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Ultimate Guide for Cracking AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Exam

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In this article, I am going to explain to you how to crack the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Certification Exam with step-by-step preparation. When you complete reading this article, you will have a good idea of where to start and prepare for the solutions architect associate exam. If you have any questions on AWS certification exam, you can write your comments.

Why I have to plan for AWS certification?

Here is the snapshot of advantages for passing the AWS certifications.

Look at the below link for some insights on job opportunities:

Some of the other reasons are:

  • Cloud computing is the hot trend and most of the companies are implementing the cloud technologies for their solutions.
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the market leader for cloud computing platform.
  • From the above sources, it is evidence that AWS skills fetch high paying jobs.

Sign-Up for the Amazon Free Tier

AWS free tier is a program by Amazon web service team to use the services. With this program, they offer AWS web services for 12 months with no charges. The free tier is for users who want to test out cloud services for free. In this free tier, you will get almost everything available for the paid version, but with the limited usage.

Those who are studying AWS certification, it is very important to start registration for the free tier and play with the services. It is not possible to pass the exam without any practical knowledge.

Here is the link to sign-up for this free service:
https://aws.amazon.com/

AWS Free Tier for Cloud Services

Exam Overview

Here is the summary of exam details for Solutions Architect Associate certification exam.

● Number of Questions: 60 Multiple Choice Questions (Amazon keeps changing the number of questions)
● Duration: 80 Minutes
● Passing Score: 65% (Amazon keeps changing the passing score)

AWS Certification Resources

Amazon itself hosting a lot of official resources that are very useful to prepare for the Solutions Architect Associate exam. Here is the list of documentation that is very helpful:

  • Sample exam – I would recommend taking sample exam questions to get a general overview of what kind of exam this is.
  • Official preparation site – Go through the Prepare for AWS Certification site. This site has a lot of very useful information that is good for preparing for the AWS certification exams.
  • Hands-on practice – Doing hands-on practice is very important. I have earlier written about sign-up for the free tier. You can use the free tier account for trying few examples for every service. The questions in the exams are scenario-based, which means that hands-on experience is the most important for passing the exam.
  • Whitepapers – The important whitepaper to read is Overview of Security Processes.  After that most important white paper is Storage Options in the AWS Cloud, as it provides patterns and anti-patterns for every storage service on AWS.
  • FAQ – This is one is very important. This would help you to understand each service. There is an FAQ section for each service. You have to go through each of them before attending the exam (Amazon FAQs).

Recommended Books

The AWS Certified Solutions Architect Official Study Guide is your one-stop resource for coverage of the Associate Level Exam. This book can be used as one of the preparation material for this exam. There are some reviews pointed out that some of the sections in this book are outdated.

Practice Questions

You have to look at the practice questions only when you are done with reading books, white papers, and all other learning things. Practice questions are the final step for testing your knowledge on an understanding of the concepts. Taking multiple questions would help you to easily pass the exam. There are few simulators that offer you the online practice question. Here I am recommending you some of the AWS certification exam simulators:

Summary

I hope this article would have helped you to understand how to prepare for and pass the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate certification exam. If you have any questions, please write it in the comments section.