Solutions Architect's thoughts on "AWS Data Analyst - Speciality" and "AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate" certifications.
Dmytro Sirant
15x AWS certified | Well-Architected Reviews | High Availability, Disaster Recovery, Security compliance | Kubernetes
In my CTO role at OpsWorks Co., an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, I collaborate closely with our clients, solving their infrastructure and technical product challenges. My biggest goal is to help businesses become cost-effective and highly available while ensuring their systems are overall Well-Architected. We cover our client's needs with expert help in:
?With 10 AWS certifications under my belt, I'm working towards completing them all soon-ish. Two of my recent ones are the "AWS Data Analyst - Speciality” and the "AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate Beta" certifications. In this article, I'll share my experience passing both exams, their difficulty, and the study materials I used.
AWS Data Analyst - Speciality
First, let's talk about the "AWS Data Analyst - Speciality" certification. Its main purpose is to validate your ability to design and implement scalable, highly available, and fault-tolerant systems on AWS. The certification itself primarily focuses on data analysis using AWS services such as Amazon Redshift, Amazon EMR, and Amazon Athena.
The exam consists of 65 multiple-choice and multiple-response questions, and you have 170 minutes to complete it. I used the official AWS certification guide to prepare for this exam. Combined with the corresponding "ACloudGuru" course, it covered all the topics the exam tested on.
What also helped me is that I had hands-on experience with some of the services covered in this exam at work and during this year's AWS GameDays. These materials were sufficient to pass the exam but still required significant preparation and understanding of the AWS services covered in the exam. Overall, this exam is moderately difficult if you have no previous experience as a Data Engineer.
The AWS decided to retire this exam: the last date to take it is April 8, 2024. If you are not chasing all AWS certifications as I do, consider a new "AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate" certification instead.
领英推荐
AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate
Moving on to the "AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate" certification. AWS introduced it as "Beta" on November 27, 2023, and it has been so till January 12, 2024. This more in-depth exam focuses on designing and implementing AWS services for big data solutions. It covers topics such as AWS services for data processing, storage, and analysis, as well as designing and maintaining big data solutions.
Official AWS documentation provides a breakdown of all the areas and services covered in the exam:
You can find more information by clicking the link. But to add more details, the exam consists of 85 multiple-choice and multiple-response questions, and you have 170 minutes to complete it. Surprisingly, the associate level exam has 20 more questions than the speciality one, but you have the same time.
Honestly, I didn't make any additional preparations for this exam. I assumed that if I had a good knowledge of AWS services and successfully passed the "AWS Data Analyst - Speciality", it would be enough to pass the associate-level exam. And it played a bad joke: I had to guess answers to some questions (shame on me). I still don’t know the results because checking beta exams can take up to 90 days, and it’s already been a month since I took it.
I didn't find this exam more effortless than the "AWS Data Analyst - Speciality" despite my expectations of the "Associate" level. This was mainly due to the breadth of topics covered, more questions to answer, and some new services I haven't had a chance to work with yet. However, with sufficient preparation and understanding of the AWS services, it is definitely achievable.
In conclusion, if you have no hard requirement to complete the "AWS Data Analyst - Speciality" certification, you should instead prefer its successor, "AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate." It's a good choice for Data Engineers working with AWS or those who want to become them. It's well-suited for both existing AWS Data Engineers and those who want to become one. But this certification is challenging, and you can use the following materials to prepare:
Good luck with your studies and exams! Meanwhile, feel free to ask any questions or share your own experience!
15x AWS certified | Well-Architected Reviews | High Availability, Disaster Recovery, Security compliance | Kubernetes
9 个月I finally got results on my "AWS Data Analyst - Speciality" exam - I passed it successfully! But my advice is still the same: don't expect it to be easy because of the associate level!