Hi everyone,
I’m taking the “Introduction to NVIDIA NIM™ Microservices – Video and Hands-On Lab” course. I finished all videos (course completion shows 100%), but my Grade is still 0% because the Hands-On Lab requires me to run a notebook that calls NVIDIA embeddings / ChatNVIDIA. The notebook explicitly expects:
os.environ["NVIDIA_API_KEY"] = "..."
Without a valid API key the cells fail (401/403), so the checkpoints won’t pass and I can’t get a grade.
Problem: I’m located in Turkey, and the NVIDIA Cloud / NGC phone verification page doesn’t list +90 yet. The page says phone verification is required before generating an API key, so I’m blocked. I also tried a Twilio number, but I assume VoIP numbers are not accepted.
What I see in the lab:
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A “Build a RAG chain for NVIDIA Triton documentation website” notebook.
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The video shows Docker steps, but in my workspace I only see the notebook (no visible Docker commands).
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I can run cells, but the ones that use NVIDIA endpoints require the API key.
Questions:
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Does this lab officially require an NVIDIA API key to pass checkpoints and get a grade?
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If yes, how can students in countries without phone verification support complete the lab?
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Is there a pre-provisioned API key or a sandboxed lab where credentials are injected automatically?
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Is there an alternate path (e.g., offline/dummy embeddings accepted by the grader) that still marks checkpoints as passed?
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Any ETA for adding Turkey to the phone verification list, or a way to request manual verification?
Environment: Windows 10, Chrome browser.
Any guidance or a temporary workaround would be greatly appreciated so I can complete the lab and receive a grade/certificate. Thanks!
— Talha