each Monday.

XP gives you a chance to get really competitive and strategic about how you use your training time. For example, if you have 230 minutes in the Labs category, you might make the extra effort to find one more lab to work on so you can get over the threshold and earn 3 extra points.

Badges

Marathoners earn badges as follows:

Scholar (fly): Get one Scholar badge for each day you complete.
Master (bear): Get one Master badge for each week-long streak you complete.
Wizard (lion): Get one Wizard badge for each 30-day streak you complete.

Note: Every marathoner who successfully completes the full marathon will end with 100 Scholar, 14 Master, and 3 Wizard badges. That’s just how many days/weeks/months are in a 100-day marathon!

What's Next?

If you are wondering about specific aspects of the Cloud Marathon, check out our Cloud Marathon FAQ. If you still have questions, you can always contact support@cloudacademy.com.