How you can achieve all AWS certifications and get the golden jacket - Part 2 - How to study

Great, now you’re motivated to actually work towards getting the golden jacket after reading Part 1 of this blog. This blog will help you start preparing for the 12x AWS certifications (as of now). How do I know what study method works? Well I’ve tried and tested this method myself as with many people that I worked with at AWS. Working at AWS it was another level of busy day to day - so I had to maximise my study time without feeling too overwhelmed with too much information. I know there are plenty of other AWS certification study material out there, but these are the courses that worked for me and my former colleagues at AWS that passed the exams. First point of call - Official AWS study resources I used to use A Cloud Guru (now Pluralsight) back in the day and some of the free practice exam pdfs that I could get from the AWS official certification page. Things have changed since then, and I find the AWS official training more than enough to learn and pass my exams. Check out the latest list of AWS certifications by clicking on each badge to get to the latest and official AWS study resources from there. It should take you to recommended exam courses on AWS Skill Builder which is the official AWS online training portal. You might be thinking, I’ve already been studying for [insert AWS exam here] for [insert weeks/months] here. How do I know if I’m ready? Also, you don’t want to spend more money on study resources because you already used a few dollars on it. Here’s some great news for you. No matter what AWS exam you’re studying for, you can revise using the AWS Training Live on Twitch shows to see if you can understand what the hosts are talking about. Best of all, the best things in life are free [insert Janet Jackson and Luther Vandross track] thanks to the hard work that the AWS team led by AWS Principal Developer Advocate, Aaron Hunter. As a former AWS Training Live host while at AWS - we’re dedicated to interacting live with our online audience running through some exclusive questions all while having fun. Here's a screenshot from the session around AWS Power Hour - AWS DevOps Professional and fellow hosts, May Kyaw and Harrison Sherwin. Level 1 - Starting on AWS? Do AWS Cloud Practitioner If you're just starting on AWS, it might be less of a heavy-lift to do the AWS Cloud Practitioner course and build your confidence. I’ve heard some say that you can start on AWS Solutions Architect Associate if you're already technical. What can sometimes happen is that due to the SA Associate exam covering a wide range of topics, people get busy at work and start to lose focus with studying and keep postponing the exam. So I say start small with Cloud Practitioner and celebrate the small wins! For a fun way to learn, you can also use a gamified version of it on AWS Cloud Quest. I would highly recommend doing this, as you'll have fun using the lab (which is currently free as far as I know) without having to rack up costs in your own AWS account. If you're already heavily into the AI/ML space, should you do the AI Practitioner exam? Of-course! I found that a large chunk of the exam questions seems to have general AI/ML knowledge in there. On the flip side, if you’re not in that space yet, I’d start off with AWS Cloud Practitioner. Level 2 - The AWS Associate certifications Now that you’ve got the Cloud Practitioner exam under your belt, how would you study for AWS Solutions Architect Associate and SysOps Associate and ML Engineer Associate? Same pattern of studying as Cloud Practitioner but more wider and in-depth. It's all about building that muscle of pattern recognition. Some of the questions are quite long-winded, and in some cases only a few words different. The key is to read the question and see what is it asking for. Usually the last sentence will be a clue to what you’re looking for in the answers. What’s the most cost-efficient, performant solution? etc. I scan the answers to see what's different between the responses. There should be at least 1 that you can identify that's definitely wrong. You can cross that one out in your mind. Weirdly enough, out of the AWS Associate exams, I found the Data Engineer Associate exam quite difficult. It was even more difficult than the Data Analytics Specialty exam that since got deprecated. Again, use Skill Builder on AWS, I highly recommend the Exam preparation courses which the basic version is free of charge (as of now). Level 3 - What about the Specialty exams? As the name implies the Specialty exam dives deep into the topic of choice. This is where you need to dive deep into the topic and again pick up more detailed patterns that you’ve built up using your knowledge in the Associate certifications. The hardest AWS exam in my opinion is the AWS Network Specialty exam. For this one, you'll need to study more than the usual method that I have articulated above. For the Ne

Apr 13, 2025 - 08:46

How you can achieve all AWS certifications and get the golden jacket - Part 2 - How to study

Great, now you’re motivated to actually work towards getting the golden jacket after reading Part 1 of this blog.

This blog will help you start preparing for the 12x AWS certifications (as of now).

How do I know what study method works? Well I’ve tried and tested this method myself as with many people that I worked with at AWS.

Working at AWS it was another level of busy day to day - so I had to maximise my study time without feeling too overwhelmed with too much information.

I know there are plenty of other AWS certification study material out there, but these are the courses that worked for me and my former colleagues at AWS that passed the exams.

First point of call - Official AWS study resources

I used to use A Cloud Guru (now Pluralsight) back in the day and some of the free practice exam pdfs that I could get from the AWS official certification page. Things have changed since then, and I find the AWS official training more than enough to learn and pass my exams.

Check out the latest list of AWS certifications by clicking on each badge to get to the latest and official AWS study resources from there.

It should take you to recommended exam courses on AWS Skill Builder which is the official AWS online training portal.

You might be thinking, I’ve already been studying for [insert AWS exam here] for [insert weeks/months] here. How do I know if I’m ready?

Also, you don’t want to spend more money on study resources because you already used a few dollars on it.

Here’s some great news for you. No matter what AWS exam you’re studying for, you can revise using the AWS Training Live on Twitch shows to see if you can understand what the hosts are talking about.

Best of all, the best things in life are free [insert Janet Jackson and Luther Vandross track] thanks to the hard work that the AWS team led by AWS Principal Developer Advocate, Aaron Hunter.

As a former AWS Training Live host while at AWS - we’re dedicated to interacting live with our online audience running through some exclusive questions all while having fun.

Here's a screenshot from the session around AWS Power Hour - AWS DevOps Professional and fellow hosts, May Kyaw and Harrison Sherwin.

Level 1 - Starting on AWS? Do AWS Cloud Practitioner

If you're just starting on AWS, it might be less of a heavy-lift to do the AWS Cloud Practitioner course and build your confidence.

I’ve heard some say that you can start on AWS Solutions Architect Associate if you're already technical.

What can sometimes happen is that due to the SA Associate exam covering a wide range of topics, people get busy at work and start to lose focus with studying and keep postponing the exam.

So I say start small with Cloud Practitioner and celebrate the small wins!

For a fun way to learn, you can also use a gamified version of it on AWS Cloud Quest.

I would highly recommend doing this, as you'll have fun using the lab (which is currently free as far as I know) without having to rack up costs in your own AWS account.

If you're already heavily into the AI/ML space, should you do the AI Practitioner exam? Of-course!

I found that a large chunk of the exam questions seems to have general AI/ML knowledge in there.

On the flip side, if you’re not in that space yet, I’d start off with AWS Cloud Practitioner.

Level 2 - The AWS Associate certifications

Now that you’ve got the Cloud Practitioner exam under your belt, how would you study for AWS Solutions Architect Associate and SysOps Associate and ML Engineer Associate?

Same pattern of studying as Cloud Practitioner but more wider and in-depth.

It's all about building that muscle of pattern recognition.
Some of the questions are quite long-winded, and in some cases only a few words different.

The key is to read the question and see what is it asking for. Usually the last sentence will be a clue to what you’re looking for in the answers. What’s the most cost-efficient, performant solution? etc.

I scan the answers to see what's different between the responses. There should be at least 1 that you can identify that's definitely wrong. You can cross that one out in your mind.

Weirdly enough, out of the AWS Associate exams, I found the Data Engineer Associate exam quite difficult.
It was even more difficult than the Data Analytics Specialty exam that since got deprecated.

Again, use Skill Builder on AWS, I highly recommend the Exam preparation courses which the basic version is free of charge (as of now).

Level 3 - What about the Specialty exams?

As the name implies the Specialty exam dives deep into the topic of choice.
This is where you need to dive deep into the topic and again pick up more detailed patterns that you’ve built up using your knowledge in the Associate certifications.

The hardest AWS exam in my opinion is the AWS Network Specialty exam. For this one, you'll need to study more than the usual method that I have articulated above.

For the Network Specialty exam, getting to know the hybrid pattern (connecting on-premise to AWS) is super important and take a look at the recommended whitepapers from the AWS certification page.

I was under the impression that my past networking certification (Cisco Certified Network Associate) would help me, but I was wrong.
This exam is focused on AWS-specific networking patterns and only some generic networking concepts.

Speaking of which, there were some IP subnetting type questions (but not as much as I imagined) so I suggest understanding those fundamentals.

If you don’t want to lose motivation, I would leave the Advanced Networking until the very last.
Even after doing all your Specialty and the 2x Professional certifications.
Why? Every person that I’ve spoken to, even seasoned AWS staff agree that this one is the most difficult exam out there.

Level 4 - The professional certifications

The Solutions Architect Professional and the DevOps Professional certifications... are they difficult?
Yes in terms of the number and depth of questions plus the lack of time during the exam.

Time management is key here for these exams. The questions I found are the longest in any of the exams. This made me read the questions a few times in order to fully understand what it was asking for.

What makes the professional certifications easier would be to read through the Well Architected Framework whitepaper many times. Highlight some of your learnings. When it comes to the exam, you'll be able to build on what you’ve learned so far in the foundational, associate and even specialty exams.

Gotta catch ‘em all - Sequencing of study - YMMV!

This is what worked for me is the following sequence.

You might be asking, wait how come there’s 15 of them?
As you can see, there’s been quite a few certifications that have been deprecated since.

I also took into mind what works best for me when re-certifying. Your Mileage May Vary as you would have different areas that you’re strong in.

i.e. Get the foundational and associate exams done first so you can auto-renew when getting the professional certifications.

There are some that are not in that order, only because these exams came out at a later stage after I got the golden jacket.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate (at that time there was no Cloud Practitioner)
AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
AWS Certified Developer - Associate
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional
AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional
AWS Certified Data Analytics Specialty (old exam - deprecated)
AWS Certified Database - Specialty (old exam - deprecated)
AWS Certified Security - Specialty
AWS Certified Machine Learning - Specialty
AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Specialty
AWS SAP on AWS - Specialty (old exam - deprecated) >> Received golden jacket here as I finished all the Generally Available AWS certifications at that time
AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate (new exam - beta at the time)
AWS Certified AI Practitioner - (new exam - beta at the time)
AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer - Associate (new exam - beta at the time)

Other resources

What if you want more material to study with?

I sometimes supplemented my studying with the following resources so I can be fully prepared with more patterns that I can have up my sleeve.

There are plenty of other resources for self-study like Jon Bonso's Tutorial Dojo and Stephan Maarek's courses.
If you or your organisation has an account on Udemy, you can checkout courses from both Jon, Stephan and others from there too.

Also shout-out to AWS Community Builder Lucy Wang with her Tech with Lucy YouTube series who has a bunch of videos around certification.

Speaking of AWS Community Builders…. Part 3 of this blog will showcase the Golden Jacket hall of famers who happen to be AWS Community Builders or Heroes.

Let us know in the comments how you’re traveling on the journey to your golden jacket!