Passed AWS Certified Solution Architect Associate

Hello everyone.
My name is Hirata from the System Solutions Department.

I recently passed the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate exam, so
I would like to summarize what I did to pass and my thoughts on the exam.

 

About the author

• Joined mid-career for 6 months (infrastructure engineer for several years)
• No work experience with AWS until joining the company (self-learning level)

 

study period

2 months (January-February 2020)

I learned that the Solution Architect Associate exam will be revised after March 23, 2020, so I started studying in a hurry. . .
https://aws.amazon.com/jp/certification/coming-soon/

Therefore, I took SAA-C01 .

 

What I did

Exam preparation book

AWS Certification Exam Text AWS Certification Solution Architect - Associate

https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B07R1H87Y1/

This is a perfect first book.
The content is easy to understand and moves along quickly, so after I finished reading it,
I felt like I had completely understood AWS, but that was just my imagination.

 

Overnight AWS Certified Solution Architect Associate Last Minute Preparation Text

https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4798059463/

The chapter structure is unique, as it is organized by AWS Well Architected framework rather than by service.

it often happens
that EC2 is written about, then Kinesis Data Streams is written about, and Perhaps for that reason, some people have criticized it in the reviews on Amazon, but
I think it is a good practical book to read after the second book

 

WEB problem collection

Learn with AWS WEB problem collection

https://aws.koiwaclub.com/
It is a service like ping-t.
You can take more than 935 questions of SAA-C01 for a fee.
7-question units , so it is attractive that you can progress little by little in your free time.

 

Udemy AWS Certified Solution Architect Associate Mock Test Questions (5 exams, 325 questions)

https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-knan/This
is a mock exam that has a similar structure to the actual exam, and focuses on questions of
higher difficulty I started taking the exam half a month before the exam, but I remember feeling hopeless because I couldn't pass any of the exams in the first week.
However, this was the most effective way to prepare for the exam.

 

What I didn't do

When you are working, you have to study within a limited amount of time, so
you are forced to choose between studying methods.

I would like to introduce a study method that I did not use this time from among the ones that are often introduced in online testimonials

 

Udemy video lessons

I gave up because it was difficult to study during breaks because I was restricted for a certain period of time.

 

BlackBelt (Amazon Online Seminar)

https://aws.amazon.com/jp/aws-jp-introduction/I
decided not to do so because not all of them are exam-specific.

 

AWS official mock exam

I decided not to take the exam because there was a lot of information that the difficulty level was much easier than the actual exam.

 

Exam impressions

Difficulty level

I can't write about the details of the exam content
as there is a restriction that the exam questions will not be made public but in terms of difficulty, it was the same as Udemy's mock exam.

 

The sentence in question is long

The exam is 65 questions and 140 minutes.
Each question is approximately 150-250 characters long.
When I took the exam, there was only 40 minutes left at the end of the exam, so I had plenty of time, but I
was exhausted and had no mental energy.

 

Sometimes I feel like I can't pinpoint a clear answer.

The exam is multiple-choice, but it's not just about things that you can pinpoint and say is definitely the answer, it's
also about being able to do whatever you want, but which is it? There are times when.

In such cases, the problem statement usually

includes keywords such as ``Which method is more cost-effective?''
or
``High availability is required.''

These words are associated with the
Well-Architected Framework The Well-Architected Framework is an AWS design best practice that consists of the following five items:

* Operational Excellence
* Security
* Reliability
* Performance Efficiency
* Cost Optimization

When you're having trouble preparing for an exam, choose an option that more closely aligns with these best practices.

 

...However, there were still quite a few problems that could not be determined.

for example,

S3 storage class

When deciding between Standard or Standard-IA when choosing an S3 storage class,
there is no mention of cost or frequency in the question text. . .

 

Schedule Reserved Instance

When choosing a purchase method for EC2 instances that are launched within a certain period of time,
the description of the period is slightly ambiguous, making it difficult to decide whether it is a Scheduled Reserved Instance. . .

 

SQS

Since processing order and duplication prevention are requirements for application separation,
SQS FIFO can meet the requirements, but FIFO is not listed as an option. . .

 

I think it's partly due to my lack of knowledge, but

, it might be better to think of it as "bad luck."

 

Comparison with 3 years ago

There was a blog about an employee of our company taking the same exam three years ago

Apparently there was no such thing as a problem book at that time,
so the following study method was used.

 

• Try it out (take official training)
• Take the official mock exam
• Load official documentation

 

I was surprised at how he studied in a completely different way than me.
Basically, it seems that only official information was available for reference.

Compared to then, there are now more non-official reference books and problem books, and
I feel that the industry recognition of AWS certification has increased significantly in just three years.

Our company Beyond, which has many employees who have such AWS certifications, actively recruiting .

 

That's it.