Passed AWS Security Specialty: 29th Nov’19

Passed AWS Security Speciality with 925  would like to thank you all who shared their feedback on the exam which helped me with the Preparation it took me around 3 months after i passed my SAA

Following was my preparation strategy

1. Went through Linux Academy Course which was in depth and helped understand the concepts specially around IAM, KMS and VPC. Also the hands on Labs are really useful to practice did them twice.

2. Went Through Acloud Guru which also helped a lot specially the 2019 Updates 

3. Used the ACG Simulator to practice which is at par and helps a lot in reiterating the concepts, when i did the first exam i got 72 percent but attempted them till the time i was getting between 92% and 95%

After going through these i used the following to be better prepared as lot of details were missing in the materials i used

1. Used KMS Developer Guide to under stand how KMS works with other services 

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/kms/latest/developerguide/overview.html

2. Used IAM User guide to understand Complex IAM Policies, SAML and IDP

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/introduction.html

3. AWS Managed Microsoft AD you will find some questions on it

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/directoryservice/latest/admin-guide/directory_microsoft_ad.html

4. ACM and ACM PCA

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/acm/latest/userguide/acm-overview.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/acm-pca/latest/userguide/PcaWelcome.html

5. Go Through the Security Pillar which will help you understand the AWS Security Architecture and maps really well with the exam as well

https://wa.aws.amazon.com/wat.pillar.security.en.html

6. Read Through this AWS Security Speciality Guide by Zeal Vohra for Final Review

https://www.amazon.com/AWS-Certified-Security-objectives-preparation-ebook/dp/B07SX4XV8G/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3T7JEKR4K1XV9&keywords=aws+certified+security+specialty&qid=1575197666&sprefix=aws+certified+se%2Caps%2C401&sr=8-1

Exam was not very difficult as i think i was over prepared but i think its necessary to be over prepared.

Tips:

1. Know IAM, KMS and VPC inside out specially SAML, Cross account, S3 Encryption and VPC architecture

2. Elastic Load Balancer as you will find some questions on it

3. Macie, Athena,  ACM , Guardduty and Inspector you will see questions on these topics

4. Event Driven Security using Cloudtrail, Cloudwatch and Lambda this is really important from the exam perspective.

4. Understand the Overall Security Architecture thoroughly by going through the Security Pillar