I sat the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional exam last Monday. This was to recertify my expiring AWS Professional Certification, which recertified my Cloud Practioner and Associate Architect.
The exam is challenging. Probably the most time I spent taking an AWS exam, 2 hours and 21 minutes. My original certification came with what was the famous reading comprehension exam, which retired in 2019. This exam didn’t require that level of reading but was harder. Also, I finished the old exam faster than this one.
Let provide three observations on the exam that won’t violate any NDA. First, it feels more SysOps than Architect because the scenarios aren’t as drawn out in the exam, which retired in 2019. Secondly, it tests both the breadth and depth of AWS services. Lastly, back in 2018, I said, “The entire exam is a challenge to pick the more correct answer based on the scenario and question with a driving factor of one more or more of the following, scalability, cost, recovery time, performance, or security.” That statement holds true on this exam.
For preparation, I watched about 50% of the acloud.guru course. I skipped the sections thru comfortable sections. I also read a bunch of whitepapers, FAQs and watched Youtube videos and linked below.
I took the exam with PSI. First, PSI doesn’t start the check till the exam slot, which takes 20-30 minutes. Secondly, the app will suck battery power. Given the requirements, I couldn’t use my regular desk, so be prepared.
Last comment, not that the team at AWS is trying to, but the exam is about getting you stuck on a question, so you run out of time or rush thru and miss core context. I’ve been on the platform a long time and work for AWS, it took me 78% of the allocated time on a Monday night to do the exam, and I read fast. The main takeaway is to develop an exam strategy that works for you and is practiced on the associate level exams before sitting this exam.
List of resources:
- https://d1.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/Storage/AWS%20Storage%20Services%20Whitepaper-v9.pdf
- https://d1.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/Multi_Tenant_SaaS_Storage_Strategies.pdf
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUWqDOnXeDw
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJxC-B9Q9tQ
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YYBdsuUq2M
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wgaV70FeaM
- https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/amazon-s3-update-strong-read-after-write-consistency/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj7Ting6Ckk
- https://d0.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/aws-amazon-vpc-connectivity-options.pdf
- https://d1.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/Networking/integrating-aws-with-multiprotocol-label-switching.pdf
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/security.html
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGKrVO9xlqI
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gc2DgBqo9U
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0FBGIT1Ub4
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/whitepapers/latest/organizing-your-aws-environment/organizing-your-aws-environment.html
- https://d1.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/Security/DDoS_White_Paper.pdf
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjrcoK8T3To
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQsK4MtsELU
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzJmE_Jlas0
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71fD8Oenwxc
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxo67UeeN1A
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/security-pillar/wellarchitected-security-pillar.pdf
- https://d1.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/DevOps/infrastructure-as-code.pdf
- https://d1.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/DevOps/practicing-continuous-integration-continuous-delivery-on-AWS.pdf
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01hy48R9Kr8
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qik9LBktjgs
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEPJ7Lo346A
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_introduction.html
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/latest/userguide/how-elastic-load-balancing-works.html
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/autoscaling/ec2/userguide/healthcheck.html
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/dns-failover-complex-configs.html
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/reserved-instances-types.html
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/CHAP_Troubleshooting.html#CHAP_Troubleshooting.Backup.Retention
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/placement-groups.html#placement-groups-spread
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/opsworks/latest/userguide/best-practices-autoscale.html
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/kms/latest/developerguide/grants.html
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/step-functions/latest/dg/tutorial-cloudwatch-events-s3.html
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsaccountbilling/latest/aboutv2/budgets-managing-costs.html