PASSED – May 12 – AWS Solution Architect – Professional – What helped me

Hey everyone,

Over the weekend I passed my AWS Solution Architect – Professional exam. I found this one to be very tough.

A little bit about me. I have been working with AWS for 1 year and have a developer / consultant background with a total of 9 years experience in the industry. It’s been a long road but acloud guru has helped me to develop the cloud skills that I have today, so many thanks and appreciation to acloud guru! I have worked in a range of areas as a consultant so have gained many certifications. I found this one to be the toughest one yet.

This is what helped me to pass the exam:

• Did the Solution Architect – Professional course on a cloud guru


• Read every single white paper that was suggested and also watched every single AWS reinvent video that is referenced in the course


• I took 130 pages worth of notes and read through the notes many times a week over and over again in order to get the information stuck in my head.


• Practice everything and explore AWS


• Did all of the practice exams on whizlabs


• Did all of the practice exams on udemy


• Did the official AWS practice exam a few days prior to sitting the actual exam


Whizlabs exams are not very good. The english isn’t very good. I would do them first.

https://www.whizlabs.com/aws-solutions-architect-professional/

Udemy exams are very good, I would do them last to really refine your knowledge.

https://www.udemy.com/aws-solutions-architect-professional-practice-exams-2018/

The acloud guru exams are good, I did a few questions every day to keep my mind fresh AWS!

:Master these areas:

I found that the the following area’s made up about 20-30% of the exam and for me was the key to passing as i didn’t have much experience in these areas.. (except for DevOps). The following are areas which will come up on the exam and you will need to know them very well.

I had a lot of questions on AWS organisations. It is worth really knowing how AWS organisations works inside out. Here are some videos that I watched which really solidified my understanding in this area:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfetMIlo_2s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKpkF17d0Oo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HsfTwdRxRI

Direct Connect Gateway is covered relatively indepth. You are required to know a fair bit in this area. Here is an AWS video covering it in-depth:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXFooR95BYc

Systems Manager appeared a lot for me in the practice exams and actual exams. I allocated time to really master this area. This video will give you a great over view and depth of this area:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmpxZsk9N48

If you do not have a DevOps background, it is worth going through the DevOps pro course which I did prior to this certification. There are a few questions that will come up around deployments and automation which are covered more indepth in that course.

If there is an area which you don’t really understand, search on youtube. Amazon provide many videos and you will likely find a video that covers an area more indepth.

Don’t forget to practice! It is definitely a requirement for this exam!

All the best and never give up! Consistency is the key, practice and study just a little bit every day.