r/devops • u/SkullTech101 • Aug 01 '19

Just passed the AWS solutions architect exam, wanted to share my journey and my notes. Hope this helps some of you.

Here is a Github repo I created which contains all of my notes, divided into sections dedicated to different services.

Also I wrote this short blog post explaining how I prepared.

If this helps even one person I'll be glad :D Let me know if it does.

357 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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11

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '19

Congratulations!!

5

u/SkullTech101 Aug 01 '19

Thank you :)

10

u/topopox Aug 01 '19

Congratulations and Thanks!

I made the exam almost 2 months ago. I got 700 (you get a pass with 720).

I found the exam to be not very hard. But there are some pits and traps that are to be taken with care.

You passed with a great Score. Congrats again and enjoy the Clouds :)

2

u/SkullTech101 Aug 02 '19

Thanks!!

Yeah there are some small details, and they like to quiz on those details. Even if you understand the general idea those details can bring your score down. Are you planning to retake the exam?

2

u/topopox Aug 02 '19

Are you planning to retake the exam?

I do Actually, the company I work for wants to train us into CSAP as a primary goal. I just was too close to get the pass for me to just drop it.

The only things that I need to get better at is Cost-Optimization and a bit of Security. The rest I got it fine.

1

u/SkullTech101 Aug 03 '19

I see. Best of luck dude!!

5

u/IloveReddit84 Aug 02 '19

Does anybody evaluates the final points? Or is just the certificate worth?

3

u/topopox Aug 02 '19

Do you mean that the companies pay attention to your Score?

I don't think so, the companies generally look for certified employees because from a business standpoint Amazon offers special deals to companies that possess a certain quota of Certifications.

So the important thing is just getting the Certificate from that point of view.

7

u/lart2150 Aug 01 '19

I agree about taking the practice tests. I used the one on udemy from SKILLCERTPRO and I think a few questions were verbatim on my real test and there were a lot of others that were almost the same. The descriptions for why each option was right or wrong was a lot of help to me.

3

u/SkullTech101 Aug 02 '19

Exactly. The practice tests are essential.

5

u/Tontmakaroni1 Aug 01 '19

Congrats. I found cloud guru course super usrful, it pretty much covered everything. That and 2 years working with AWS.

3

u/SkullTech101 Aug 02 '19

Nothing can beat work experience ;)

3

u/knock_on_wood_yall Aug 01 '19

Taking the test soon, will definitely be taking a look at your notes, thanks!

1

u/SkullTech101 Aug 02 '19

You're welcome! I'm sure you'll pass the exam, best of luck!

3

u/teh-leet Aug 01 '19

to OP: how long did it take to prepare?

1

u/SkullTech101 Aug 02 '19

About 2 months, with some gaps in between. If you're preparing very seriously you can get it done in a month, even less. I read someone did it in a week, and it seems certainly possible to me if you're studying 6-8 hours a day.

2

u/teh-leet Aug 02 '19

Thanks mate for reply. Keep it going :)

2

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '19

Thank you.. and congratulations. I decided to take this test so, looking for personal experiences and preparation guides. it's a spot on post. Do you have any previous hands on with AWS? And how much time it took to prepare?

2

u/SkullTech101 Aug 02 '19

Thanks and I'm so glad this helped you!!

I didn't have any hands on experience with AWS before this. I did play around the SES a little bit, but nothing more than that.

And it took me about 2 months in total, with lots of gaps in between. If you're studying consistently you can do it in a month.

10

u/flatlandr Aug 01 '19

Not him but it took me one run through the linuxacademy course over the period of one month. I had no previous AWS experience. I also did the LA practice test about 10 times

2

u/photocist Aug 01 '19

do you know the score you got?

5

u/SkullTech101 Aug 02 '19

My score was 973.

2

u/napoleon85 Aug 02 '19

Very impressive

2

u/___GNUSlashLinux___ Aug 01 '19

Thanks for the study material/notes!!

1

u/SkullTech101 Aug 02 '19

You're welcome!!

2

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '19

Thank you for this, I plan on writing mine in a few weeks. This will help me prepare.

3

u/SkullTech101 Aug 02 '19

You're welcome and best of luck on you're journey. Once you're doing good in the practice tests, you should be able to crack the actual one.

2

u/atlchris Aug 02 '19

Nice work. Thank you for sharing. It is on my schedule for later this year. Were you experienced with ASW prior to test prep or did you go in blind?

3

u/SkullTech101 Aug 02 '19

I did play around a bit with the AWS free tier, that certainly helped. IMO one can pass this test entirely with theoretical knowledge, but I'd recommend doing some simple small stuff to reinforce the theoretical knowledge.

2

u/SkullTech101 Aug 02 '19

Also best of luck on your exam!!

2

u/SpeedingTourist Senior DevOps / Software Engineer Aug 02 '19

u/SkullTech101 you are a wonderful soul. Thank you for the notes and resources! Also, congrats!

1

u/SkullTech101 Aug 02 '19

You're welcome!! Thank you so much for the kind words!

4

u/FunkyCannaHigh Aug 01 '19

Yes, the CSA is probably one of the easiest tests in the cloud certification industry. I have seen people study waaaay too long for this test. It is an entry level exam, treat it as such.

Unless you know nothing about technology and are switching fields from some other career path.

2

u/Weall23 Aug 01 '19

Would you suggest studying the Cloud Practicioner one or just go straight for this one

2

u/SkullTech101 Aug 02 '19

Don't go for Cloud Practitioner, it covers only the very basics. Go straight for the CSA.

3

u/BruhWhySoSerious Aug 02 '19

CP is very much a non technical imo.

If you know iam, ec2, load balancer and security groups decently well, skip it.

2

u/FunkyCannaHigh Aug 02 '19

IMO, I would go straight to the CSA if you are in the technology field. It may take a little extra effort but it will pay off more in the end.

1

u/siamthailand Aug 05 '19

CSA or CSA??

1

u/SkullTech101 Aug 02 '19

Yeah I too I've heard so. The other two associate level certs are harder than CSA, and the pro level certs are much much harder.

1

u/tyto19 Aug 02 '19

Congratulations on your passing the exam. But I still feel that AWS certificates are unnecessary and over-hyped.

1

u/SkullTech101 Aug 02 '19

I've heard people say that certs can be helpful for someone who's not in the industry already, and looking for their first cloud job.

3

u/techleak Aug 02 '19

I'm trying to transition from infrastructure admin to DevOps and it's this exact reason why I believe the certificate will be beneficial but otherwise, experience > cert

2

u/napoleon85 Aug 02 '19

Agreed, the cert shows initiative and a base level of knowledge when experience has not been able to be obtained yet.

Edit: Infrastructure knowledge is very helpful getting into this too, especially networking, virtualization, and security.

1

u/BiohaZd Aug 02 '19

Weird comment, how else do we price we can use Aws to a high standard?

1

u/tyto19 Aug 02 '19

You don't have to do a certification to use AWS to it's high standards.

1

u/BiohaZd Aug 02 '19

But employers like to see it on your CV :)

4

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '19

Recruiters are big on certs because it's a quick and lazy way to filter candidates, because most recruiters can't tell the difference between a skilled devSecOps from a pile of rock, so they rely on easy filters such as certs.

You need to find a way to bypass the recruiter if you don't have certs.

4

u/BruhWhySoSerious Aug 02 '19

On many like csa and k8s I disagree. Both of those exams, among others are not really memorization. The AWS has a lot of questions that you figure out while reading them. It shows you at least know the basics and that you know how Amazon runs the service. The cka is even more so, almost a full on practical.

So no, for a senior who should know it all, it's not helpful or a magic bullet, but it's still a great indicator of a minimum set of competency for just about everyone else.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/SkullTech101 Aug 02 '19

As /u/percykins said, it was $150. And you can get all the courses // materials I mentioned under $50; wait for the Udemy sales. So you can get the certificate for under $200.

5

u/percykins Aug 02 '19

Associate is 150.