My advice for passing the AWS Solutions Architect Professional (2019) Exam

If you're reading this, you likely saw an earlier post I made this weekend about sitting for and passing the AWS Solutions Architect 2019 exam. This was my third time sitting for the the exam and it was a journey to put it lightly.

My first attempt at the exam was probably 9 months ago at this point. I failed, with a score of roughly 680. I followed up with another attempt 8 weeks later and had the exam center lose network connectivity. September 27th was my third and final (thankfully!) attempt at the exam, achieving a passing score.

I made a post previously on my initial failure and documented many lessons learned and specific services/concepts to focus on but I wanted to follow up with some additional tips since now passing the exam.

My initial attempt at the exam, I felt crunched for time and unable to review many flagged questions. On my final attempt, I flagged 10 +/- questions, reviewed those and still finished with 50 minutes to spare. This was due to being better prepared, understanding the concepts/terms and services better and also utilizing techniques to move through the questions faster. This included things such as quickly flagging lengthy/difficult questions so I can circle back to them. I also would look at the answers, quickly eliminate two that were often irrelevant or far off and then focus on the remaining answers (typically there are 4 to choose from).

Video courses - I utilized ACloudGuru and Linux Academy's SA Pro 2019 courses. Between the two, I must say that the Linux Academy course by Adrian Cantrill is far superior. It is 50+ hours long and packed with an insane amount of detail. After a quick pass through the ACG course, I stuck with the LA course exclusively. In addition to the video courses, I joined the LinuxAcademy Slack channel where they have a SA Pro section filled with folks currently studying for or having recently taken (both successfully and unsuccessfully) the SA Pro exam. It is great to hear directly from these folks and to get insight into what they faced on the exam and their recommendations on how to best prepare. In addition to this, the Linux Academy video course(s) offer hands on labs where you can get direct experience with countless services and scenarios. I found going through many of these invaluable, as it helps solidify the knowledge better than simply reading or listening to audio. The exam certainly tests your knowledge and hands-on experience with the tools and AWS services.

Practice Exams - For practice exams, on my first attempt I used WhizLabs, since I had previously used them with the Solutions Architect Associate, SysOps and Security Specialty exams and had great success. That said, I found their SA Pro practice questions to be lacking and they didn't help prepare me much. After initially failing, I came across Jon Bonso's SA Pro 2019 practice exams on Udemy.com and I stuck with those. There are 4 different practice exams and they all have similar wording, complexity and rigor to what I experienced with the actual exam. Also, after submitting the practice exams, the review option provides you with a wealth of information directly as well as accompanying links where you can go read directly from AWS documentation and often links to YouTube videos as well.

YouTube/Reinvent Deep Dives - This was one of the best additions to my study arsenal on my final attempt at the SA Pro exam. Through following the LinuxAcademy's Slack channel and forum and linking up with other folks who had recently passed the exam I was able to obtain YouTube playlists with many 300 and 400 level Reinvent videos which not only helped hammer home concepts specific to the AWS services but also often included case studies with customers directly describing how they implemented the services in their own organizations architecture and environments. This was extremely useful to get a practical understanding of how the services were being used best.

AWS Documentation - I frequently visited and read AWS documentation associated with services that I found myself struggling with (e.g. DynamoDB, Elasticache, API Gateway and others).

My own study notes - Through the combination of the LinuxAcademy course, YouTube Reinvent Videos, Whitepapers and AWS Documentation pages, I accumulated a 100+ page 20,000+ word study guide/notes that I took myself. I reviewed this document many times in preparing for the exam to help keep the concepts and details fresh in my mind.

To say I learned a lot during this pursuit would be an understatement. While I have taken many certification exams, often which are considered difficult (CISSP, PMP etc.), I found the SA Pro to be far more challenging.

While I learned an incredible amount about the AWS ecosystem and the services, which is a given, since the exam focuses on the services, I also learned a great deal about cloud computing, micro-services, application architecture, networking, and security. Ultimately preparing for this exam made me a better IT/Cybersecurity professional and increases my knowledge across a broad area of concentrations. What I really enjoy about the AWS certifications is that ALL of them, even the ones which are not security specific have always had security deeply ingrained in the concepts and in the content. Security is frequently a focus of many of the questions at both the associate and professional levels. This is reassuring to someone who often finds themselves working in a security oriented role and who is passionate about cybersecurity.

I strongly encourage anyone passionate about cloud computing and AWS in particular to pursue the professional level exams. You will enhance your knowledge immensely and you will undoubtedly challenge yourself in the process.

After this exam, I am thinking of either circling back to pick up the Developer Associate certification or pursue the ISC2 Information System Security Architecture Professional (ISSAP) credential, which will pair nicely with the AWS SA Pro certification.

I hope this helps anyone aspiring to further their career and understanding of cloud computing!