My Journey to AWS Architect Associate

Today, 'Cloud' and 'AWS' are the Buzz words in IT world When the world is in quarantine, What else can be better than doing a cloud certification and update ourselves with the current market. I'm going to take you through my journey of AWS Architect Associate Exam Preparation and help you in all and every possible way to get your certification. Without further delay, lets dive in..

I passed my AWS Architect Associate Certification Exam(SAA-C01) recently which I'm very happy and proud to share. The journey of exam preparation revealed more challenges, made me more confident, knowledgeable and passing the exam definitely brings lots of enthusiasm and motivation to prepare for the next one. Whether its your first certification or one among many, this guide will help to achieve your goal faster.

1. First step in any certification preparation is to enroll in a training. I started my exam preparation with a training in cloudguru(CloudGuru). Spend enough time to understand all the concepts especially EC2, ELB, S3, VPC and work through all exercises(Utilize AWS free tier efficiently). I would suggest you to go over S3, VPC and ELB FAQ as well. Do not miss out the challenge quiz in cloud guru training. But its totally fine if you get lower scores in the challenge quiz because its little challenging anyway.

Training is just not sufficient enough to face the exam. Your exam preparation is not complete without taking any mock/practice tests.

2. I'm a book lover and enjoy reading books either be technical or non technical. So my second step is to read the study guide(AWS Solutions Architect Study Guide). I read this book mainly to learn any missing concepts and fill in the gaps. I didn't read through this book in detail but I took all practice tests after every unit and sample tests to test my learning. Those tests are really great and help you to take mock tests next.

3. Udemy Mock Tests has 6 mock tests by Jon Bonso. I spent ample time in taking these mock tests. Questions in these tests are very elaborate and it really takes hours to finish a single test initially. But these tests provide you the feel of exam setting with 65 questions and timer on the top. I almost took these tests as many times until I scored 85-95% in every test. As you continue taking these mock tests regularly, the time you take to read, understand, answer a question would significantly be reduced and you should be able to finish the test within the allotted time.

4. More mock tests and almost there.
You are just one steps away from taking the exam. Here are the list of free mock tests you can take once you have finished your training and taking the other mock test.

1. AWS official sample test
2. simplilearn.com
3. Linuxacademy.com
4. Whizlabs Free Test

5. You are all set to be AWS Associate Architect Certified. Create a AWS account and register for your exam here. Make sure to take enough rest, healthy meal, plenty of water on the day of exam. All the best !! Rock on !!!