My road to AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional

If you’re reading this page, you probably know what this certificate is all about and perhaps want to know how to get this certificate. In this post I’ll try to show how I approached this exam.

It’s a certificate that requires not only extensive knowledge about AWS services but also checks ability to make use of several of the services to deliver different kinds of solutions — from migrations to designing new products on a large scale. It also verifies a common knowledge required to deliver working solutions based on best security, network and operations practices.

How to prepare to pass the exam? Most important part for my preparation was experience — I’ve been working for over 2 years on a platform solely based on AWS, so was able to fulfil the first recommendation stated on AWS official guide. Another important part was Linux Academy course with over 50 hours of videos that described in-depth majority of services needed on the exam. An exam simulator provided by Cloud Guru was also quite useful although it’s recommended to achieve around 90% score before taking real exam. When you think you’re ready, you can take an exam readiness course prepared by AWS to ensure you have covered most important parts required for the certificate. re:Invent videos are also an important piece of knowledge since they show new features and approaches to create proper solutions on the platform.

If you bought exam questions dumps for the exam, don’t expect exam will have similar questions — AWS updates questions often and things announced on re:Invent 6 or more months ago can be on the exam. Apart from that, question sets authors are often lazy and create question for associate level rather than professional.

Above all, most important part of my preparation was participation in AWS community on Discord, where I’ve been a member of for a while and become a moderator there. It’s been a great pleasure not only getting help on problems I faced when preparing for the exam but also getting help on issues I faced at work and also learning by helping others. I can only encourage others to participate in such community since you not only will get help but also others will keep you motivated to try your best.

If you want to know more what services and in what depth are required for the exam, a blog post made by Jayendra Patil might give you a good overview.

One important note: time management on this exam is very important and if you’re not native English speaker, you can request an additional 30 minutes. This time can be very useful since you may need to read a lot of text during exam.