Today I passed my first AWS exam – AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate. I’ve been looking at getting some AWS certifications since late 2014 and I have now finally gotten to it (especially since I now work at Amazon).
The exam itself was of average to high difficulty, there were definitely some areas which I could have studied more. My preparation involved 3 months of AWS work as a Support Engineer and also doing the A Cloud Guru exam course online which I highly recommend.
I’m putting up a reference list for learning materials that have been helpful for me while taking the exam:
Cloud Guru AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate exam course Cloud Guru’s exam course is probably one of the most complete to date. I highly recommend their courses.
Exam blueprint This gives you a quick overview of the exam format and area being tested, definitely worth a read.
AWS S3 FAQ and S3 documentation
qwikLABS These are self paced labs where you get to have hands on experience with AWS. They provide step by step instructions and allows you to experience first-hand what AWS is about. The introductory labs are free, so together with the free tier offering from AWS these are the 2 best options to experience AWS without having to pay.
Last updated July 4th, 2016