How to be a certified AWS Solutions Architect — Tips to pass the exam
What is AWS?
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to individuals, companies, and governments, on a metered pay-as-you-go basis.
AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Associate
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Associate examination is intended for individuals who perform a solutions architect role and have one or more years of hands-on experience designing available, cost-efficient, fault-tolerant, and scalable distributed systems on AWS.
Let’s get started.
I recently passed the AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Associate exam and I like to share my experience which will help someone else as well.
A new version of the AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Associate exam will be available in March 2020
You should familiarise yourself well with AWS and you must have proper practice using AWS services. Hands-on experience is a key factor.
If you are new to AWS, create an account in AWS and start using AWS free tier This will give you a chance to learn with hands-on experience without losing your money.
If you are new to the AWS domain, I recommend you to take an online course to learn the basics. Even if you use AWS, this course will brush up on your knowledge.
Check out this free YouTube video as well to recap AWS key areas.
Use AWS services with your applications and familiarize them with them as much as possible.
Exam structure
This exam consists of 65 questions and all of them are multiple-choice questions. you have130 minutes to answer correctly.
you need to get more than 720 marks out of 1000 to pass the exam.
Exam tips
Similar to other exams, this one is also tricky and you need to practice well to answer. you need a good understanding of small differences in each service.
- Follow this exam course which has 6 sets of sample exams. It helps me a lot to get through this. You can learn a lot of things by reading the review for each question. Always read the additional links attached under each answer.
- Please read the frequently asked questions (FAQ) in AWS services. AWS recommends reading at least below the major service’s FAQs ( Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Amazon VPC, Amazon Route 53, Amazon RDS, Amazon SQS ). But I suggest reading other FAQs as well.
- Read AWS whitepapers. Read the following white paper especially.
- Follow the AWS exam preparation guide
- Do AWS given sample questions
- Check out this discussion forum. You can learn a lot of things by going through the discussions
- Create your own cheat sheet to remember key things.
- Study with a friend also helps me. It allows for sharing knowledge.
- Watch the exam readiness training videos by AWS
- Also if you need real exam experience, do a practice exam for 20$
Exam registration
you can register by logging into your AWS account. 150$ will be changes as of now as exam fees.
If you follow the above tips, I guarantee that you can pass the exam well.
Wish you all the best to be an AWS Certified Solutions Architect.
Thanks for reading! (A few 👏 are always appreciated. 😀)