How to prepare the AWS Certification?

I was working as an assistant lecturer for the data analytic with AWS everyday for over a year when the thought of pursuing an AWS Certification came to my mind. Why get certified?

Validating your existing knowledge, challenge yourself and enhancing your resume are always good reasons to do so, but in addition to those, I was really interested in exploring further the AWS ecosystem.

My thinking is that when you choose to move into a Cloud provider such as AWS (or GCP or Azure) you really want to make sure you are leveraging to the full extent it’s managed services such as message queues, analytics, storage, etc. On the other hand, your project may have a valid technical reason not to use some AWS services, but the mindset should always be so that you explore that AWS provided service first and find out what are the technical limitation (or business such as cost) that justifies not using it.

Studying for the AWS certification allowed me to get a really good overview of the ecosystem and in the process to take a deep dive into some services that I was not using (or leveraging properly).

My first impression of the certification process was positive yet daunting. There are different certifications and a lot of good content; yet, I was struggling to understand where to start. One obvious and easy avenue was to find a training partner and get an intense in-person classroom course, but that would easily cost hundreds of euros for a single certification (plus the exam fee) and didn’t sounded like the best option for me. I knew then, that self-study and self-paced was going to be a lot harder but it would force me to really understand the content and save some money in the long run.

What Certification are you aiming at?

There are several different AWS Certifications, divided in different groups: Foundational, Associate, Professional and Specialty. Each certification path targets different roles and domains, so it is important that you pick the right one for you. If you are new to AWS Certifications, my advice is that you aim towards one of the Associate level certifications before you move towards a Professional or Specialty.

How to (Self) Study?

I always start by reading carefully the certification overview page (e.g. AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Associate ) and the certification preparation guide. Since there are so many AWS services (and certifications), this is quite useful because it will point to the Whitepapers and Service FAQs that are relevant to the certification you are aiming at.

My preferred way to study is by using dicoding.com It is a fantastic subscription service that will provide you all the materials for pretty much any AWS Certification you pick. It’s not free (about 300.000 rupiah / month) but it’s not that expensive for all you will get in return.

I have a lot of hands-on experience. Can I skip some content?

When you have a lot of hands-on experience in AWS you will be tempted to skip some topics. I will strongly advice you against that. As you will find out in the exam simulators, there is a fair share of nitty gritty details that the course content point out and summarizes nicely.

However, to save some time, I found a nice way to quickly skim through those topics and make the best of it. You can simply read skimming to those articles and answer the quiz to test your knowledge.

Am I ready to take the exam?

When you finish going through all the materials you are left wondering if you are prepared or if there are certain topics that you should recap. How ready are you? in the end of the course dicoding provides the simulations of the certification test you can take and start it so in the end of the test you can see your score, you have to reach minimum 80 out of 100 to pass the course so you will be ready to take the certification. after that you will get certificates that indicates you pass the course.

Scheduling the Exam

Scheduling an exam is quite straight forward and like the AWS practice exams mentioned above, it can be done via the AWS Training and Certification Portal. You will be able to find and book the appointment in the nearest or most convenient testing center for you. One thing that you should take into account while booking is that it doesn’t seem to be possible to schedule an exam for the next day. Also, keep in mind that in certain testing centers the exam will be remotely proctored, ie, you will be monitored and supervised by someone that is not physically there.

Conclusion

I hope you found this article useful and it will help you achieving an AWS certification! Don't forget to clap and share on this article. Also good luck for your certification :)