Preparing for the AWS Professional Certification Exam

If you have reasonably good knowledge in AWS and whitepapers/videos are like lullabies to you, then this might be worth trying. Also, if you like to learn by problem solving, then attempting loads of sample questions and reviewing corresponding study materials in-depth might help.

My Experience

I started my professional certificate by dutifully doing the certification course on acloudguru.com. In my opinion, it's a good refresher course if your last certification was quite a while ago. However, it is not enough to master the complexity of the professional-level exam. After reading some of the recommended whitepapers and watching YouTube videos, I gave my practice test, which I failed. It was a big wakeup call for me.

Challenges Faced

  1. Practice Exam Completion: The first problem was I couldn’t complete the practice exam. Just reading the questions and the multiple-choice answers was exhausting. As someone for whom English is not the first language, this was really hard. When taking the actual exams, you may come across questions where you are not sure you fully understood the nuances. Keep in mind that you are offered an additional 30 mins if your first language is not English. Worth utilizing it!

  2. Problem-Solving Approach: The second problem was I was concentrating on how I would solve the problem rather than picking the best answer from the lot. Sometimes, no answer is the best. You have to choose the best among the given answers.

  3. Understanding of Concepts: The most important problem was that while I had a good understanding of the concepts, it is the nitty-gritty, subtleties, and how different services work together that count in the professional exam. In real life, I would have quickly looked up the appropriate area, asked more questions, and decided on the best course of action. However, when you read linearly, you tend to miss out on details if you already have some familiarity and understanding in that area.

Here, acloudguru discussion forums are really useful. Each question in the AWS practice test has been discussed at length. I used that to review the relevant areas, whitepapers, and videos.

AWS conducts a one-day virtual workshop for Professional exam prep, which was very helpful. This was available for partners; if your company is a partner, definitely ask to be enrolled.

Additional Resources

I also enrolled in cloudacademy.com and focused on security and networking, which was much better than acloudguru. In my last few weeks, I still felt unconfident. It was then I came across whizlabs.com and decided to give it a try. They have 400 questions, and according to them, all are unique. However, in my experience, at least 10-15% were repeats, but that was okay.

On completion of each test, I reviewed each question irrespective of whether I got it right or wrong. Whizlabs provided explanations on why a particular choice in the answer was most suitable or unsuitable, along with corresponding links to AWS FAQs/docs/whitepapers/videos. This was very useful.

I created mind maps/tables for different combinations and focused on related materials in depth. A single question could lead me to hours of studying in the related area, and by the end, I had criss-crossed AWS materials in many different directions.

Key Benefits of My Approach

  1. Helped me understand the question and answer style and how to interpret them.
  2. Enabled me to get into an exam mode and focus, progressively getting faster and more accurate.
  3. Armed with a question in mind, the same study materials provided more clarity and less distraction.
  4. Allowed me to focus on a problem instead of one particular service/area.
  5. Made it possible to focus on all areas without getting key-holed into any particular one for too long.

In the last few days, I re-read FAQs on EC2, DynamoDB, S3, VPC, etc. On the final night, I walked through AWS Services Cheat Sheet.

Conclusion

Preparation is a combination of structured courses, reading whitepapers/docs/FAQs, videos, hands-on labs, and practice with sample questions. However, using problem-solving as the primary approach helped me bring it all together toward the end.

Good luck with your exam!

Security in the Public Cloud

When it comes to moving to a public cloud like AWS, customers range from believing there is no security in the public cloud to thinking everything is taken care of for them. They complicate matters by trying to reproduce every security measure from on-premises into the cloud or not doing enough. The truth lies in between, in the "Shared Responsibility Model" for Security and Compliance in the cloud.

Companies need to find smarter ways to remain secure while providing great performance and service to their customers, as hackers are getting smarter and using technology to break systems traditionally seen as secure.

One of our clients recently asked, "Serverless – is it another fad or something that I need to worry about and prepare my organization?" Serverless is a real deal.