Passed AWS Developer - Associate (11/4)!
averageguy72
Member Posts: 323 ■■■■□□□□□□
Passed the AWS Certified Developer - Associate exam this weekend, took about 35 minutes.
Study Material
A Cloud Guru videos series, quizzes and iPhone app
Background
I've been in the IT industry 20 years and have been working in a SaaS company for the last 14 years (back when it was an ASP). I architected and wrote most of the core platform software libraries, services and processes. I designed and managed the infrastructure being used as well.
Until about a month ago and half ago, I had zero experience with Amazon AWS but I decided to get familiar with how the platform was implemented and the capabilities to see if/how some of the offerings could be applied to my company's business. I also wanted to gain some insight for better approaches to how we may be able to do things. Turns out, I really like Amazon AWS. After completing the Solutions Architect certification last month Developer seemed best to do before SysOps since SysOps will probably take a little longer and require me to do more labs to get the information down. I figured the best way to really understand AWS capabilities was to prepare and take the certification exams.
Preparation
I viewed the videos and took notes, around 30 pages. Normally I'd take about 2-3 weeks reading my notes every day and taking a practice exam every night. But I was getting 100% on the iPhone app practice exams and individual section tests so I went ahead and scheduled it. Still have very limited hands on with the platform but plan on doing more labbing preparing for the SysOps certification.
Study material review
A Cloud Guru videos - They're good, well done and recap to help provide you the ability to create notes easily. They will provide enough for you pass the exam, especially if you have a some background with developing and system admin.
A Cloud Guru quizzes - Very close to the exam in style and content.
iPhone App - Not kept up to date, there are a handful of questions that are now wrong based on updates by Amazon.
FAQs - Did skim some over some of them, but should have committed them to my notes for each section rather than reading them once.
The test
So far Amazon tests have been clearly worded and straight forward, which is nice.
Again, my score reflects limited hands on. The majority of the questions felt easier than the Solutions Architect exam, which is good and should be the case with familiarity with the material. Conceptually, from architecture and development experience, understanding how and when to utilize the available services is something I feel I have a handle on but some of the minutiae of the services needs more review and/or hands on to commit to memory.
Overall Score: 82%
Topic Level Scoring:
1.0 AWS Fundamentals: 100%
2.0 Designing and Developing: 90%
3.0 Deployment and Security: 62%
4.0 Debugging: 88%
Planning on completing SysOps by the end of the year along with one or two more (CISM, maybe TOGAF or ITIL). I'll probably hold off on the professional ones until I have the time to lab a lot more, unless I just get a wild hair or it becomes a requirement before then.
Study Material
A Cloud Guru videos series, quizzes and iPhone app
Background
I've been in the IT industry 20 years and have been working in a SaaS company for the last 14 years (back when it was an ASP). I architected and wrote most of the core platform software libraries, services and processes. I designed and managed the infrastructure being used as well.
Until about a month ago and half ago, I had zero experience with Amazon AWS but I decided to get familiar with how the platform was implemented and the capabilities to see if/how some of the offerings could be applied to my company's business. I also wanted to gain some insight for better approaches to how we may be able to do things. Turns out, I really like Amazon AWS. After completing the Solutions Architect certification last month Developer seemed best to do before SysOps since SysOps will probably take a little longer and require me to do more labs to get the information down. I figured the best way to really understand AWS capabilities was to prepare and take the certification exams.
Preparation
I viewed the videos and took notes, around 30 pages. Normally I'd take about 2-3 weeks reading my notes every day and taking a practice exam every night. But I was getting 100% on the iPhone app practice exams and individual section tests so I went ahead and scheduled it. Still have very limited hands on with the platform but plan on doing more labbing preparing for the SysOps certification.
Study material review
A Cloud Guru videos - They're good, well done and recap to help provide you the ability to create notes easily. They will provide enough for you pass the exam, especially if you have a some background with developing and system admin.
A Cloud Guru quizzes - Very close to the exam in style and content.
iPhone App - Not kept up to date, there are a handful of questions that are now wrong based on updates by Amazon.
FAQs - Did skim some over some of them, but should have committed them to my notes for each section rather than reading them once.
The test
So far Amazon tests have been clearly worded and straight forward, which is nice.
Again, my score reflects limited hands on. The majority of the questions felt easier than the Solutions Architect exam, which is good and should be the case with familiarity with the material. Conceptually, from architecture and development experience, understanding how and when to utilize the available services is something I feel I have a handle on but some of the minutiae of the services needs more review and/or hands on to commit to memory.
Overall Score: 82%
Topic Level Scoring:
1.0 AWS Fundamentals: 100%
2.0 Designing and Developing: 90%
3.0 Deployment and Security: 62%
4.0 Debugging: 88%
Planning on completing SysOps by the end of the year along with one or two more (CISM, maybe TOGAF or ITIL). I'll probably hold off on the professional ones until I have the time to lab a lot more, unless I just get a wild hair or it becomes a requirement before then.
CISSP / CCSP / CCSK / CRISC / CISM / CISA / CASP / Security+ / Network+ / A+ / CEH / eNDP / AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Specialty / AWS Certified Security - Specialty / AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional / AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional / AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate / AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate / AWS Certified Developer - Associate / AWS Cloud Practitioner