Passed the AWS Security Specialty Exam 4/23/2020

Phew, after 2+ months of studying and 2 weeks of slogging, I managed to pass. Before I forget, here is a quick dump of the exam content:

• KMS – About 40-50% of the content. You really need to know this inside out. Focus on the policies, service usage, IAM.

• VPC – Quite a list of questions on NACL, SG, EndPoint, Peering.

• ALB/CLB/NLB – I was surprised but I got 10+ questions on this content. I suggest to study this in depth, even though ACG and LA cover this only at a high level.

• CloudHSM – 1 or 2 questions, quite simple.

• Edge security – Route53, WAF, CF, Shield

• Athena, Config, Trusted Advisor, Inspector, QuikSight

• CloudTrial, CloudWatch Events, CW Logs, Metrics, Alarms

I found the exam difficulty level to between medium-hard (I prepared thoroughly, didnt leave any stone unturned). I ended up using the entire time and I had to rush in the middle to make up time. I scored 910/1000.

Materials sourced:

ACG

LA

Whitepapers

Discussion forums

Hands-on labs