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How I achieved all six specialty AWS Certifications on first attempt

TutoSartup excerpt from this article:
I’d had a keen interest in learning cloud—especially AWS—for the last couple of years and had the opportunity to start learning when I worked on AWS for one of my clients… After joining AWS, I continued my learning journey and earned AWS Certified Developer – Associate and AWS Certified D…

I joined Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a Solutions Architect in September 2022. I’d had a keen interest in learning cloud—especially AWS—for the last couple of years and had the opportunity to start learning when I worked on AWS for one of my clients. As a result, I quickly skilled up and pursued a handful of AWS Certifications in quick succession in 2021: AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, and AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate, and AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional. After joining AWS, I continued my learning journey and earned AWS Certified Developer – Associate and AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional, bringing me to six AWS Certifications.

In this blog post, I’ll share my journey to prepare for and earn the other six active AWS Certifications – the specialty certifications, each on first attempt.

It all started with the UK and Ireland Certification Challenge hosted by our internal AWS team. The challenge ran for three months and there were interesting categories like most certified newbie, holding all AWS Certifications to earn the golden jacket (yes, it’s real), etc. This motivated me to earn the six specialty AWS Certifications so that I’d have all 12 current AWS Certifications.

I’m a generalist Solutions Architect so my role demands that I have knowledge of broad range of AWS services to better help our customers. Eventually Solutions Architects have to choose a specialization area and I did not want to decide the specialization based on gut feel. So, I decided to explore specialty certifications to go deeper into each specialization area to help me make an informed decision. The Certification Challenge seemed a good opportunity to build that knowledge as well as validate it by appearing for the respective certification exam.

At first it seemed like a daunting task, but as we Amazonians always do, I worked backward from the desired outcome. I created a plan that clearly defined the timeline I needed to prepare for each certification and study resources, including hand-on labs to help me practice what I was learning in practical ways. Earning all 12 AWS Certifications has helped me immensely through deep-dives into the majority of the AWS services, thereby enabling me to help our customers make the right architectural decisions. It’s also helped me decide the right specialization path (read through to the end to see which I selected!).

Overview of specialty AWS Certification exams

All specialty AWS Certification exams are 170 minutes in length and 65 questions. If you are a non-native English speaker, you can get extra 30 minutes (learn how to apply for ‘ESL +30’ accommodation). Questions will be either multiple choice or multiple response. Each exam costs $300 USD. It’s not required, but recommended that before you pursue an AWS Certification at the specialty level that you have at least one other AWS Certification (e.g., at the associate or professional level). Additionally, if you currently hold an active AWS Certification, you can utilize 50% off discount voucher (full list of AWS Certification benefits). The exams are offered by Pearson VUE at one of their testing centers or via online proctor. I personally took all exams from home via the online proctored approach, which was more convenient for me and saved travel time. See these five tips for successful online proctored test-taking.

Overall certification exam preparation tips

AWS does not require that you take specific prep ahead of the exam. However, I recommend that you follow these steps to prepare for exam day:

Step 1: Review the exam guides to understand the exam content and take AWS Certification Official Practice Question Set, found in AWS Skill Builder, to understand exam style questions.
Step 2: Learn about exam topics by enrolling in digital training on AWS Skill Builder.
Step 3: Prepare for the exam by subscribing to AWS Skill Builder to access the self-paced Exam Prep Course (with Practice Materials). Review white papers and AWS services-related FAQs available on the exam page.
Step 4: Verify your exam readiness by taking the AWS Certification Official Practice Exam available on AWS Skill Builder with a subscription.

I offer you the following additional pointers, which helped me feel confident through each step of my learning and preparation:

  • Remember, this is not a race; take your time.
  • Consistency is the key; aim to make steady progress each day.
  • Schedule your exam to establish a target and plan your preparation accordingly.
  • Focus on setting realistic short-term goals (daily, weekly, monthly).
  • Adjust the video playback speed of digital training videos according to your preference.
  • Gain hands-on experience for difficult concepts using labs and gamified learning such as AWS Builder Labs and AWS Cloud Quest, available in AWS Skill Builder subscription. There is no substitute for practice.
  • Aim to score more than 80% in practice tests and try to understand why the incorrect answers to practice exam questions are wrong.
  • Find a study buddy to help you keep going. There will be times when you question whether you should keep going (and your buddy will feel like this too, but at other times). You and your buddy will need each other.
  • You may never feel entirely ready, but with proper preparation, you’ll gain confidence to go for it.

Preparing for AWS Certified Database – Specialty

The first exam I started with was the AWS Certified Database – Specialty certification. This certification is intended for individuals with experience and expertise working with on-premises and AWS Cloud-based relational and non-relational databases. It’s recommended that exam candidates have five years of experience with common database technologies and two years of hands-on experience. I cannot stress enough to go deep-dive into Amazon Relational Database Service, Amazon Aurora, and Amazon DynamoDB. Here are the resources I used to prepare:

Preparing for AWS Certified Data Analytics – Specialty

Next, I went for the AWS Certified Data Analytics – Specialty. This was a logical next move as there is some overlap in the learning material and services tested in this exam and the AWS Certified Database – Specialty. It’s intended for individuals with experience and expertise working with AWS services to design, build, secure, and maintain analytics solutions, and validates expertise in using AWS data lakes and analytics services to get insights from data. This is a complex exam and sometimes you might feel that multiple answers are correct. You need to focus on the context of question, it might be asking to optimize based on cost or operational excellence or security or availability and based on the considerations you can find that one answer is more suitable than other. I highly recommend to go through the whitepaper listed below. Here are the resources I used to prepare:

Preparing for AWS Certified Security – Specialty

Next, I took on the AWS Certified Security – Specialty exam, giving myself roughly two weeks to prepare. This certification validates your expertise in creating and implementing security solutions in the AWS Cloud and an in-depth understanding of AWS security services and the shared responsibility model (between AWS and the customer). Apart from good understanding of AWS security services, read about the AWS shared responsibility model.

Note: This exam is being updated to reflect changes in trends, the industry landscape, and the work practices of cloud professionals. Registration for the updated exam opens June 13, 2023, and the exam is available to take starting July 11, 2023. If you plan to take the exam after July 11, download this version of the exam guide.

Here are the resources I used to prepare:

Preparing for AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty

I must say the AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty was by far the most difficult certification to prepare for. It’s intended for individuals who perform complex networking tasks with five years of hands-on experience architecting and implementing network solutions, and validates expertise in designing and maintaining network architecture for the breadth of AWS services. I performed a lot of hands-on labs to grasp the complex concepts. Here are the resources I used to prepare:

Preparing for AWS Certified: SAP on AWS – Specialty

The AWS Certified: SAP on AWS – Specialty is new within the last year. This certification validates expertise in designing, implementing, migrating, and operating SAP workloads on AWS, and is intended for individuals in roles that require experience with both SAP and AWS. While there are fewer resources, dive into the following to guide your preparation:

Preparing for AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty

AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty was my 12th and last AWS Certification (at least until a new one is introduced). You need to have good command of machine learning (ML) concepts to pass this certification exam as it validates expertise in building, training, tuning, and deploying ML models on AWS. Although service FAQs are really important for each exam but for Machine Learning, it’s a must to go through the Amazon SageMaker FAQs. Here are the resources I used to prepare:

Outcome

Some may feel that I was lucky to pass all the exams on the first attempt; however, the truth is that it just takes the right preparation strategy, consistent learning, and focus during the exam to pass them in the first attempt. Six years ago, I knew nothing about cloud and today I am proud to have earned all 12 AWS Certifications. With the AWS Cloud knowledge, I was able to change my job role from a non-cloud role to an AWS Solutions Architect. Certifications have immensely helped me earn trust with my customers and made me more confident to talk about AWS services. As a result, I am helping Fintech startup customers build innovative products and use cutting edge technologies including Generative AI, blockchain, and Machine Learning to name a few. Oh, and my specialization? I am currently working toward specialization in security.

If you have read this far, I think you may be curious about a similar pursuit of multiple AWS Specialty Certifications. If that’s accurate, I wish you all the best. Focus on why you want to build this knowledge, put in the work, and you will succeed.

How I achieved all six specialty AWS Certifications on first attempt
Author: Ravikant Sharma