Which AWS certification is right for me?

So you’re thinking about getting Amazon Web Services (AWS) certified. That’s great!

Cloud computing skills are in huge demand. 63% of IT leaders say it's harder to find qualified engineers than Bigfoot. (Which — bigger news — implies that 37% of IT leaders have found Bigfoot?) Whether you’re looking to take your career to the next level or jump into a new field, developing cloud skills and getting the right Amazon Web Services (AWS) certification can help open the door to some life-changing career paths.

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But where do you begin? What is AWS? Which AWS certification should be done first and which AWS certification learning path is right for you? Which AWS certifications do you need for what jobs?

If you're looking for a true TL;DR as to what Amazon Web Services certifications you need to get, start with the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Exam (CCP) and then move on to the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate (CSAA). Want more details or links to the best AWS training for beginners? Then read on!

Click the links below to jump to more info about Amazon Web Services certifications, what it takes to earn them, and what they might mean for your cloud career.

• Which AWS certification is right for you?
  • Are AWS certifications worth it in 2022?
  • What are AWS certifications and why are they important?
  • What are the different levels of AWS certifications?
  • Which AWS certification is easiest?
  • What are the core 5 AWS certifications?
• Foundational-level AWS certifications
  • AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
• Associate-level AWS certifications
  • AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
  • AWS Certified Developer – Associate
  • AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate
• Professional-level AWS certifications
  • AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional
  • AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional
• Specialty AWS certifications
  • AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty
  • AWS Certified Data Analytics – Specialty
  • AWS Certified Security – Specialty
  • AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty
  • AWS Certified Database – Specialty
• A Cloud Guru AWS Learning Paths
  • AWS Architect Learning Path
  • AWS Developer Learning Path
  • AWS DevOps Learning Path
  • AWS Data Learning Path
  • AWS Security Learning Path
  • AWS Machine Learning

A word to the wise! The SysOps Admin is widely regarded as the hardest AWS Associate certification. But it’s really valuable to finish off all of the Associates before taking on the much harder Professional exams. The Professionals expect you know everything about the Associate-level exams like the back of your hand, so skipping one — particularly the hardest one — could come back to bite you.

• Certifications ARE a proof of knowledge – They prove that you are proficient enough to pass the exam.
  
• Certifications are NOT a proof of experience – There is no substitute for actually working in the cloud. However, there are many ways to get hands-on AWS cloud training outside of the workforce and to jump-start your cloud career with minimal experience.
  
• Certifications ARE door-openers – They can get you into the interview, or the consideration set for promotion.
  
• Certifications are NOT golden tickets – A common question is, "Will an AWS certification get me a job?" They do not ensure you will get a cloud job but they can tee you up for success. It's up to you to earn it from there.
  
• Certifications ARE rather valuable – The average salaries for AWS cert holders are well over $100,000 USD per year. AWS certifications are some of the top-paying cloud certifications out there.
  
• Certifications are NOT just about earning power – They also validate your knowledge and help ensure that teams possess a common cloud “language” — often called “cloud fluency.”

The why matters. Certifications are tools. They're not the end goal; they're milestones along the way.

So, which AWS certification should be done first?

As of March 2022, Amazon Web Services offers 11 individual certifications, spread across four different levels. Figuring out where to start and which is the best AWS certificate for you and your career goals can seem super intimidating at first. Fortunately, once you figure out what’s what, the path to get there is usually pretty clear.

A Cloud Guru training courses are the perfect way to prepare for your exam. Check out ACG's current free cloud courses or test your knowledge with our cloud skills assessment.

"What’s the best AWS certificate for me?" you might ask. Your career goals can help direct you down the right certification learning path. Let’s take a look at the different certifications offered by Amazon Web Services. 

There are currently 11 distinct certifications, spread across four experience levels:

• Foundational
• Associate
• Professional
• Specialty

The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CCP) is the easiest Amazon Web Services certification. It's a cloud beginner-friendly certification that covers the basics of AWS and the cloud and requires no technical experience as a prerequisite. Though, unless you have some experience with AWS, you'll still need to study to ace it. (It's not that easy.)

• Certifications:
  • AWS Cloud Practitioner – Foundational
• Scope: 10
• Depth: 2
• Prerequisites: None
• Recommended Experience: 6 months of AWS and industry knowledge
• Skills covered: 
  • Basic AWS architectural foundations
  • Key AWS services
  • AWS security and compliance 

It’s probably for you if: You need to know foundational cloud concepts — like what is cloud, what is cloud migration, and how does AWS works at a high level — but won’t be getting your hands dirty with implementation.

Every journey starts somewhere. For AWS, that starting point is a Foundational certification.

Looking to start your cloud architect journey? Check out our AWS Architect Learning Paths!

The AWS Cloud Practitioner exam certification gives you a high-level introduction to AWS. It doesn’t go deep on any particular services. Instead, it provides a general overview of how AWS is structured.

We recommend our AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner course as the best place to start for anyone who’s new to cloud computing. This will help you build the, er, foundation you’ll need as you delve deeper into the inner workings of AWS. You can also check out Ryan’s cloud playlist of hands-on labs for learning AWS essentials.

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• Certifications: 
  • AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
  • AWS Certified Developer – Associate
  • AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate
• Scope: 8
• Depth: 4
• Recommended Experience: One year of experience working in AWS to solve problems and implement solutions.
• Skills covered: 
  • How AWS-based applications work
  • Building secure applications on AWS platform
  • Deploying hybrid AWS systems
  • Hands-on AWS application design
  • AWS application development 
  • Security in AWS environments 

It’s probably for you if: If you’re going to be working in AWS in any hands-on applications, the Associate-level certifications should mark the point where your journey truly begins. The AWS Cloud Practitioner provides a solid conceptual footing, but the AWS Associate-level certifications are where the rubber really meets the road in terms of day-to-day implementation.

The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification gives you a broad overview of AWS, and forms a valuable foundation on which you can build everything else you’ll learn moving forward. Wondering which AWS certification is most in demand? There’s a reason the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate has been the #1 cloud certification for years running.

The CSA – Associate certification focuses on the core AWS services, like Identity and Access Management (IAM), Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), S3, and EC2. Studying these core services will give you a good understanding of how AWS approaches security, networking, data storage, and compute capability. (Check out our playlist of hands-on labs for Amazon S3 to get an intro to S3.)

For anyone new to cloud computing, we recommend our AWS Solutions Architect – Associate course as the next best step after you’ve gained your AWS Cloud Practitioner certification.

And since you ideally want to not just pick up enough info to scrape by on your certification exam but to set yourself up for future cloud career success, we have a six-course AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification track. Going beyond passing your exam to building up real AWS skills will help you not only ace the SAA-C02 and get certified but will ensure you’re ready for a career as a solutions architect.

You developers and sysadmins might be tempted to go straight at the Developer – Associate or SysOps Admin – Associate certs, and more power to you, but we’d still recommend going through Solutions Architect – Associate first.

You might think the AWS Certified Developer – Associate cert is for developers. After all it says "developer" right there, but it’s really for anyone who uses AWS.

In terms of focus, the AWS Certified Developer – Associate certification takes you deeper into services like Dynamo DB, Elastic Beanstalk, SQS, and SNS — but not too deep. It also expects you to know a bit more about how you would use these services, as well as how they present themselves to the outside world through APIs and SDKs. Topics such as Data Persistence and CRUD Operations using DynamoDB in Alexa SDK!

This is another certification that we recommend to everyone. In fact, we recommend that you move on to our AWS Certified Developer – Associate course immediately after you finish the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate exam. There’s a lot of overlap between the certs, and taking them close together makes this one much easier to finish off quickly.

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This certification title is also somewhat misleading. It’s not just for SysOps Admins. It’s for anyone who runs things on AWS. This exam goes rather in-depth on CloudWatch, among other things. Going through this certification gives you a much stronger grasp of what’s actually going on in your AWS architecture.

Think you're ready? Prepare for this challenging cloud cert with our AWS Certified SysOps Admin – Associate course. And check out our AWS SysOps Administrator Associate SOA-C02 practice exam questions, tips, and FAQs.

Get access to all of A Cloud Guru’s AWS certification courses, hands-on labs, quizzes, practice exams, original series, and so much more!

• Certifications
  • AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional
  • AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional
• Scope: 10
• Depth: 8
• Recommended Experience: Two years of comprehensive experience using AWS, with comprehensive experience designing, operating, and troubleshooting solutions.
• Skills covered:
  • Deploy complex AWS migration 
  • Learn cost-optimization strategies
  • Implement CD strategies
  • Monitor and log AWS systems
  • Implement scalable systems on AWS

It’s probably for you if: You’re already experienced working in AWS, have mastered your AWS Associate-level certifications, and are ready to take the next step.

If you’re not sure if you’re ready to pursue an AWS Professional-level certification, you’re probably not! These exams are no joke. They represent the pinnacle of Amazon Web Services' certification and are both broad in scope and deep in focus. You have to know a whole lot about a whole lot!

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional is the pinnacle of general AWS expertise. With a CSA – Pro cert, you should be equipped to take any AWS feature or service and make good use of it. Also, because you understand the ecosystem at a deep level, it’ll be much easier to stay up to date as AWS keeps changing.

For the Solutions Architect – Pro, every single service in the entire AWS ecosystem is in play, and quite a bit of depth is required in specific areas like security and Direct Connect. Snagging this certification is not for the faint of heart — you pretty much have to know all the things about all the things AWS has to offer.

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DevOps is all about combining development, operations, and a quality mindset to shepherd systems over time. This exam reflects that, and really requires you to think about not just static systems that are deployed once, but systems that change and evolve.

While CSA – Pro is an all-encompassing elephant of a certification, the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional actually goes deeper into specific areas like deployments and lifecycles (and services like CloudFormation and OpsWorks). On the whole, though, it has a rather narrower scope.

Guru tip: There’s some wiggle room as to order here. DevOps – Pro is a valuable stepping stone between the Associate-level certs and the Solutions Architect – Professional certification, so on one hand, it’s a good idea to pass this first (and we do think it makes it much easier to pass the CSA – Pro exam). On the other, there’s quite a bit of overlap between DevOps – Pro and CSA – Pro, and plenty of people find it valuable to study for them together.

Ready to do the dang DevOps thing? Master the skills needed to ace the exam and move up in your career with our AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional course.

• Certifications
  • AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty
  • AWS Certified Data Analytics – Specialty
  • AWS Certified Security – Specialty
  • AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty
  • AWS Certified Database – Specialty
• Scope: 3
• Depth: 10
• Recommended Experience: Two to five years of hands-on experience and advanced knowledge of AWS in the specific specialty area.
• Skills covered:
  • Design and maintain Big Data
  • Use AWS to automate data analysis
  • Automate AWS systems for network deployments
  • Kinesis, Athena, QuickSight, and Rekognition
  • AWS for ML solutions
  • Design secure ML solutions

It’s probably for you if: You’re already highly experienced in a specific area of AWS, and are ready to validate that experience and take the next step in your career.

AWS Specialty certifications dive extremely deep on narrow focus areas — specifically networking, data analytics, databases, security, and machine learning. Like the Pro-level certs, they are not to be approached lightly, and multiple years of hands-on professional experience in each specialty domain is highly recommended for all.

The AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty certification digs into both hybrid and AWS-only networks and includes aspects such as multi-region setups and cost optimization. It’s not an all-encompassing cert — there are some services that you don’t need to know anything about — but where it does focus, it goes very deep. You need to know absolutely everything about certain services like Direct Connect, Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), and routing.

Guru tip: If you do Advanced Networking – Specialty before taking on Solutions Architect – Professional, it’ll make certain aspects of the CSA – Pro exam much easier for you.

Ready to get certified? Take the work out of AWS networking with our AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty course.

The AWS Certified Data Analytics – Specialty certification was previously the AWS Certified Big Data – Specialty certification, which was retired in 2020. There are some carryover topics, but other areas are brand new and more in-depth. It focuses on all the data services, especially S3, RedShift, Kinesis, and Elastic MapReduce. Data security is also covered. Earning this cert shows you have a handle on the services and tools that you can use in AWS to build data analytics applications, as well as to build and manage the lifecycle of collecting, storing, processing, and visualizing your data. 

Ready to get certified? Prepare for your exam with our AWS Certified Data Analytics – Specialty course.

Of the specialty certifications, the AWS Certified Security – Specialty is the broadest. It only makes sense — security cuts across a ton of other domains, so this cert is less focused on specific services. Still, it does go into depth on a number of security-specific services, such as Identity and Access Management (IAM), Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Key Management Service (KMS), CloudTrail, AWS Config, and Web Application Firewall (WAF). Some of the most common questions on this exam have you figuring out how different security settings interact or conflict.

Ready to get certified? Prepare for your exam with our AWS Certified Security – Specialty course. And check out our playlist of hands-on labs for learning AWS security essentials.s

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The AWS Certified Machine Learning – Speciality cert is one of the newer certifications and focuses on, well, machine learning. Imagine that! You'll be expected to demonstrate an understanding of the underlying concepts of machine learning, such as data collection and analysis, modeling, and machine learning algorithms, as well as proficiency with Kinesis for streaming data collection and SageMaker for building, training, tuning, and deploying machine learning models.

One of the newest Amazon Web Service certifications, this certification shows you’re capable of recommending, designing, and maintaining AWS database solutions for organizations’ unique AWS database services needs. You’ll be expected to understand deploying, migrating, managing, monitoring, and troubleshooting databases; workload-specific database design; and database security. You’ll ideally want 5 years of experience with common database technologies, a couple years of hands-on experience with AWS, and expertise working with on-prem and AWS cloud-based relational and NoSQL databases.

Okay! So we’ve got 11 total AWS certifications (for now), spread across multiple levels and discipline areas. If you’re the sort who just has to collect them all, more power to you. But what if you’re following a more focused track, or pondering a career change into cloud computing? What AWS certifications should you go after?

It depends.

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Author Napoleon Hill wrote that “knowledge is only potential power.” In a similar vein, certifications are only potential career boosts. They can open doors, but it’s up to you to make good on the AWS career opportunities. To that end, it’s important to think of a certification as a means to an end. And it's your goal that ultimately determines which certifications are right for you.

So…what do you want to do?

It’s not really possible to dive into every possible combination of motivations and ambitions, so let’s divide it up into a few general categories:

1. I want to learn enough to keep up — If you’re going to be working among the cloud, rather than specifically in the cloud, say in an executive or a marketing capacity, you should consider an AWS Cloud Practitioner certification. Upon gaining this certification, you’ll be able to keep up with your IT teams and understand cloud concepts sufficiently enough to think about how they can apply to your company or industry's cloud innovation.

• I want to pursue a career in cloud computing — If you’re looking to make a career of cloud computing, you should definitely be going after the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification. The CSA – Associate is the jumping-off point for all the other AWS certifications and is not only the most popular certification, but ACG's most popular course, as well. The CSA – Associate certification is widely regarded as one of the most valuable certifications in all of IT, and can not only help you get started in a cloud career, but also provide you a stepping-off point toward additional AWS certifications.

• I already work in the cloud every day and want to move to the next level — Okay, so you’re already working in the cloud. Maybe you’ve already got your AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification (if not, you should sit that exam). You’re ready to step it up to the next level, broaden your horizons, secure a promotion. A good place to start is with the remaining Associate-level certifications: the AWS Certified Developer and AWS Certified SysOps Administrator. From there, you can pursue the two Professional-level certifications or consider nabbing some of the specialty certifications.

• I already work in the cloud every day in a specialized role and want to become master of my domain — If you work in a specific area of the cloud, such as security or networking, the AWS Specialty certifications are a natural path to take. You have to have at least one Associate-level certification (or AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner) before you can snag a Specialty cert, but once you meet the prerequisites, you can level up your knowledge in your specific area of expertise.

Even one certification has the potential to be life-changing. It can open the door to new opportunities. But it’s up to you to take those opportunities and run with them. And in this increasingly DevOps world, you can’t really expect that someone else will be there to take care of all the details you don’t understand. Specialization can be important and teamwork can be critical, but you still need to be able to handle running systems yourself.

Given that, it’s a good idea to go for the three AWS Associate certifications to gain a really solid foundation for using AWS effectively, day-to-day. With these, you’ll understand how to design, build, configure, monitor, and maintain systems built on AWS.

After securing the three Associate certifications, the next logical path is to go after the two Professional certs, and the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional, in particular. CSA – Pro is the absolute pinnacle of AWS knowledge, and obtaining this certification is the AWS equivalent of defeating a video game’s final boss.

There are many paths to getting the “core 5” AWS certifications, but we find that doing them in this order provides you some nice stepping stones along the way. And if you start with the optional Certified Cloud Practitioner before this, you can enjoy an easier learning curve as you get comfortable with key AWS services.

1. Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
2. Certified Developer – Associate
3. Certified SysOps Admin – Associate
4. Certified DevOps – Professional
5. Certified Solutions Architect – Professional

So, which AWS certification is right for you? If you’re just getting started in the cloud, the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner and the Certified Solutions Architect – Associate exam are definitely where you want to start. From there, it’s possible to pass along information and make some general recommendations, but determining the right certification (or collection of certifications) and AWS learning path ultimately comes down to your circumstances and career goals.

• Remember that certifications are like a stepping stone. They can help you reach that next level, but taking the leap is still up to you.
• Just getting started or need to know the basics? Start with the the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner.
• If you're going any farther in the cloud, you pretty much can't go wrong going for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate.
• Beyond that, the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional is basically the pinnacle of AWS expertise.
• AWS cloud certifications include several Specialty-level certifications, including security, data analytics, and advanced networking.

A Cloud Guru courses are the perfect way to prepare for your exams and begin your cloud career. Start your free trial today, or browse all of our Amazon Web Services course offerings!