AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Exam Preparation

I completed the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate exam, and I’d want to share my expertise and test preparation advice with you. Currently, the platform offers over 140 different services, with new ones being added daily. It might not be easy to comprehend the entire ecology. If you don’t have many opportunities to utilize AWS at work, taking the solutions architect associate exam is an excellent place to get acquainted with the platform.

In this post, I will quickly explain the various certification tests offered by AWS, followed by a discussion of resources that helped me pass my exam and, perhaps, will help you pass yours.

There are three pathways to becoming an AWS certified professional: Architect, Operations, and Developer, as well as five specialty exams: Networking, Big Data, Security, Machine Learning, and Alexa. You do not need to pass the associate level to take the professional test today. Still, I have heard that the professional level is much more complex, so starting with the associate ones may be a good idea. It also appears that of the three associate-level examinations, SysOps is the most difficult, followed by Solutions Architect, and the Developer track is the easiest.

Many people advocate beginning with the solutions architect associate certification as your first credential since it tests on the most significant AWS offerings and focuses on “how services work together to deliver the best (and most cost-effective) solution for the issue provided.” And that is precisely where I opted to begin my AWS journey.

A sample question: Your web application front end is made up of many EC2 instances managed by an Elastic Load Balancer. You set up ELB to do health checks on these EC2 instances. Which of the options given are accurate if a model fails to pass health checks?

A. The ELB automatically replaces the instance.

B. The ELB automatically terminates the instance.

C. The ELB halts traffic to the instance that failed its health check.

D. The ELB quarantines the instance for root cause study.

The question above is derived from the official AWS sample test questions. The question on your actual test will either be “given the requirement and constraints, how would you develop or enhance this system?” or “given a system, explain why particular behavior/bug/bottleneck is occurring.” The most important thing is understanding the performance, scalability, availability, cost, and security requirements and constraints.

There will be 65 MCQ questions, and you will have 130 minutes to answer them. They are all single or multiple-choice questions. In most cases, 65% is considered a passing score.

My opinion is that if you have some AWS experience and fundamental networking and database skills, passing the test in 1 to 2 months (which is how long it took me) is a feasible