How I Passed the AWS Solutions Architect Exam in a Month
Over the past year few years, the pandemic has shifted how businesses operate. Pre-pandemic, they were building new on-premises data centers. Now they are finding ways to leverage workloads in the cloud.
According to a recent Gartner report, more than 85% of organizations will embrace a cloud-first principle by 2025. Because of this, tech professionals are seeking new cloud skills and certifications. This is to meet the demand of their current or desired job roles.
One certification that stands out is the AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification (SAA-C02). Before you attempt this cert, there is a lot to think about.
In this post, I will share my experience and answer your 10 frequently asked questions.
Full disclosure… I passed the AWS Solutions Architect exam in January. I passed the AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam one month prior. To be honest, I am glad that I sat for the AWS CCP first. The CCP provided me with foundational level knowledge of AWS and many of the services. But only at a very high level.
The Solutions Architect exam prepares you to become an AWS Solutions Architect. As an SA you have to understand the cloud, the AWS Well-Architected Framework, and the AWS services. Then you can determine which services are the right solutions for your customer.
What is the AWS Solutions Architect? The exam is about understanding the cloud, AWS and its services. As an AWS Certified Solutions Architect, you help customers optimize their architectures for each workload in the cloud. You do this based on functional, performance, security or compliance requirements.
As you prepare for this certification you will learn that the cloud is not one size fits all. I suggest reading the AWS Well-Architected Framework to get a view into the six pillars that are used to build on AWS.
Now let’s talk about your frequently asked questions:
1. How much did the exam cost?
At the time of this post, the cost of the exam is $150 USD.
2. How many questions are on the exam?
The exam consists of 65 questions: multiple choice and multiple responses. You will have 130 minutes to take the exam.
3. Does the AWS certification expire?
Yes. You are required to re-certify every three years.
4. Is the AWS Solutions Architect Certification right for me?
The answer will depend on your current role, career goals or both.
For a project manager, supervisor, director or someone that is not actually building and architecting on AWS, the AWS Cloud Practitioner certification may be a better place to begin your cloud journey.
If you are seeking to design, develop, support and architect cloud solutions on AWS, this certification is a great place to start. For more information, I recommend reviewing the AWS Certification page.
Also, if you don’t use it, you lose it! The knowledge is great, but the application of the knowledge is the true goal.
5. What are common job titles for an AWS Solutions Architect?
A quick US-based job search for “AWS Solution Architect” on indeed listed over 36,000 jobs available. Of those, there were 1800+ entry-level lobs. And many of them were remote. Speaking of jobs, AWS has 500+ jobs open for Solutions Architect and we are hiring!
Here’s a list of common job titles for AWS Certified Solution Architect Associates:
6. How difficult is the AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam?
If I had to rate the difficulty of the exam from 1–5, I would give it a 3. With 5 being the highest difficulty level. If you read the whitepapers, do the well-architected labs, and study practice questions, you should be prepared.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to understand the six pillars. AWS has many services that can do the same thing. On the exam, the goal is to understand each service, what they offer, and then select the correct solution(s).
7. Do you need to lab for the exam?
Yes, this exam helps you become an AWS Solutions Architect. In the 30 days I spent preparing for the certification, over 45 hours were in the lab.
Here’s a great resource that you can use to #LabEveryday: https://www.wellarchitectedlabs.com/. These labs are free, but you may incur costs on AWS.
To determine exactly how much a lab will cost to build on AWS you can always use the AWS Pricing Calculator. I recommend getting use to looking up pricing. Knowing how to look up and compare the costs of services is a part of being a Solutions Architect.
8. What resources did you use to prepare for the exam?
· AWS Certified Solutions Architect Exam overview — This will answer all your questions about the exam. It provides you with a link to schedule your test.
· AWS SAA Exam Guide — The Exam Guide provides you with all the topics that will be on the exam. Any time you take a certification exam you should know what you will be tested on.
· AWS Exam Practice Questions — Here are 10 free sample exam questions provided by AWS. This is a preview of how the questions are structured on the exam.
· Overview of Amazon Web Services Whitepaper — This document is about 74 pages. Trust me it’s worth it! It will give you an overview of cloud computing and many of the services that AWS offers.
· AWS Well-Architected and the Six Pillars — This framework describes key concepts, design principles, and architectural best practices for designing and running workloads in the cloud. Understanding this will help you on the exam and as an SA.
· Compare AWS Support Plans — Here you will get a breakdown of four different types of AWS Support Plans.
· Whizlabs Practice SAA Exam Questions — Unfortunately this is not free, but the questions on this site were helpful. I like the fact that they provide an explanation for the answers to each question.
· Adrian Cantrill SAA Video Training — I highly recommend this video training. Adrian covers technical topics that are foundational like networking and security. He then builds each topic. Once you have the understanding, he then guides you through demos so you can apply what you’ve learned.
· Create a free AWS account: — Here’s a link to create a free account. For this exam I recommend spending as much time as possible in the console. If you need labs to follow, be sure to visit the free lab guides on https://www.wellarchitectedlabs.com/.
9. How long did it take to become AWS certified?
With this certification I put a lot of pressure on myself. I purchased the exam on December 13th, which is the same date I purchased the Cloud Practitioner exam. My thought process was to take the CCP on December 19th, and then sit for the SAA exam on January 20th. For the first time in my life my certification goals actually worked out the way I planned.
Passing this certification did not come easy. I spent about 5 hours a day going through Cantrill’s videos, labs and reviewing study questions. In all I spent 31 days and 90 hours total preparing for this certification.
Honestly, I am not sure that I recommend my approach. I felt like I was cramming much of what I learned. There are many services like s3, Ec2, lambda, CloudFront and more, that I could spend weeks individually learning about and still not know them 100%.
10. What advice do I have for others attempting to take the exam?
Start by creating a plan. I scheduled the exam 30 days out and then studied at least 2 hours a day until my exam.
Here are some other tips that may help you:
· The exam has 65 questions which breaks down to about 2 minutes per question. Don’t waste time on the long questions or ones that you do not know. Flag them and answer them later.
· Don’t second guess yourself unless a question in the exam causes you to remember the correct answer to a previous question.
· Use the process of elimination. If you don’t know an answer to a question, eliminate answers that are completely wrong. Often times this will leave you with 2 remaining options. At this point you have a 50/50 chance of getting the answer right.
· Remember at the end of the exam to answer the all of the questions you have flagged or didn’t answer.
Waking up every day and learning more about the cloud and AWS has me so excited. As I gain more understanding, I plan to share my knowledge, experiences, successes, and failures with you.
If you find this helpful, please feel free to like, share and comment on this post. I thank you all for reading, and I wish you good luck on your certification journey!
Peace,
