I have been working with AWS for some time and recently I decided to attempt the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate exam. As you probably know, working with something is not giving you the ultimate pass on your exam. Therefore, I started searching for good exam preparation materials.
Fortunately for me, my experience and study materials I used, were sufficient to pass exam on first attempt. So I would like to share with you:
- Which trainings or information were particularly helpful
- Which information could have been better
- What I could have done better
- How much time I have spent on preparation
I hope this will help you.
What to start with?
First of all, I recommend to go to AWS website to identify what areas are verified in the exam. This will definitely give you the scope to concentrate on. Also, you will understand what is expected from you. AWS website for AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate exam gives nice overview of exam including:
- For whom this exam is dedicated
- What are delivery methods
- Exam guides
- Sample questions
- Languages offered
About AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate exam itself
During exam you have 65 questions. They can be single or multiple choice. Overall you have 130 minutes for exam, so 2 minutes per questions. Hard to say if it is much. Sometimes the questions may take longer to read through the content and understand the scenario. However, there are some questions, which definitely are to be answered by taking a brief look. I wasn’t sure, if I have sufficient time to answer all the questions. To my surprise, when I finished the exam, I have noticed that there are still over 40 minutes left. The passing score for exam is 70%. You can take your exam at testing center (while scheduling online you can check facilities available in you location) or on-line at home. I have chosen second option, as for me this is more comfortable.
AWS Architecture Associate Exam – Trainings
Before taking exam, practical knowledge with platform will be a definite plus. Also being familiar with any other Cloud Service Provider will simplify your learning. Due to the fact that you are aware of public cloud concepts, which are similar among vendors.
A Cloud Guru Training
First, I took A Cloud Guru preparation training for AWS certified Solutions Architect Associate. The time for training for scheduled for 40 hours. Please note, that this is just recorded materials. In case you need to additionally go through AWS portal, or redo some labs, or take notes, it may prolong. The training will give an overview of the services, concepts and scope required for the exam. However, some of the content is quite old, especially the contents related to AWS portal itself. Some of the settings have changed over time, or were no longer available. So in nutshell, to gather general overview of AWS for this exam, the training materials were helpful. But for more insights, details and constraints on particular services, I recommend going to the source – AWS website.
Practice – AWS Console
Another step in my preparation was going through AWS portal, and deploying services. This was not only for a pure purpose for finishing A Cloud Guru training, but also to gain more experience with portal itself. It is good to learn the mechanisms, and understand how things work in practice. Having access to portal, to do all the exercises, is a big benefit of having A Cloud Guru account.
UDEMY and Tutorials DOJO
After taking the training, I needed to do some practice, on what to be prepared for on exam. I was searching through UDEMY, but there is plenty of content. My colleague recommended me Jon Bonso training materials. This was definitely great choice. It provides the comprehensive overview of the topics, and gives the clarification. I have learnt a lot from this study materials, and I can definitely recommend this one. Jon Bonso study guides are also available on Tutorials DOJO. Many materials are available in form of very useful cheat sheet.
Time I needed to prepare for AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate exam
I was working with AWS for some time and I was also familiar with their platform. Therefore, I definitely had a head start here. In total it took me less than 8 weeks. I was learning mostly afternoons after work and sometimes during the weekends. Of course not every day was learning day. Sometimes I had to take a break, from all the knowledge I was consuming 😉.
A few AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate exam tips
- Read carefully through the questions, sometimes small details may significantly influence the answer.
- Remember that there are single and multiple choice questions.
- Do not overthink the answer, sometimes the simplest choice is the best.
- Remember to follow AWS best practices, sometimes you may have correct solution, but this is not recommended one.
- Single choice questions has 4 answers, multiple choice questions have 5 answers.
- In multiple choice questions, you will have information in the bracket how many choices you have to provide.
- When you are not sure about the answer, do not spend to much time on it. You have in average 2 minutes per question. Concentrate on ones you know or can easily provide answer. You can review questions you are not sure at the end. Just remember to flag them.
What could have I done better?
After passing the exam, it is a good time for retrospective. I must admit, that I have spent too much time on a cloud guru training, which was a bit outdated. If I were to start over, I would concentrate more on hands on AWS experience and going through materials recommended by Jon Bonso.
GOOD LUCK!
