My personal journey to achieve the AWS Solutions Architect Associate Certification
Hello everyone,
in this post I want to share with you a brief and personal review of the AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification, which I recently obtained.
I will not review the exam objectives or study materials in detail, as there are excellent free YouTube videos and channels that cover this.
There are also many great paid courses and resources that I’ll share with you in this post.
On the contrary, I will focus on giving my personal thoughts and some tips that I hope will help you prepare in the best possible way so you can obtain this valuable certification.
Who am I?
My name is Carlos, and I’ve been working with AWS services for over 10 years. From building scalable, highly-available, cost-effective, and secure solutions to performing pentesting and audits of cloud environments, I have been particularly engaged with AWS. I’ve worked with companies of different sizes, from startups to banks and retail businesses, helping them to build top-tier and secure environments. You can check my profile for more details.
But enough about myself — let’s get to the important part of this post.
The certification
It was a challenging cert that required me to study and deep dive into multiple AWS services and real-world use cases. I performed multiple hands-on labs and practice exams to be fully prepared (more on that later).
Several months ago, I studied for, and achieved, the AWS Certified Security Speciality certification. As its name suggest, it is an specialization in AWS security and it is one of the top certifications on AWS.
So, the first question you may ask is:
Why did you go for a Solutions Architect associate certification if you already have a specialized one?
Well, I think they focus on different aspects of AWS. They complement each other if you, like me, want to have a deep knowledge of AWS services and be able to architect and implement complex environments and security solutions.
On one hand, the Solutions Architect certification will make you study the main AWS services and be able to solve architecting problems.
The Security Speciality certification specifically focuses on security services and how to implement them for securing different AWS services.
The second question you may ask is:
which one is more difficult?
For me, and based on my expertise and experience, the Security speciality was easier. I have already a security background and a hacker mindset.
Also, there are fewer AWS services to study and they all fit together when you think in terms of security.
For the Solutions Architect certification, even with years of experience on AWS, I can tell it was a tough certification that required a substancial amount of study hours.
There are so many different services you don’t use on a daily basis or even know they are available.
Additionally, you need to consider multiple configuration options according to different use cases for each service and setup. There isn’t a single way to solve an architecting problem, but in terms of the exam, there will always be a better option to choose(keep this in mind).
What I want to say is I do think this certification requires that you study, even if you are a seasoned AWS cloud administrator, developer, engineer or have a similar role.
And please let me say this: when I say you have to study, I mean study a lot.
You also need to have a good reading comprehension, understand the details of the scenarios presented, and review all the answers in detail under the pressure of a proctored exam with the time running against you.
The third question you may ask is:
Would this strategy of going for speciality certification before the associate certification work for me?
It worked for me, but that’s why I shared my background and experience earlier. If your have little experience or are coming from obtaining the AWS Cloud Practitioner certification, perhaps it is not the best strategy for you.
My recommendation is to test yourself with an official practice question set, available for free on aws.
This will give you a grasp of your skills and knowledge.
My recommended learning path
First, attempt the practice exam for Solutions Architect Associate certification. If you score below 50%, you will have a lot of work to do.
If you have previous experience in cybersecurity and understand what CIA, logging, auditing, compliance and disaster recovery are, then you can test your AWS security knowledge with the corresponding practice exam.
Otherwise, it is not worth even trying. The road will be steeper and you might burn out before reaching your goal.
Some exam details
Let me give you an example of a tricky exam-like question.
(Spoiler alert)
Example of a tricky question
You are a solutions architect working for a large retail company. The company is incurring high costs due to many unnecessary large files stored on S3, which are constantly being generated. As part of a cost reduction policy, it was decided that objects older than 60 days need to be deleted. You have been requested to automate this process of object deletion.
How can you do this in the most-efficient way?a) Create a custom lambda function to verify the object date and delete all objects older than 60 days.
b) Create an S3 Lifecycle policy with object expiration of 60 days.
c) Create an S3 bucket policy for object deletion after 60 days.
d) Set up an EventBridge event to delete objects older than 60 days every time an API request is made to the S3 bucket.
Take a time to review the question and the options before reading the correct answer.
Did you choose option C?
Sorry, you are wrong. Bucket policies are not used for object deletion, but for giving bucket access permissions.
That means you may have read the answer wrong.
Also, consider this: objects are not directly deleted with policies, they are marked as expired first. Then, S3 handles them and deletes them.
The correct answer in this case is option B. You can define Lifecycle policies to set the objects as expired.
This type of question could (and will) appear along with others of the same type.
Remember, the exam has 65 questions in 2 hours. You need to be fully focused the entire time and be prepared for many of these questions.
Things to take into consideration
- Prepare the test. Sounds obvious right? But, as I mentioned before, even if you are a seasoned AWS expert, you need to revise concepts, focus on the exam objectives, and test yourself with practice exam tests. They will give you the proper perspective to face complex questions.
- Prepare to feel uncomfortable. I took the exam online (with Pearson VUE) and it’s a bit awkward to be in front of the camera the entire time without moving, without music, even without reading out loud or writing down ideas.
- Study each service in detail, at least the most important ones. Study the interactions between different services and common architectural patterns for typical problems.
- Key concepts you will encounter multiple times in practice questions and are crucial for the exam:
✓ Cost-effective solution for business needs
✓ Highly-scalable architectures
✓ Applications with high availability
✓ Migrating from on-premises to AWS
✓ Implementing hybrid environment
✓ Different disaster recovery scenarios
✓ Reliable applications
✓ Time-efficient data transfer
✓ Encryption at-rest and in-transit
✓ Reducing latency for end-users
Recommended Study Resources
Finally, I want to give you some good resources that helped me a lot throughout this journey. They are all paid resources, but they worth it.
Disclaimer: I do not have any connection with the course authors or platforms. I just want to highlight the great work they’ve done.
Stephane Maarek’s AWS Solutions Architect Associate course
The course covers all you need to pass the exam. Detailed explanations and demos of service configuration and setup are explained in a straightforward manner.
The content is continually updated by the author, adding more value to your purchase.
If you want to go for just one learning content, this is the course for you.
The course is a one-time payment and gives you lifetime access. If you get a good discount from Udemy, go for it.
Stephane Maarek’s AWS Solutions Architect Associate Practice Exams
As I already explained, a key component for your learning process is to practice exam-like questions. This is the resource you need.
You will get 6 practice tests with 65 questions each, timed so it is a good way to test yourself. After the exam, check your mistakes and learn new things.
A study tip here: Keep your notes open while performing the test and write down any concept or service you don’t know or are not sure about.
My approach was tagging these notes with: “I don’t know X thing”, “Not sure about Y”, or “It could be answer A or B, check distinctions”.
Just like the course, you pay once and get lifetime access. Again, look for discounts and offers on Udemy.
Digital Cloud Training
This platform has a very good course to prepare for the exam. It offers a different approach from Stephane’s course, allowing you to delve deeper into the architectural implementation of AWS services.
Particularly, the exam cram summaries per category are an extraordinary resource for revising concepts.
They also include practice exams in your plan.
This platform is subscription-based, and I think if you’re only looking to obtain the certification, you can choose the monthly plan and then cancel it. However, they have other great courses that might make an annual plan worthwhile.
A great free resource they provide that can help you a lot are their cheat sheets.
CloudAcademy (now QA platform)
You can find a course to prepare for the exam, and many practical environments. They provide you with the labs that you can follow along with.
There is also a hands-on Certification Challenge for Solutions Architect.
Although they have a broad range of courses on varios topics and skill levels, too much information can be overwhelming.
Stay focused on your main course and avoid starting other courses or you may get lost, which happened to me.
Like Digital Cloud Training, QA platform is subscription-based. I bought the annual plan well before preparing for the exam and mostly use their labs to avoid getting lost only in theory.
AWS Skill Builder
Finally, I need to mention AWS’s official training platform. There’s a lot to say here, so I will try to be brief.
For every certification, they have specific courses. They are more theoretical and go in-depth with the services, but in my opinion and according to my learning strategies, they weren’t as effective for me.
They seemed boring compared to other resources I mentioned earlier.
However, they have unique resources:
- Lab practices
- Practice tests very similar to the exam
- A magnificent resource which I love, called CloudQuest, a gamified learning plan for different AWS roles with theory, architecture patterns, and hands-on labs.
This platform also uses a subscription-based model. If you can afford it, go for the annual subscription, as it will give you access to more courses.
You need to make the most of it as it can be more expensive than previous resources I mentioned.
I have an annual subscription which has helped me a lot on my personal study.
The platform also offer some free resources, but nothing worth mentioning here.
Some caveats with this platform:
- The session time limit can be very annoying, as you may need to login again and again if studying for long periods. They implemented an SSO that causes many redirections at login and can be frustrating.
- There are so many resources that is sometimes difficult to find what you’re looking for. And find where you were before. UI is not its strength.
- Some things are not quite clear. For example, some courses require the annual plan, but it wasn’t clear what is included in the monthly plan (which I paid for first) and what is in the annual plan (which I now have).
An important note: This resource helped me a lot for obtaining the AWS Security Speciality certification.
My Next steps
So, you may think since I have two 2 AWS certifications I will go for all the others…But not exactly.
I do believe certifications are a proof of your knowledge, technical and conceptual skills, but they are just part of the equation.
You need to go hands-on, implement solutions, think outside the box, look for innovative ways of doing things, make mistakes, and learn from them.
Throughout my career, I never liked the idea of going from A to B to C. I prefer leaps of faith, to challenge myself, and find out what I am capable of.
That’s why a couple of weeks ago, I started a new path in Soleyman Shahir’s Cloud Engineer Academy, focused on providing the skills to become an AWS Cloud Engineer / Architect.
I am heading in that direction because I think this course has some things I need to improve: My DevOps skills, going further into the cloud engineering field, connecting with like-minded people, and expand my network.
For me, one of the keys to improving your learning and skills is to relearn what you already know and see it from a different perspective. Always maintain an apprentice mindset.
This could mean solving a problem with different technology, a different approach, or using some tools that already solve this problem without you manually creating the solution yourself.
I have been publishing about the projects I’ve been doing for the academy and so far, it has completely fulfilled my expectations. You can check the posts looking at my Medium profile.
Will I go for Solutions Architect Professional?
Not in short term. However, I believe it’s part of the process to be top-notch in this field. I have it on my bucket list and when the time come, I will surely go for it!
Goodbye
This concludes my personal review of the AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification. I hope you have this information valuable.
Please let me know in the comments if you have any question regarding AWS certification exams, any topic related to AWS or security on AWS.
And don’t forget to follow me on Medium so you can check out all the content I will be creating that could help you with your AWS journey.
Want to connect? Check my LinkedIn profile.