What is AWS
First, a few words about AWS - Amazon Web Services. AWS is the very cloud in pants that can offer, probably, almost everything that is used in the IT world. I would like to store terabyte archives, here's the Simple Storage Service aka S3. Need a load balancer and virtual machines in different regions, keep Elastic Load Balancer and EC2. Containers, Kubernetes, serverless computing, name what you want - here you go!
When I first got to know how AWS works, I was most impressed by the availability of all services. Following a payment model - pay for what you use, it's easy to run different configurations for tests or just out of curiosity. My hands were really itching when I realized that for a couple of dollars an hour you can rent a 64 core server with 256 GB of RAM. It's quite difficult to get your hands on such real hardware, and AWS makes it possible to play with them for a reasonable price. Add to this a quick start, when there is only a couple of minutes between starting the setup and starting the services, and the ease of setup. Yes, even after signing up, AWS gives you a whole year to play with many free services. It is very difficult to refuse such a tempting offer.
Preparing for AWS Solution Architect Associate Certification
To work with resources, AWS promotes special documentation and many thematic videos. In addition, Amazon invites everyone to take exams and get certified. I will tell you a little more about the preparation and the delivery itself.
The exam lasts 140 minutes and consists of 65 questions. More often than not, you need to choose one out of four, although there are also two out of four or two out of six with a choice. The questions are, for the most part, voluminous and describe a typical scenario for which you need to choose the right solutions from the AWS world. The passing score is 72%.
The documentation and short videos on the Amazon site are certainly a good start, but having cloud experience and system knowledge is a great way to prepare for the exam. It was with this mindset - to figure out the hardware, I went to look for an online training course for AWS Solution Architect Associate. I started my acquaintance with one of the many courses on Udemy from A Cloud Guru :
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate 2020
The course turned out to be successful, and I liked the combination of theoretical materials and practical labs, where you could touch most of the services with your hands, get your hands dirty and get the same work experience along the way. However, after all the lectures and labs, when I took the final test in the training course, I realized that my superficial knowledge of the general structure was clearly not enough to get a passing score.
After the first failed tests, I decided to take a similar exam preparation course on LinkedIn. I thought to refresh and systematize my knowledge and purposefully prepare for the exam.
Prepare for AWS Solutions Architect (Associate) Certification
This time, in order to avoid gaps in knowledge, I started a notebook and began to write out the main points from the lectures and questions important for the exam. In general, the course seemed to me less exciting than the course on from A Cloud Guru, but in both courses the material is professionally analyzed and, I think, it's more a matter of taste, who likes what.
Already after two courses and a written lecture notes, I again took up mock tests and with difficulty scored 60% correct answers. Considering all my preparation and the time spent at the lectures, I, of course, seriously thought. It was clear that my knowledge was not enough to correctly answer some of the questions. This time, it seemed to me, it was not the knowledge of the system as a whole that was lame, but a lack of understanding of specific scenarios of work.
It seemed ineffective to revise all courses in a new way, and I tried to find more test items and detailed analysis of the questions. As often happens in such cases, this is exactly the course with mock tests I "found" on Udemy . This is no longer a course as such, but six practice tests close to the exam. That is, in 140 minutes you need to answer the same 65 questions and score at least 72% to pass. Looking ahead, I will say that the questions are really very similar to those that can be obtained on a real test. After completing the practice test, the fun begins. Each question is explored in detail, with an explanation of the correct options and links to AWS documentation and AWS Cheat Sheets : AWS Cheat Sheets .
AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Practice Exams
For a long time I fiddled with these tests, but in the end I began to gain from 80%. At the same time, I solved each of them two, or even three times. On average, it took me an hour and a half to complete the test, and then another two to three hours to parse and fill in the gaps in the outline. As a result, I spent more than 20 hours only on trial tests.
How the AWS Solution Architect Associate exam works online (PearsonVUE)
The exam itself can be taken either at a certified center or at home online (PearsonVUE). Due to the general quarantine and madness, I decided to take the exam at home. There are detailed requirements and recommendations for passing the exam. In general, everything is pretty logical. You need a laptop or PC with an Internet connection and a webcam. First you need to test the connection speed. There should be no records, gadgets, or any other included screens near the drop-off area. If possible, windows should be curtained. No one can enter the room in which the exam is being taken; the door must be closed.
During the test, a special utility is installed on the PC, which allows the examiner to monitor the screen, camera and sound when passing the test. All of this information is available prior to the test at pearsonvue.com.The details of the exam itself, like the questions, cannot be disclosed, but I would like to tell you about the process of passing.
About 15 minutes before the appointed time, I opened the Peasonvue application and began to fill in the necessary fields like name. To verify your identity, you must take a photo of your driver's license or passport. Interestingly, a photo can be taken either on the phone or on the webcam. More for fun, I chose the option to take pictures with a camera on my phone. After a couple of seconds I received a link in sms. Following the prompts, I took a photo of the rights and then a photo of the room from four sides. After the final confirmation on the phone, after a couple of seconds the screen on the laptop changed, saying that everything was ready for the test.
Photo of the room from four sides and my camp ironing board:
About five minutes later, I wrote in a chat, and then the examiner called. He spoke with the usual Indian accent, but through the speakers on the laptop (you cannot use headphones), it was difficult to understand him. Before starting, I was asked to remove the documents from the table, because there should not be anything superfluous on the table, and then they asked to twist the laptop to make sure that everything in the room corresponds to the previously obtained photographs. I received a wish of luck and the exam began.
The interface with the questions was at first unusual, but then I got involved in the process and no longer paid attention to the appearance. The examiner called me one time and asked me not to read the questions aloud. Apparently, in order not to declassify the questions. An hour and a half later, I answered the last question. After the test, there was also a test screen, where it turned out that I missed one of the questions and did not choose an answer. A couple more clicks and…. you can admire the result. As a result: after almost two hours of intense thinking, finally, it was possible to relax. At the same minute, the examiner connected and congratulated on duty, where the exam ended successfully.
A couple of days later I received a nice email “Congratulations, You are Now AWS Certified”. The AWS account displays the passed exam and score. In my case, it was 78%, which, although not ideal, is quite enough for a credit.
To summarize, I will add a couple of links that I already mentioned in the article.
Courses:
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate 2020
- Prepare for AWS Solutions Architect (Associate) Certification
AWS Synopsis Site:
Course with training questions:
A couple of free resources from Amazon:
For me, getting ready for AWS Solution Architect Associate has been a long road. Once again I was convinced that the synopsis is one of the best ways to understand the material. The funny thing is, before the exam, while reviewing the key videos from Cloud Gury, I perceived the material already familiar to me in a completely different way, noting more details. True, it was possible to come to this only after two online courses, a synopsis and trial tests. Indeed, repetition is the mother of learning.