5 Essential Tips on Getting Certified as AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (2020)

AWS has launched new version of AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C02) in March 2020 and based on my journey of getting certified, would like to share my experience to make you successful. Here are 5 key tips you can follow to make sure your journey also results in success:

• Tip#1 - Complete an online video course by either of these providers (even if you have hands-on AWS experience for 1-2 years, recommend to do the course as it covers broader spectrum of AWS capabilities/services):
• A Cloud Guru Course: https://acloud.guru/learn/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate
• Stephane Maarek Course: https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-saa-c02/
• Neal Davis Course: https://digitalcloud.training/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-hands-on-course-saa-c02/
• Tip#2 -Prepare a Cheat Sheet for revision and key reminders:
• Refer to cheat sheet by Neal Davis: https://digitalcloud.training/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-hands-on-course-saa-c02/
• Though there are many, recommendation is to prepare your own cheat sheet because in my opinion it is very personalized. For examples, based on your interest and what you remember, you might be good in S3 & VPC, but may need more revision of Autoscaling and hence your cheatsheet will have more focus on Autoscaling.
• Key recommendation: In your cheatsheet, keep screenshot of AWS Services, which you are not comfortable with to keep it as a reminder.
  
• Tip#3 - Practice Exam multiple times:
• Refer to Whizlabs AWS Practice Exams or Neal Davis's Practice Exams
• Whizlabs:https://www.whizlabs.com/aws-solutions-architect-associate/
• Digital Cloud: https://digitalcloud.training/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-practice-tests-saa-c02/
• Note that practice exams will only prepare you to develop the mindset of how AWS will ask questions - don't think that these will be exact set of questions.
• Tip#4 - Refer to AWS FAQ, User Guide & White Papers:
• You might get overwhelmed by this but here is my recommendation for FAQ:
• Must Read: EC2, Autoscaling, ELB, EBS, EFS, S3, VPC, Cloudfront,  IAM, RDS (specifically Aurora), SQS, SNS, ECS, DynamoDB, Lambda, CloudWatch
  
• Nice to Read: Elastic Beanstalk, Route 53, API Gateway, Elasticache, Redshift, CloudHSM, Kinesis, WAF, Athena, CloudFormation, EKS, Cognito, AWS Directory Service, CloudTrail
  
• Refer to AWS product home pages if you are not able to go through all FAQs. For example, Kinesis Home Page lists all use-cases, key design patterns (of using data streams, difference between Firehose & Data Stream, etc.)
• Refer to User Guide of following services (core of the exam) - if a particular area is not clear to you:
• Auto Scaling, EBS, EC2, VPC, S3, SQS, RDS
  
• Finally, Tip#5 - Practice, Practice, Practice...
• Nothing can beat practicing & using AWS services even if you are experienced as you don't touch all required services on day-to-day basis.
• Use AWS Free-tier as much as possible or use AWS self-paced labs.
• A trick I used, if certain services you don't want to pay for, is to go through all steps of launching the services but don't submit the final review form.
  

Key success path for any certification is to put a target date (1-2 months of preparation) and focus on a daily basis to make consistent progress. Don't over-prepare and don't procrastinate as well.

Best of Luck!!

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