Will this path prep me for the Adobe Certified Expert exam?

Partially. The paths target shipping skills, not exam trivia — so you will be strong on DI, plugins, service contracts, indexers, MView, and GraphQL, which are 60–70% of the AD0-E724 / AD0-E720 exams. You will still need to drill memorised flags (e.g. --keep-generated, indexer modes), the EAV admin grid wiring, and the legacy Luma checkout flow. Two weeks of Magento U practice exams after this path is the realistic finish line. Honest: certification helps with hiring, not with shipping.