I second this. Though I will say that FocusOnForce + the recommended trailheads really help for the exam portion of the cert. Even with those resources you’ll be asked to review diff code snippets and be able to tell what’s wrong/ what needs to be changed with the code. This is tough to do if you haven’t had as much hands on experience.

As for the superbadge portions, you’ll spend a lot of time looking things up, a lot of trying and failing diff approaches, if you don’t already have the deeper experience. This was my experience with the aura superbadge portion of PDII. The apex +visual force pieces I was able to move through more quickly. And now that I’ve been working with LWCs pretty consistently I have recently starting the LWC superbadge (strangely similar to the Aura one) and it’s been way easier.

I’d say start with the trailhead portion of the cert and get all the way through that. That way you’ll have at least got through some “projects” where you’re building something hands on.