AWS CSA Associate Pass

Just passed. Spent probably... a month or 2 studying on/off. I have 1-2 months experience working in a production AWS environment, but only with read access.

The LinuxAcademy videos were my main study resource. They're pretty good, but you should supplement with other material. The few Amazon FAQs I read were pretty good, but honestly you'll want to invest in as much hands on time as possible.

There was a lot of material I was tested on that I didn't realize I needed to know so I just guessed. That's probably my fault though, as I never looked for a rubric and just relied on what the LinuxAcademy videos were covering.

Also used the udemy practice questions (They're like $10). They were pretty good for refreshing my memory on certain things, but they're a bit too easy. The actual exam is much more difficult.

Autoscaling, IAM, load balancers, and Route53 all murdered me lol. I just didn't study them as deeply as was necessary for the exam.

Overall Score: 64%

Topic Level Scoring:
1.0 Designing highly available, cost efficient, fault tolerant, scalable systems: 62%
2.0 Implementation/Deployment: 60%
3.0 Security: 55%
4.0 Troubleshooting: 100%

Anyways, a pass is a pass, even if it's a pretty bad score haha. I'm happy I got it out of the way. I think my 100% in troubleshooting is because I've had to do a decent amount of it in my actual job in the last few months. Hands on experience is crucial for this exam IMO.

I'm debating on getting the developer cert as well, but I'm going to refocus back onto some security stuff first. Plus I just signed up for a Master's program, so that will probably keep me busy for a bit.

Let me know if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer what I can.

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Comments

mog27

You can pass with only a 64%? What is the passing score?

cyberguypr

"AWS Certification passing scores are set by using statistical analysis and are subject to change. AWS does not publish exam passing scores because exam questions and passing scores are subject to change without notice."

aderon

Yep. If I'm recalling correctly, I believe it told me what score I needed to get when I started the exam.

schiphol

Congratulations!

DAVIS NGUYEN

Congrats!

SteveLavoie

HI,

I am just starting to look at the AWS CSA cert, so excuse me if the question is noob. Do you need to master the CLI to succeed in the exam?

aderon

SteveLavoie wrote: »

HI,

I am just starting to look at the AWS CSA cert, so excuse me if the question is noob. Do you need to master the CLI to succeed in the exam?

Nope, the AWS CLI isn't a big focus point for this exam. I would just learn whatever CLI commands are brought up in your training material and that will likely be more than enough.

SteveLavoie

Thanks you aderon!.

parsiravi

Hello Aderon ,

Congrats for getting through .. I am planning to take this test ( AWS Certified Solutions ArchitectAssociate) so need some guidelines from you .

1. Any other study material ( AWS Certified Solutions ArchitectAssociate study guide ) that you would recommend
2. I don't have any real time work experience in AWS environment , any alternative for getting this through
3. Would that practice exams which is offered by AWS would be any help
4. Would you recommend Autoscaling , AIM , Load balancers , Route 53 & security to concentrate more ?

Any other suggestions ?

Regards,
Rvi

SteveLavoie

many AWS service are available with the Free Tier option. so you could try many of them.

ddayglo

Strong agree. Free tier, YouTube, acloudguru & udemy did the trick for me

gateway

Congratulations!

Nearly finished blogging my study notes for the AWS CSA (see signature)

Hope they can serve others.

aderon

1. Any other study material ( AWS Certified Solutions ArchitectAssociate study guide ) that you would recommend
I used the Linux Academy videos, created a free-tier account that I messed around with, and had a bit of work experience

2. I don't have any real time work experience in AWS environment , any alternative for getting this through
Free tier account will help you get through a majority of the material for free. I think at most, I paid like $5/mo for AWS while I was studying and it was usually because I accidentally left a server on 24/7 instead of shutting it off when I was done w/ it.

3. Would that practice exams which is offered by AWS would be any help
Unfortunately I don't know. I didn't use those.

4. Would you recommend Autoscaling , AIM , Load balancers , Route 53 & security to concentrate more ?
Sure, it couldn't hurt. And I found those sections difficult

pencilpot

congrats and good info on study material thanks