AWS exams are not restricted to any version as you see in other exams like RHCSA on RHEL 6.
The syllabus is vast and keep on changing as AWS keep on adding new services. So, hard work alone won’t help. Also, your prior experience on few specific AWS services won’t help you clear the exam easily. As the questions in exam are on wide range of services.
Below I am listing a smart plan which can get you ready for the exam in 30 days.
First 7 days.
If you are looking for very quick overview of all services so that you can sound familiar with AWS you can refer this post.
You can also refer to our free AWS Crash Course if you want to go little deeper. It will give you good knowledge of key topics in short time.
Later go through the online training and videos. You can look at AWS re:invent videos. But if you are new to AWS it’s recommended that you buy an online course. Content of both acloudguru and linuxacademy is good but I used the acloudguru course on Udemy as it provide lifetime access to the course. You can read my complete review for the acloudguru course here .
TIP:- We found that buying the acloudguru course from Udemy is cheaper in comparison to acloud.guru website. It’s the same course AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate on Udemy at cheaper rate, as generally Udemy provide heavy discounts on courses.
Day 8 to 14
For the next seven days repeat the exercises in the course doing hands on in your own AWS account.
TIP:- Create a billing alert in the account. It will remind you if you are going above the free tier limits and save you from unpleasant surprises.
To see how to create a billing alert refer here.
Day 15 to 21
Online course will give you a good base. As you don’t have to worry about the syllabus. Next step is to go through the listed AWS white papers.
- Overview of Amazon Web Services
- Storage Options in the Cloud
- Overview of Security Processes
- AWS Risk & Compliance Whitepaper
- Architecting for the AWS Cloud: Best Practices
Day 22 to 30
Finally go through FAQs of AWS services. Here I am listing few key services from which you can expect most questions.
- EC2
- S3
- EBS
- RDS
- VPC
- ELB
- Route 53
- Glacier
- Cloudfront
- Direct Connect
Tips for the exam:-
- You won’t get more than 3 mins per question.
- You may find some very long questions in exam. Best strategy to tackle them is to read the answer options first and than check for relevant info in question.
- If you find a question confusing, better to mark it for review and check it later.
- Since it’s an AWS exam so look for AWS related options in the answers. Chances are high that Non-AWS related option in answer will be wrong.
- AWS exams generally don’t focus on mugging their datasheets. So you won’t get a question like “How much RAM does a C3.xlarge offer?” .
- For cost optimization Spot instances are best. If you are confused about option between dedicated and spot, choose spot if question talks about cost.
Once you are done with Associate level and you want to move to the next level check How to prepare for AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional .
Hope this post helps you in your preparation. Do let me know if you have any query.