AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate

I had been intrigued by the concept of Cloud Computing ever since it was introduced. What better way to learn it than while preparing for a certification. 

I cleared my AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C01) last week. I have listed what worked for me. I hope this helps somebody.

Study materials

1. Ryan Kroonenburg course in Udemy - AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate 2020. I also read reviews that the course by Stephane Maarek on the same subject is equally good.
2. AWS Whitepapers
3. Created an AWS Account, it has the Free Tier
4. Exam Readiness: AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate in AWS Training
5. Tutorials Dojo AWS Cheat Sheets. They also have a detailed link on what to prepare for and the additional topics in SAA-C02
6. Read up on AWS Well-Architected Framework in AWS
7. Jayendra Patil's Blog

Practice Exams

Jon Bonso practice exams in Udemy - AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Practice Exams

Study process

I started with Ryan's course, which was detailed and clearly explained. Each section is well summarized, followed by a quiz. Overall it took me almost 3 months to finish this with an average of 1.5 hour per day of studying and practicing on the AWS Free Tier. This time increased on weekends. During this time, I also took detailed notes initially on paper and then switching to digital. When I started, Ryan's course had only SAA-C01 content but now it has been updated for SAA-C02 content.

Once the above was done, I went through the Exam Readiness module in AWS Training website. This is for 2 hours.

I also went through some of the AWS Whitepapers on their Services - mostly S3, EC2, EBS, RDS, VPC and Route 53.

Next step was Jon Bonso practice exams. There are 6 exams and at the end of each test, there is a detailed explanation given for each question why a particular answer was selected. I also took this opportunity to learn the topics which I had to improve on. Revisited Ryan's course, the AWS Whitepapers, Tutorial Dojo cheat sheets, Jayendra's blog and also videos on YouTube. The Jon Bonso practice exams have been updated for SAA-C02.

There are no shortcuts. Understand each topic, their usage scenarios and it is a plus if you can create and use them in the AWS Free Tier, especially VPC.

I took the Jon Bonso exams twice and a week before the exam, revisited all my incorrect answers and went through my notes. I also went through the section summary in Ryan's course.

Actual Exam

I took the exam after postponing it twice (you are allowed to postpone 2 times). I opted for the proctored version and chose a 8 pm slot when distractions are less. 

Jon Bonso exams that I took gave me the confidence but the actual exam was tough. It all boils down to your knowledge of the AWS Services and how you apply them. In some questions, even though you know the answer, it comes down to picking the right one that closely matches. I finished my exam 30 minutes early and used the remaining time to review the answers that I had flagged.

For the proctored exam, ideally log in 30 minutes before and do the necessary System Tests. Your PC antivirus may prevent the proctored S/W from running. Either disable it or uninstall. Please do not wear a watch / earphones during the exam. You will be monitored on video and they are available on chat. No bringing your hand in front of your mouth while thinking. 

Parting thoughts

• Start, build a learning process, follow and love it. Eventually the goal will fall in place
• Learn at a pace you are comfortable with
• Do not compare yourself to people who have cleared their exams. Some of them may get more marks than you and you may get more marks than others
• Finally this is an exam of the many exams you have taken/will be taking. You may have cleared/failed exams, will clear/fail exams and will continue to do so. Either you win or learn. One failed exam does not define you.

Good luck! 

Exam Content Outline

Domain	% of Examination
Domain 1: Design Resilient Architectures	30%
Domain 2: Design High-Performing Architectures	28%
Domain 3: Design Secure Applications and Architectures	24%
Domain 4: Design Cost-Optimized Architectures	18%
TOTAL	100%

Domain 1: Design Resilient Architectures

1.Design a multi-tier architecture solution

2.Design highly available and/or fault-tolerant architectures

3.Design decoupling mechanisms using AWS services

4.Choose appropriate resilient storage

Domain 2: Design High-Performing Architectures

1.Identify elastic and scalable compute solutions for a workload

2.Select high-performing and scalable storage solutions for a workload

3.Select high-performing networking solutions for a workload

4.Choose high-performing database solutions for a workload

Domain 3: Design Secure Applications and Architectures

1.Design secure access to AWS resources

2.Design secure application tiers

3.Select appropriate data security options

Domain 4: Design Cost-Optimized Architectures

1.Identify cost-effective storage solutions

2.Identify cost-effective compute and database services

3.Design cost-optimized network architectures

Category	Service
Storage	S3 EBS Storage Gateway EFS
Compute	EC2 Lambda AutoScaling Elastic Load Balancing Elastic Beanstalk
Networking	Route 53 VPC VPN Direct Connect CloudFront Snowball / Snowmobile
Database	RDS Aurora DynamoDB
Application Management	CloudWatch CloudFormation CloudTrail
Security and Identity	IAM KMS Directory Service WAF Disaster Recovery
Application Integration	SNS SQS SWF API Gateway

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