In this post, I am sharing how to prepare for the AWS Solution Architect Associate Certification Exam.
Below I’m sharing the actual steps I took to pass the Solution Architect — Associate exam. I was mainly relying on free available resources offered by AWS, so If you want to go along the same path read further.
1.Hands-on Experience
According to the AWS Certification page, the exam is intended for anyone with one or more years of hands-on experience designing systems on AWS. I couldn’t agree more. Hands-on experience is a must. Studying for the certification will be much easier and the things you will learn will have something to grasp on. For me personally, since I already had working experience with AWS, while preparing for the exam I needed to focus mainly on the theoretical part.
But don’t get discouraged if you do not have any AWS experience. You can take a course, start learning the basics and try to build things in AWS Console. AWS itself offers free Digital Training that you can check out.
2.AWS Certification Resources
To get yourself familiar with the exam content, read the AWS Certification page. Here you will find the Exam Guide, links to Exam Readiness webinar/digital training, AWS Power Hour: Architecting, and relevant Whitepapers and FAQs.
Exam Guide
The Exam Guide includes weightings, test domains, and objectives for the exam. Details for each of the objectives are available to help guide your preparation for the exam. Additionally, there you will find a non-exhaustive list of the tools and technologies that could appear on the exam.
To fill my knowledge gaps regarding the objectives and the list of services outlined in the exam guide, I used the AWS Free Digital Training, AWS Documentation, and any additional resource I could find online.
FAQs
Read the FAQs for the services relevant to the exam, and also take notes of the most important things.
AWS Power Hour: Architecting
AWS Power Hour: Architecting is a twitch series for preparing for the exam. You’ll learn a lot from these episodes while having a lot of fun.
Exam Readiness
Once you have gone through all the materials and feel confident to take the exam, I highly recommend taking the “Exam Readiness: AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Associate” webinar or digital training. In the “Exam Readiness” you will gain more insights about the exam, and also you will have a chance to check your knowledge and see where you stand.
3.Make a Study Plan
You will need a good plan to go through the things outlined above. This means allocating a few hours (almost) each day in order to stay consistent with your learning. I recommend tracking your time spent, it will give you a sense of fulfillment and it will motivate you to move forward.
4.Practice Exam
After you are done studying, I highly recommend taking Practice Exams. The Practice Exams are a great way to test your knowledge and prepare for the actual exam. You can find many different paid offerings for Practice Exams. I personally used https://tutorialsdojo.com/, it offers a timed mode that mimics the actual exam, and you can view the answers and explanations for every question.
AWS offers a paid Official Practice Exam. This one is very similar to how the actual exam will look in regards to timing and question weight. I took this one a few days before the actual exam to make sure I am ready to take an actual exam.
5.Schedule The Exam
During my exam preparation, in the resources I used, it was advised to schedule the exam couple of weeks upfront even if you think you are not ready yet. It turned out to be true. By setting an exam date you will feel an urgency to learn continuously since you have a goal to reach. I first set an initial date in my planner. After I went through the study resources (a couple of times) and took a couple of practice exams I scheduled the exam.
6.Extra advise
AWS has offered different certification challenges by either giving a 50% discount voucher for the exam or a free full-length AWS Certification Official Practice Exam. To get news about certifications and certification challenges I found it useful to follow AWS social media profiles, like AWS Training & Certification.
Good luck with your exam!
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