How to Become an AWS Certified Solution Architect? Shine in AWS Clouds

Introduction

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the most popular cloud computing services and leader of public cloud adoption, welcomed and widely accepted by businesses across the world. Known for its robust scalability and security, despite fierce competition AWS has captured 32 percent of the global market. 

With the growing dependency of organizations on AWS cloud computing services to run various crucial aspects of their businesses, the career growth opportunities for cloud computing professionals are surging at the fastest pace. If you are one of those looking to advance their careers in cloud computing and want to explore how to become an AWS solutions architect then you have landed on the right page.  

This blog will serve as a guide for beginners searching for answers on how to become an AWS Certified Solution Architect. Here you will find all the information including the AWS Certified Solutions Architect career path, along with a brief introduction to what an AWS certified solution architect is, its importance, key skill requirements, roles and responsibilities, etc. Most important the right AWS Solution Architect certification to scale up your career.

Though this detailed guide on how to become an AWS solutions architect we will try to answer-

• Who is an AWS solution architect?
• How to become an AWS solutions architect?
• How to pass AWS solution architect professional exam?
• Is AWS solution architect associate hard to crack?
• How long does it take to get AWS solution architect certification?
• Is AWS solution architect associate worth it?

So, before we move further into the details of how to become an AWS Solutions Architect, it is crucial to understand who an AWS Solutions Architect is.

Who is an AWS solution architect?

An AWS Certified Solution Architect is a professional who is responsible for building and maintaining the cloud computing infrastructure of a business. They are responsible for evaluating the requirements of the organization and making recommendations for designing and deploying business applications and infrastructure in the AWS cloud. These experts possess high-degree, technical skills and designing experience for AWS-based applications. 

AWS solution architects are responsible for:

• Evaluate business requirements and Connect business objectives to technology-enabled outcomes
• Build advanced cloud-based solutions and transfer current workloads to the cloud
• Safeguarding an organization digital infrastructure from application and software downtime risks, circulation errors, breaches, and more
• Using Amazon’s best practices to plan, design, implement, deploy and scale AWS cloud implementation.

Hope now you have a clear picture of what is AWS solution architects and what they are responsible for, it's time to answer your question about how to become an AWS solutions architect.

How do I become an AWS Solutions Architect?

Here is a defined roadmap you need to follow to become an AWS Certified Solution Architect.

Enroll For AWS Solutions Architect Online Training Course

As an AWS Solution Architect, you will require a sound understanding of technicalities on how to use the AWS cloud platform to build the most secure cloud environment for the organization. You will need to get certified and gain the skills required to execute AWS Solutions Architect jobs roles and responsibilities. By enrolling in a professional AWS Solutions Architect Training online course, you will be equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge. It will also help you prepare for the AWS Solutions Architect – Associate level examination.

While choosing online courses make sure they provide

• In-depth knowledge of basic and advanced AWS concepts.
• hands-on experience on real-time industry projects to prepare you for real-time challenges.
• Certification exams preparation.

Qualify AWS Solutions Architect Certification

To become an AWS solution architect, you will need to qualify for a certification exam called AWS Solutions Architect – Associate level examination. 

So now your next question would be how to pass AWS solution architect professional exam and why AWS Certification is useful?

First, let see, why is AWS certification useful?

Importance of AWS Certification: Why is AWS Certification Useful?

AWS has more than one million customers, and it is the provider of choice for public cloud adoption. Around 64% of enterprises and 68% of SMBs are running their applications through AWS Cloud.  AWS is continuously expanding, and it has an intelligent community spread all across the globe. This worldwide expansion of AWS services is proof that there is much more to come for this service and Cloud computing certification is going to be imperative.

Besides authenticating the technical skills, Cloud Computing Certification program helps you to improve your expertise. This certification can support you to prepare for the future trends in the IT professional job sector. It’s also helpful in finding new avenues for broadening your professional expertise. Knowing the right AWS solution architect certification path is the first step towards the certification. 

How to pass AWS solution architect professional exam?

Without proper study material and proper resources, you cannot prepare for the certification exam. Here these resources can help you in getting familiar with all basic and essential concepts that are required to Crack the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate Exam. Most imperative and valuable resources are listed below. Well, with the help of these resources, you can get sufficient study material and exam preparation material.

1). Sample Questions

You can find several sample questions on the AWS website that can give you an idea of exam questions. You can also go through online blog posts for a list of questions.

2). Whitepapers

One of the most important whitepapers for the AWS solution architect exam is Overview of Security Processes. As data security is one of the most difficult sections of this exam, so you should prepare for this section properly. This whitepaper covers all important points of data security that are important for the exam and help you in solving the data security-based questions that are considered the most difficult among other questions.

3). FAQ

Amazon’s official preparation site has many FAQs highly worth the exam. By reading and going through these questions, you can get the idea of exam questions. It will be an addition to your knowledge and give you an idea of the real exam.

Read: How to Create and Activate an AWS Account?

4). Documentation

You can find plenty of documentation to prepare for the AWS certification exam on the internet. You may already be familiar with many of them. But if you are not an expert of any particular topic, then you can read the relevant documentation to get the exact idea. You can get the idea of study material and know the important topics in depth.

5). Practice Exam Question online

Well, there are plenty of sites where you can access and practice the exam questions. But most of the questions on these sites are similar, so you can see them for reference to evaluate your preparation. Moreover, some of the sites are also offering courses for the AWS solution architect exam; you can enroll in any of the courses to prepare for the exam.

AWS Solution Architect Certification Exam Details

The certification exam is held at the testing centers. It consists of 60 multiple choice questions (sometimes multiple responses), the time limit to solve questions is 130 minutes, and the minimum passing score for the exam is 65%. Exam questions are scenario-based, and it has four major sections as given below:

Read: How to Prepare for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Exam?

As far as exam format is concerned the below-listed points are required for AWS Solution Architect professional exam and to become AWS solution architect,  you can find the exam details on the AWS website as well. 

AWS Certification Examination – Associate Level Highlights: 

• The exam consists of multiple-choice
• Cost: 150 USD
• Time: 130 Minutes
• Prerequisite: Status as AWS Certified Solution Architect - Associate
• Two Year hands-on-experience in designing and deploying cloud architect for AWS and the experience of multi-application architectural design
• Language preferences for the exam: English, Korean, Japanese,  and Chinese
• Minimum Passing Marks: 720 [Can vary according to the difficulty level of the exam]
• You can schedule the AWS exam here 

Different Exam Sections:

• Define Performant Architecture – 24%
• Design Cost-Optimized Architectures – 10%
• Design Resilient Architectures – 34%
• Specify Secure Applications and Architectures – 26%
• Define Operationally Excellent Architectures – 6%

Among all sections, the first section is compulsory. In this section, you will find several questions about building a modern cloud system. Here, you can find real-world problems examples that are to be solved by the students or candidates.

The second section of the exam is implementation or deployment questions. Troubleshooting questions are the easiest ones as these questions are of basic facts or problems. You may already be familiar with such questions or basic concepts.

Data security questions are complicated, and you must have a good understanding of complete security processes. The process is described in AWS whitepapers.

Below-listed areas are covered for this certification:

• Cost optimization strategy knowledge
• Knowledge of migration of complex application systems to the AWS
• Best practices for designing and architecting the AWS applications
• Knowledge of selecting the right service for an application.

Recertify to acquire the latest AWS skills: How to Become an AWS Solutions Architect?

Every year Amazon releases new services, and therefore the number of these services is increasing tremendously. In the annual conference of AWS, Amazon has announced around 30 new services and products. Even in Q4 alone, AWS added 497 services and features, so now it had a total of 1,430 launches in 2017.

To demonstrate the skills for every newly launched service and product of AWS, candidates have to recertify themselves every two years. Either you may pass the professional-level certification for recertification. The cost to recertify the exam is 75 USD and the time duration for the exam is around 80 minutes.

Read: AWS Solutions Architect Certification Guide: Cost, Exam Format, and Exam Tips

Any certification can add skills and show your specific knowledge at a certain point in time. Most of the experienced certified professionals do not wait for their certification to expire; instead, they inculcate the good habit to remain obsessed with learning experiences. With the help of the following tips, you can keep your certification updated:

• Read a lot, just subscribe to the release note newsletter of AWS cloud academy blog post and know the latest release and updates
• Get hands-on experience of newly released services in AI and machine learning using the Hands-on-labs of cloud academy.
• Take AWS practice exams to test your skills regardless of whether you are going to sit for your exam or not.
• Try to build a team of candidates who are going to appear for the exam. By surrounding yourself with like-minded and goal individuals, you can get better, grow and practice for the exam.

Exam Days Tips: How to Become an AWS Solutions Architect?

When you are done with your exam preparation, then the next step for you is to register at AWS training site. You should register through APN partner central. For the day of the exam, you should consider the following points to get good marks:

• Find or Set Your Fixed Study Time: Everyone has some fixed time for study, just study at your best time. You can also book your exam time slot in the same slot as well.
• Practice for time-management: As you will have limited time to attempt questions that may be of multiple choice and descriptive type questions, so prepare for the questions in the way so that you can attempt maximum questions in the allotted time.

Apart from this, you should book your slot only when you feel that you have done enough preparation for the exam. Moreover, you should focus equally on theory and practical questions. Do not think that only sample questions will be there; even you can find similar but somewhat different questions in the exam.

During your exam, if you do not feel confident about any question then leave or skip that question. In the first attempt of the question paper, leave difficult ones and try to attempt these questions in the second attempt. 

Popular AWS Certifications That You Can Go For Bright AWS Career

urrently, nine certifications are offered by AWS among them one is foundational certification, three are associate-level certifications and two are professional-level certifications and three specialty level certifications.

You must follow the complete learning path to get any of the available certifications. All available certifications are:

• AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
• AWS Certified Developer- Associate
• AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
• AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional
• AWS Certified Big Data – Specialty
• AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty
• AWS Certified Security – Specialty

Let’s see some FAQs often asked by professionals on how to become an AWS solutions architect.

FAQs

Q1. Is AWS solution architect associate hard to crack?

Ans:- Be very clear that AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate is not an easy exam like few others where you can simply buy a stack of practice exams, run through them over and over, and expect to pass. The AWS solution architect associate exam is very scenario-focused, in order to crack that exam first you need to join an excellent AWS training course, do a lot of hands-on labs, and then solve as many practice questions as possible. Following these three steps honestly will increase your chances to score well and crack your AWS solution architect exam.

Q2. How long does it take to get AWS solution architect certification?

Ans:- AWS recommends two years hands-on-experience of designing and deploying cloud architect for AWS and the experience of multi-application architectural design before sitting for the exam. However, individuals without that can still pass the exam if prepared with the right approach after generally one to two months of intense study.

Q3. Is AWS solution architect associate worth it?

Yes, of course. Once you qualify for the certification after obtaining desired skill and the right training, it will be worth a lot. It will reflect your great proficiency on AWS cloud architecture and the identity you can develop over AWS via having access to the Amazon console. Besides validating your technical knowledge, this certification will foster your expertise, make you more attractive to potential recruiters and help you land a job with a handsome salary.

Final Words on How to Pass AWS Solution Architect Professional Exam

The roadmap for beginners to become an AWS Solutions Architect fresher is very straightforward. You just have to gain-in-depth understanding of the domain, take up the AWS Associate-level certification exam, and get some real word hands-on industry experience. Then you can plan to upgrade to the professional level later on in your AWS career journey.

If you are planning to appear for the AWS solution architec exam then plan your exam preparation strategy well. Our complete guide on AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Certification Exam will help you in proper planning, and preparation for the examination. Also check out resources on JanBask Training and begin your AWS Solution Architect journey now.

Did we forget something or want to add any tips you’ve found helpful, feel free to comment below! Good luck!!

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