AWS Certified Solutions Architect (Professional) Exam Journey and Tips

Introduction

I am happy to share that I’ve passed AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional certification exam. This certification exam is considered one of the difficult exam.

In this post, I’ll share my exam experience and some of the tips and resources I’ve found useful and may be these can help you in some way if you are also preparing of this certification.

Now, everyone has their own way of learning technology and stuff. While I am sharing these steps and process I followed, feel free to use your own preferred method of arranging learning tasks.

Background

Lets start with a little bit of my background regarding AWS certifications.

Before taking Solutions Architect Professional exam I’ve already passed the following two AWS exams:

I’ve also previously written few posts to share my exam experience, Please check following links for more details about those certification experiences.

Now, general learning and exam tips are same as mentioned in the above mentioned posts, so please check those if you are new to these topics. In this post, I will cover what additional preparation I’ve added to my list of learning tasks for the preparation of this certification.

I was already aware from many different sources that aws professional level exams are a bit more difficult than associate level exams and I was ready to put some more effort in proper preparation in order not get big surprises during exam.

So more preparation and extra effort were already in mind even before I started with the learnings. So if you are preparing for exam then make sure that you have a deep understanding of the related topics as mentioned in exam guide and on certification page.

Learning Resources and Preparation

I was using AWS Skill Builder already from associate level certification exams, so I kept using that resource for professional exam as well. There are many tutorials, guides and other resources for different AWS certifications on this platform.

Furthermore, I also got access to content from Cloud Academy as part of my AWS Community Builders membership and Cloud Academy has an approx. 71 hours length of video course material, hands on labs exercises and lab challenges for this learning path.

So I completed that certification path in full as part of my preparation for the exam as well. Following picture shows the training plan from cloud academy:

AWS Skill Builder platform also have set of sample questions for professional certification and I completed those as well as shown below:

and few other resources mentioned on the AWS Certification page as shown below:

With all these resources and practice exams, along with my learnings from previous associate level certifications, I was feeling a bit more confident and decided to schedule the professional exam.

One more thing I would like to add that all above mentioned resources are what I used for preparation. There are many other great resources available as well. Use any resources which can help you with better preparation.

Exam Day and Certification Experience

Now, this part is very similar to what I’ve already shared during my associate level certification posts. I used the online exam mode and sign-in experience was more and less the same as explained in previous posts.

One change I did this time, is that, Intentionally, I did not study at all on exam day. I didn’t tried to do any last minute revision of any topic or a little peek of my notes. I will suggest you the same. Try not to study at all on exam day.

Why no study on exam day? The answer is simple. By doing so, will help you keep your mind fresh and your energy at its best on exam day and trust me, you will need this. This exam is a lengthy and tough one. 75 questions within 180 minutes, doesn’t give you a lot of time and space in first place.

This means that you have to be fast in reading the question, evaluating all the options, answer best the question and move on to the next question. The next question may be starting with a total different scenario, relating totally different AWS services from the previous question and then next question and so on. This surely is a tough mental exercise.

Questions are mostly scenario based and a little bit lengthy than associate level exams. Now, you can’t predict any of the question in advance. The most practical way to pass this exam is that if you have studied thoroughly, understood the questions and have narrowed down your answer as much as possible and selected the right one(s).

Taking Micro Pauses during exam

You don’t have much time and room during online certification exam. Rules are strict. You cant standup , mumble in mouth or close your eyes for extended periods. Examiner is watching you. But if you keep going answering from one question to next question, it may exhaust you very quickly.

One technique I used is to, that after answering a question, count up to 10 quickly (and try keep any thought out of my mind) to take a quick pause from continuous thought process and then take the next question with a blank slate.

I don’t know how much particle this is, but I tried this technique during my practice exams and found it useful and then used it in actual exam as well. So if you are getting tired in midst of your ongoing exam, give it a try.

Reviewing Strategy

While answering questions, I first go through the given question and given answer choices and try to select the correct answer. It is very rare that you are comfortable with your first choice. However, I will try to choose one answer which I thought was either correct or at least has some possibility. If I am not sure, I marked the question for later review.

At the same time, I also tried to avoid overusing the review option. I’ll advise you the same. You shouldn’t be putting every question for later review as there will be not enough time to review them all and even if you try, you will be not properly reviewing your answers. So instead do a better review with fewer questions.

So my suggestion will be same, try limit questions for later review. In my case, if I don’t know something in first place, no way I will magically know it during the review, so I also didn’t marked few answers where I wasn’t sure either but I don’t want to spend more time to review those anyway.

It is ok to have some answers wrong during the exam, so do not lose hope if you got a feeling of wrong answers during your exam. Take a deep breath, read the question slowly, check the options, get rid of obvious wrong answers from the given choices and then focus on selecting the right one, select review if you think that you might need one more time at the end to reconfirm, if you are sure with your answer, no need to mark for review.

Exam Results – Certification

Once I reviewed all the answers, I still had 25+ minutes left. One thought was to review more answers as I still have some time left. But I was already very tired from the exam and there was a risk of making some wrong choices at this moment. So I simply click the button to finish the exam and I was presented with a confirmation screen without any pass/fail results.

It is common with some AWS exams that you will be notified after 24 hours of your exam result. So for 24 hours, I was not sure if I made it or not and it was some time next day that I got an email from Credly about a badge issued to me for this certification 🙂

Summary

AWS Certified exam requires proper preparation and you shall plan accordingly. Take your time to get ready and once feel confident, go for the exam. It surely is a difficult exam but once you spend some time studying for it you will be able to answer exam questions and pass it with ease.

For some reason, following quote was in my mind again and again when I was scheduling for the exam 🙂

Preparation can only take you so far. After that, you have to take a few leaps of faith.
-Michael Scofield, Prison Break.

Let me know if you have some comments or questions. Till next time, Happy Learning!