How to prepare for AWS certifications

I keep getting messages on how to start preparations for AWS certification exams. So in this article, I will briefly cover various AWS certifications available and how to prepare for the AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam.

Aws provides exams at various levels:

1.???Practitioner (elementary)

2.???Associate level (Sol. Architect, Developer, Sysops)

3.???Professional (Architect, DevOps)

4.???Specialty (Security, ML etc.)

The practitioner exam is very basic and is recommended mainly for college graduates/non-tech people (like BAs, PMs etc.). With each AWS exam that you pass, you get a 50% discount coupon for your next certification exam. So from that perspective, one may take the practitioner exam, just to get started on AWS, and also to get a 50% discount coupon for the next and tougher associate-level exam.

Professional and Speciality exams are very tough. Although AWS doesn’t mandate you to clear associate-level exams before taking Professional or Specialty exams, it is advisable that you clear at least 1 or 2 associate-level exams before planning for the former.

At the associate level, the course is 70% common for all 3 exams listed above. So you can take any of the 3, but my recommendation is Solutions Architect. Preparing for this exam will help you understand how to use important AWS services the right way.

How to prepare for the AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam:

1.???Take a course on Udemy or A Cloud Guru. The courses by Ryan Kroonenburg (Cloud Guru) and Stephane Maarek are really good.

2.???Create a 1-year free-tier account on AWS and do lots of hands-on as you learn through the course. Note that all AWS services are not free even in the free tier. The courses will teach you what is covered in the free-tier account. It is recommended that you set up Budget alarms to get notified in case the billing crosses some threshold due to some chargeable service used by you.

3.???Go through AWS FAQs and AWS whitepapers on the AWS website (google them out). Important topics to be covered for the exam: VPC, EC2, EBS, S3, IAM, RDS, Dynamodb, and Lambda.

4.???Take a mock test series. The test series by Jon Bonso is really good. You must clear the mock test series with a score of 80+ before planning to sit for the actual exam.

Some more free material (please note that the below material may not be updated, so use it carefully as AWS services change very fast):

1.???AWS videos series on youtube

2.????Jayendra Patil blog.

Last but not the least, create your account on the AWS Certification URL and schedule your exam with a PSI near you.

Important: There are no dumps or repeated questions that can help you clear the exam. Hence don't waste your time searching for them on the internet. Only a good understanding of the fundamentals coupled with sufficient hands-on will help you clear the exam.