AWS Solution Architect Associate Certification Journey

It all started when I got the opportunity to work as DevOps/Platform Engineer at Come to the Clouds Ltd. Although I had no prior experience with AWS Cloud, I was curious to learn and explore how it can be leveraged to create  more robust and scalable applications.

Since I come from a Business Development background where I got used to having deep-dive conversations as well as presentations with clients, I wanted to use those skills in the cloud environment. After consultating with the company management, we decided that the Solutions Architect Associate certification seemed to be the perfect fit for me.

Additionally, as I was a complete novice, I had no idea where to start, but through the guidance of my colleagues and lots of hands-on learning through project tasks, I started building foundational knowledge for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate exam. I was fortunate enough to have been working on a cloud project for the past year, which helped me gain practical experience in working with AWS services and gave me a better understanding of cloud architecture. This experience proved invaluable as I started preparing for the certification exam.

My mentor recommended that I begin by taking some practice exams online. I decided to take the most popular practice exam course on Udemy, which included six practice tests. After taking the first test, I realized that I had a lot to learn. I scored poorly, and I felt a little disheartened. However, I analyzed my results and found that I needed to focus on the main AWS services like EC2, Lambda, API Gateway, Route 53, S3, EBS, RDS, DynamoDB, SQS, and CloudFront, among others. I also needed to study the AWS documentation more thoroughly and learn about the theoretical and practical aspects of each service.

To prepare myself for the exam, I focused on the SA resource from the aCloudGuru platform and Udemy. To begin with I followed the materials from the aCloudGuru and then directed my attention to the Udemy practice tests and analyzed why I answered correctly or incorrectly. I made notes of relevant information as well as concepts and practiced on the AWS management console to gain real-world experience. I also worked on creating sample architectures and solutions that I could present to my mentor for feedback.

Finally, after weeks of preparation, I felt confident enough to take the exam. I passed on my first attempt, and the sense of accomplishment that came with passing the exam was incredible. It showed that my hard work, dedication, and willingness to learn had paid off. Definitely worth the effort!
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Luka Abicic, DevOps/Platform Engineer

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