My Journey into the Cloud:Getting AWS Certified
Tags: aws, cloudcertified, gettingstartedwithcloud
Published: 2021-01-17 05:52:02

I started my journey into the cloud around june 2018. I was always interested in cloud technologies and found it fascinating. I was surfing a lot of random articles and blogs carrying information about cloud .

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/uj6rv4v47ujrmerggch3.png)


I had a lot of questions like
· what is cloud ?
· which cloud provider is the best from AWS , GCP, Azure etc ?
· what should be my learning path ? how should I proceed ?


My Background: I am Cloud and Big Data Enthusiast | 4x AWS Certified | 3x OCI Certified | 3x Azure Certified . 


![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/q066ommgxnlmrvqp78ll.png)


I started my Cloud Journey of Learning Amazon Web Services (AWS) from going through AWS training and certifications.
I found that In Order to learn AWS , I have to practice all the AWS Services and thus I quickly signed up on the AWS .
I used to spend almost 3 to 4 hours daily trying to practice the various AWS Services and it Helped me a lot in Understanding the AWS Architecture.

#Now, Moving on to how to pass the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Exam ?
Always focus on learning AWS Services and never focus on passing the certified exams for the sake of it . I will provide the various learning materials which I used for passing the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Exam. For passing the Exam my tips are:
· Check study guide and sample questions.
· Go through all the AWS Training video lectures.
· Read the whitepapers and faqs .
· Go through this link.
· Also practice the AWS Services like EC2 , S3 and Understand the billing and cost policies related to AWS as they are being asked more for this exam.
The Exam itself is not super technical. You can earn this certification without knowing how to code. The official certification description recommends you have some basic IT knowledge and “six months of experience with the AWS Cloud in any role, including technical, managerial, sales, purchasing, or financial.”

· Lastly solve some practice papers from some sites mentioned below:
->digitalcloud.training
->whizlabs

The only intent for solving the practice papers should be to become more confident when it comes to the AWS Services and Your Understanding about the AWS Concepts can become more clear after practicing this questions . ****Do not go for Exam Dumps to pass AWS Exams .****

Now After I cleared my CCP Exam , I moved onto the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Exam. There are basically SAA-C01 (which is retiring ) and SAA-C02 (the updated exam) available on the aws site.

#How to Prepare for clearing AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Exam (SAA-C01) ?

I spend almost all my time practising different AWS Services. The Most Important AWS Services are EC2 , VPC , S3 and ELB . This Services are asked a lot in this Exam but ensure that you practice all the services throughly.
Some Steps to follow for passing AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Exam are:
· Take a Course for learning the AWS Services. There are two popular courses offered:
-> Acloud-guru Course by Ryan Kroenberg.
-> Udemy Course by Stephane Maarek.
· I used to Spend 2–3 hours a day to practice various AWS Services giving at least 2 weeks of time on preparation for the Exam .
· Go through the Study Guide and Sample questions.
· Read the Whitepapers and Faqs.
· Solve practice papers from some sites mentioned below:
-> https://www.knowledgehut.com/practice-tests/aws-solutions-architect-associate
-> https://www.whizlabs.com/aws-solutions-architect-associate/

#How to Prepare for clearing AWS Certified Developer Associate Exam ?

AWS Developer Exam is focused more on AWS Services like DynamoDB, AWS Lambda , Api Gateway ,Cloud Formation , Elastic Beanstalk , X-Ray , Step Functions , CI/CD Services like CodeCommit , CodeBuild , CodeDeploy and CodePipeline etc .

Important Concepts like global and local secondary indexes , provisioned throughput calculation , DAX , exponential backoffs , 4 deployment methods for elastic beanstalk , CodeDeploy — Inplace and blue/green , appspec.yaml file , hooks , CodeBuild — buildspec.yaml , X-Ray SDK, X-Ray Daemon etc .

Some Steps to follow for passing AWS Certified Developer Associate Exam are:
· Take a Course for learning the AWS Services. There are two popular courses offered:
-> Acloud-guru Course by Ryan Kroenberg.
-> Udemy Course by Stephane Maarek.
The Developer Exam is by far the most practical exam among all the associate exams.
· Go through the Study Guide and Sample questions.
· Read the Whitepapers and Faqs.
· Solve practice papers from some sites mentioned below:
->https://www.knowledgehut.com/practice-tests/aws-certified-developer-associate
->https://digitalcloud.training/aws-developer-associate-free-practice-exam-questions/
->https://www.whizlabs.com/blog/aws-developer-associate-exam-questions/

#How to Prepare for clearing AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate Exam ?

AWS SysOps Exam is focused more on AWS Services like CloudWatch, Cloud Networking, AWS OpsWorks, Systems Manager, CloudFormation etc.

SysOps Admin has “Monitoring and Reporting” which are worth 22% of the final exam score.

When you study for more than one AWS Associate certification, you will notice some overlap among the subjects covered on exams.
As a result, about half of this SysOps prep guide overlaps with other prep guides for other AWS associate certifications exams.

Some Steps to follow for passing AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate Exam are:
· Take a Course for learning the AWS Services. There are two popular courses offered:
-> Acloud-guru Course by Ryan Kroenberg.
-> Udemy Course by Stephane Maarek.
· This Exam is the Hardest among the AWS Associate Exams and should be taken only after through understanding of AWS Services which are asked in the exam.
· Go through the Study Guide and Sample questions.
· Read the Whitepapers and Faqs.
· Solve practice papers from some sites mentioned below:
->[tutorialsdojo](https://tutorialsdojo.com/courses/aws-certified-sysops-administrator-associate-practice-exams/)
->[Udemy](https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-sysops-administrator-associate-practice-exams-soa-c01/)
->[whizlabs](https://www.whizlabs.com/aws-sysops-administrator-associate/)

My Experience with AWS has been a more than two years now and what I have Learned so far is to Practice AWS Services and Once you are Confident regarding your skills and feel that you understand the Concepts needed to Clear the Exams then and only then should you schedule the AWS Exams . AWS Exams require you to have Hands-On Experience with the AWS Services meaning you need to be familiar with AWS Services before scheduling your exams.

My Suggestions would definitely be try AWS Free Tier for about 6 months try various Services and Once you understand the Core Services and are Confident then you can easily pass the AWS Exams.

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/oannqk6hqmwdk02d3c57.png)

I hope that this guide helps you in building your career with AWS and getting AWS certified,
If you have any doubt or unable to understand any concept feel free to contact me on
[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/adit-modi-2a4362191/)
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[Twitter](https://twitter.com/adi_12_modi)
[Github](https://github.com/AditModi)
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I also am working on various AWS Services and Developing various AWS and Big Data Projects.
If you are interested in learning AWS Services then follow me on github.

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Cloud computing is the third wave of the digital revolution. — Lowell McAdam, CEO of Verizon