Passed CSAA & CCP

StrikingInfluencer

Hello,

Just wanted to say I recently took the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner a few days ago and passed, then today I took the Solutions Architect Associate and passed.  I've been following a lot of advice on this sub and wanted to give my 0.02.

So I have ZERO cloud background.  I'm more Net Sec / SecOps but have always been fascinated with tech and wanting to learn more / broaden my knowledge.  Which is why this cert took me longer than most.  I originally started with the a eKindle AWS Study Guide book and it was absolutely horrible (don't buy it)

I then got access to Linux Academy and finished their courses and their labs.  I didn't feel quite where I needed to be after that so I then went through all of the acloudguru course and labs.  Finally I read a ton of white papers and FAQs.  All in all I think it was incredibly difficult for me because I have literally no professional background in AWS.  For others who are looking at these certs I highly recommend taking the CCP first.  It can be taken online and it was well worth it.  After I took the CCP and passed I got a 50% off voucher for my next exam, and a free practice test that I used to take a CSAA practice test.  Plus I found that there was a lot of material the CCP ACloudGuru courses covered that were not in the AWS CSAA and obtaining that cert boosted my confidence and filled in some gaps I didn't know I had.  Below I'll post what I used to study.  

ACloudGuru - Great value and really good labs (Okay practice tests)
Linux Academy - Okay content but fantastic labs and I loved their cloud playground where I could use their AWS accounts and not worry about my own
Jon Bonsos Practice Exams - I actually never scored more than a 70% on these exams.  I didn't find them terribly accurate to the real test and was only a fan of the tutorialsdojo.com **** sheets and using them as supplemental 
AWS Offical CSAA Practice Exam

Anyways, it was a great time getting 2 certs in one week but now I am exhausted and I have two full notebooks full of notes so I think it's time to pick up on some gaming for a few weeks.  

AIi

Congrats and thanks for the write-up! 

Have fun relaxing,

itdept

Thanks for the write-up, what was your final score? How much time did you spend studying?

charismaticx

I’ve heard a lot of good things about cloud guru. Maybe, later this summer I can look into the Solutions Architect. What did you think of the exam? 

StrikingInfluencer

Hey everyone, sorry about the late replies.  So my score for the SAA was an 813 and for the CP I got a 903.  Honestly for the amount of time I spent studying -- it's hard to measure but I'd say like 3 months of real studying (lots of labs).  Realistically more like 6 if you count the off and on of my motivation.  When I started I dove right into the SAA material but the problem is -- I'm a total cloud noob.  I have no real-world cloud experience other than my personal projects and websites.  I felt at some points like I was in a little over my head with the SAA and I bought a voucher but was afraid to book the exam.  So I then actually bought a voucher for the Cloud Practitioner and since I was already studying for the SAA, it was way lighter.  I passed that exam a few days after getting the voucher and that win gave me the motivation to continue with the SAA cause I was really losing steam on it. 

I will say one of my biggest deterrents was actually the Jon Bonso exam questions.  I found them to be extremely out of touch with the real exam and very difficult but if you can pass those exams you will be well above what is required for the SAA.  I will also say that tutorialsdojo **** sheets were fantastic supplemental material and I highly recommend reading all of them before the exam. 

charismaticx

How much overlap is there between the two? I’m thinking about taking this one later this year.