Tips Pass AWS Associate Certifications

The AWS Associate Certifications are the first technical challenge in the AWS Certifications. The recommendation is one year of experience using the AWS Cloud before you study for this.

The exam format is Multiple Choice and about 65 questions, and you have 130 minutes to complete the exam. The cost is 150 USD, but each time you pass a certification, AWS gives you a %50 discount for the next certification and also gives you a code for a free practice exam with 20 questions.

The 3 Associate Certification are:

• Solution Architect
• SysOps Administrator
• Developer

For me, the Solution Architect is the easiest of three because you only need to know for what is each AWS service, but not in a profound way. The Hardest associate certification is the Developer (also the most interesting) you need to know a lot about AWS Elastic Beanstalk, AWS CICD (CodePipeline, CodeBuild, CodeCommit, CodeDeploy), AWS CloudFormation, AWS Lambda, and DynamoDB. In the case of SysOps Administrator certification for me was a little boring, in this case, you need to know a lot of AWS CloudFormation (more than Developer Cert), Databases, S3 in-depth, SSM, VPC, Security and Compliance, and a lot of Monitoring, Audit & Performance (CloudWatch, CloudTrail, Config).

A necessary clarification is you don’t need to be a Developer or SysOps for the exams, is only the Certifications name, and isn’t required any coding skills.

I passed all Associate Certification, for each certification took me about three weeks and one hour daily for the study and preparation. I recommend you first do the Solution Architect certification because you learn a little of each service, which is very useful for the other associate certifications. In my case the path was: Solution Architect -> Developer -> SysOps.

In all certification, my study method is the same:

• Finish the Stephane Maarek Course on Udemy and take notes
• Practice with the Jon Bonso practical Exams on Udemy and reach a minimum of %85
• Do the AWS Practice Exams with the Free Coupon give me for pass another Certification (I don’t think is worthy buy this practice exam for 20 USD)

I give you the links to the courses and the certification information:

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate

  • Information: https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-solutions-architect-associate/
  • Course: https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-saa-c02/
  • Practice Exams: https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-amazon-practice-exams-saa-c02/

• AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate

  • Information: https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-saa-c02/
  • Course: https://www.udemy.com/course/ultimate-aws-certified-sysops-administrator-associate/
  • Practice Exams: https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-sysops-administrator-associate-practice-exams-soa-c01/

• AWS Certified Developer Associate

  • Information: https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-developer-associate/
  • Course: https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-developer-associate-dva-c01/
  • Practice Exams: https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-developer-associate-practice-exams-amazon/

Note: You can also buy the Bonso Practice Exams in Tutorial Dojo website with more features than Udemy platform https://tutorialsdojo.com

Good luck with your certifications!