Certification: 2020 results

In 2020 I have cleared 4 technical certifications – AWS Certified Solution Architect (January 2020), AWS Certified SysOps Administrator (November 2020), AWS Certified Developer (December 2020) and AWS Cloud Practitioner (December 2020).

My strategy for preparation was fairly simple – I have used combination of self-paced video course from A Cloud Guru, practice exams from Jon Bonso and AWS public whitepapers.

Total preparation time was 9-10 weeks, in average 1 hour per day. In total, around 70-80 hours.

I’m using Pomodorro technique to track productive time. Picture below is from Pomodorro app that I’m using and shows time investment categories over last 3 months .

60% of total time I have spent on “Technical Training” category which mostly consist of preparations for technical certifications, reading whitepapers and etc. So, it is quite time consuming.

If I will range exams from easiest to hardest, it will look like:

  1. AWS Cloud Practitioner
  2. AWS Certified Solution Architect – Associate
  3. AWS Certified Developer
  4. AWS Certified Sysops Administrator

For the next year my targets are AWS Certified Solution Architect – Professional and, potentially, AWS Certified DevOps – Professional exams.

Certification: AWS Certified Developer – Associate

I have obtained my 3rd AWS certification – AWS Certified Developer.

Score: 927 out of 1000

Total preparation time – 4 weeks. From 30 minutes to 1 hour every day.

Materials used:

Next and last step for 2020 is AWS Cloud Practitioner exam.

Certification: AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate

I got my second AWS certification – AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate!

Score: 874 out of 1000

Total preparation time: 5 weeks, from 30 minutes to 1 hour per day.

Materials used:

Overall, exam questions are quite difficult and I don’t think it is possible to pass it without solid preparation.

Next target is AWS Certified Developer Associate.