This page will be used to outline how I managed to study for and successfully pass the AWS Solutions Associate certification.

Why study for the AWS-SAA?

My original reason to study for the AWS-SAA is to further expand my cloud knowledge. I currently hold the Google Cloud Associate Engineer certification, so I have some prior experience with cloud. As AWS is the largest of the cloud providers, the best practices they enforce and the technologies it is has is something that would make me a better Devops/Cloud Engineer.

Familiar Content & Overlap

Since I’ve completed the Google ACE certification, much of the content overlapped and was immediately familiar! Core principles such as IAM roles, internet gateways, Docker/Kubernetes and general networking concepts are present in both exams. Seeing this really made my appreciate how valuable understanding the key fundamentals relating to networking, security, programming and cloud are. Knowing this makes switching to another provide a breeze!

Resources I used

Initially narrowing down the resources I’m using to study was useful as it kept me focused and stopped my from finding “the next best resource”.

I used the following resources for learning the material of the SAA exam, and for practice exams for testing my knowledge:

Learning Materials

Practise Exams

Exam Nerves

Just like most people I’ve always hated sitting exams! Even when I feel confident in my ability to tackle it, those negative thoughts always approach and lower my confidence. Knowing this, here’s the precautionary steps I took

  • It’s the not the end of the world if you fail. Losing £120 and failing isn’t ideal… but failing should be seen as an opportunity to improve and smash the exam on the next attempt!
  • Get a good night of sleep. Very obvious, but incredibly important!
  • Don’t review resources the day of the exam. Doing so will can make you second guess yourself and really hinder your confidence

Final Thoughts and Going Forward

Studying for the AWS Solutions Associate was a rewarding and insightful experience! Although having the knowledge and theory is useful, creating projects to demonstrate the knowledge is arguably more important than the certification itself. The challenges presented by a project will give me hands-on experience with AWS and give me further confidence in my abilities.

I’ll outline this project in the next post!