On January-2016, I have passed the “AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate” exam. I have been working in AWS Cloud Computing since more than 4 years. Currently, in market there is high demand of AWS Cloud Professional. Being certified in AWS exams give extra edge in your professional career. Now after doing RHCE , I personally recommend to go for AWS Cloud Certification.

In this post, I am going to share with you what strategy I followed and what is the basic requirement for passing the exam. So here, I am writing specifically about “AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate” exam. Passing the exam is not enough to prove in market, you should have quality to justify your potential also.

1. Know about the exam blue print

It is very important to do study according to subjects mention in “AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate” blueprint.

2. Some experience in AWS Cloud Computing

You should have good exposure of AWS Services by practically and theoretically both.If you do not have AWS account then create it right now. AWS also provide free tier account for one year. For practice purpose AWS free tier account is enough.

3. Basics must be strong

Your System Administration and Networking knowledge must be strong.Your expertise in following will give you wings to fly in cloud computing world quickly. These are –

(a) IPv4 based, ip addressing, subnetting, routing, OSI layer concept, NAT, Network ACL,LAN and WAN concept, firewall etc.
(b) You should know how to work and how things work in DNS Server, Web Server, Database Server, Mail Server, NoSQL server, Caching server like memcache, LoadBalancing, CDN concept etc.

Exam Strategy

I personally believe that passing the all exams require planning and correct execution. For exam, you should know about contents which will be asked. For this solution here are following things which I have followed –

1. Watched and understand all AWS Services intro videos.
2. Read all FAQ’s of all AWS Services.
3. Read and understand the AWS Security Whitepaper which has 20% part in exam.
4. Watched “AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate” preparation video subscribed from Udemy. I personally recommend for this video course, this is really good and up to the mark.This video course has played vital role for this exam. It also has dummy questions which helps you to pass the exam with confidence.
5. Given one AWS practice exam ,2 days before the date of AWS exam.

I hope this will help you to pass the “AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate” exam. But always remember you should be good with all the practicals and know about the AWS services.

All the best for your examination.