Welcome, and in this video
I want to talk about AWS Certifications.
AWS have a full range of certifications
at many levels, and with multiple streams.
Knowing where to start is often a challenge,
and even when you have that first cert,
knowing an efficient route through
to your desired endpoint isn't trivial.
So, in this video, first, I want to explain
how to get started, then I want to talk
about some common paths through the various certs,
and finally, I want to talk about the Specialty certs,
and how their difficulty compares with everything else.
Now, that's a lot to cover,
so let's jump in and get started.
Now, this is an overview of the current layout
of the AWS Certifications.
It feels like every time I record one of these videos,
a new cert is added, so we'll see how long this one lasts.
You can look at AWS Certifications
as having four main difficulty levels,
starting with the easiest, the Practitioner level,
then moving through Associate, then Professional,
then finally, to Specialty.
AWS have an official recommendation that most people start
with the Cloud Practitioner certification.
Now, this is marked as a foundational cert
which requires six months of AWS industry knowledge.
Now, I disagree.
For most people, I actually recommend
against studying specifically for the Cloud Practitioner.
To explain why, let's start off with one of my core beliefs.
When you're looking to pass a certification,
there are two components.
First is the study.
The part where you gain the knowledge
which that cert requires, and this, in my view,
is the valuable part.
The part which lets you actually do a job working with AWS.
Second is the actual taking of the exam
and getting the official result.
So, these two things are different,
and you need to treat them as such.
Now, I'm a completist, and I'm not suggesting
that you don't pass the Cloud Practitioner certification.
I did, but for me, it was my eighth or ninth
AWS Certification, and I wanted it only so I could say
that I have them all.
What I'm suggesting is that you don't specifically study
for the Cloud Practitioner.
The reason is that with any good course,
studying for the Associate Architect
will give you all of the knowledge
that you need to pass the Cloud Practitioner, as well,
and because there's a pretty big overlap,
if you study for the Cloud Practitioner,
and then study for the Associate Architect,
you're duplicating part of that study.
Essentially, you're wasting time.
Now, time is the only non-replaceable thing that we have,
and so I'm pretty serious about being efficient
with the usage of my time and my students'.
So, my suggestion is that for almost everyone,
even if you are new to Cloud or new to AWS,
that you start with the Solutions Architect Associate
level of certification.
Many of us who've been working with AWS for years,
an studying for certifications for just as long,
didn't have the option to start
with the Cloud Practitioner certification.
It wasn't available when I started studying, for example,
so if you start with the Architect Associate,
then it will teach you enough
that you can either just take the Architect Associate exam,
or both that, and the Cloud Practitioner.
Now, I can't talk for every
Solutions Architect Associate course on the market,
but mine is designed so that you can take it
with no preexisting knowledge.
I want students to save the time by not studying twice,
and save the cost for two different courses.
More than that, though, the Solutions Architect Associate
is a well recognized certification.
And because my courses teach the skills
to work in that role, you increase your chances
of a new job or a promotion by obtaining
the Solutions Architect Associate
versus the Cloud Practitioner.
So, whether you're new to Cloud or AWS,
or you have some experience, in 99% of cases,
the Solutions Architect Associate
is always the right area for you to start with.
Think of it as the efficient entry point into AWS.
Now, you might get other advice from friends, or family,
or colleagues, or even other instructors, and even AWS.
I'm not saying to ignore that advice,
but I've worked in AWS for around a decade,
maintained all the AWS Certifications,
and taught hundreds of thousands of students,
and I can't recommend enough to start
with the Solutions Architect Associate certification,
and initially, ignore the Practitioner.
But what about after that?
Well, that's a more interesting discussion.
You can split AWS Certifications into two main groupings.
First, the Role Based certifications,
and these are designed around a certain job type,
so they test a broader range of knowledge required
to do a specific role, and this could be architectural,
operational, or development in nature.
Generally, these are the certifications
which you tackle first.
For 90% of people, these are the right ones to begin with.
There are some exceptions, which I'll cover soon,
but most people will have a far easier time
doing the Role Based certifications first.
Second, you have the Specialty certifications,
and these are much narrower
in terms of the knowledge requirements,
but also much deeper.
They're designed to prove that you have
the deep skilled required to be a specialist.
Examples include a senior networking engineer,
even an AWS data scientist.
The Specialty certs, in most cases,
should be left until last.
If you already have strong skills in one of the areas
that are covered, you can consider doing them sooner.
But generally, there's a lot to learn
in each of the Specialty certifications,
and they're much easier to tackle
if you have the general knowledge
that you're going to pick up
while studying for the Role Based certifications.
Now, I want to try and show you this concept visually
because I think it will help you conceptually understand
how the various certs fit together.
Now, on the left with the least amount
of knowledge and skill requirements
is the Cloud Practitioner.
As a reminder, this is the one
which I don't recommend studying for specifically.
Next are the Associate level certifications,
and these contain the Practitioner knowledge,
but layer on top of this,
additional Associate-specific requirements.
So, in terms of depth, the Associate requires
that you know more.
Coverage-wise, there aren't that many new topics introduced.
It's just additional detail versus the Cloud Practitioner.
At a Professional level, this follows a similar pattern,
with one key difference.
You'll start with a similar foundation.
The Practitioner, and then the Associate,
but on top of this, the Professional level
requires more depth and more breadth.
You'll need to know more about the same products
which you covered at the Associate level,
but then also, you'll need to know about more products,
and this includes their architecture, features,
and how to integrate them for projects.
Then we have the specialties, and it's here
where many students don't conceptually understand
where the Specialty certifications fit.
Firstly, they're much technically deeper
than the Professional certs, but also, they're narrower.
If you're taking the Advanced Networking Specialty,
for example, then you don't need to have an awareness
of the machine learning products.
But you need a much deeper awareness
of the networking products and features within AWS.
Now, I like to think of the Specialty certifications
as having a 50/50 split between the specific
specialty subjects, say, networking,
and then the AWS skills.
And the AWS skills need to be somewhere
between an Associate and a Professional level.
Now, I recommend that to make these doable,
when starting to study for a Professional cert,
then you're either skilled in the specific area
of that Specialty certification,
or you have AWS skills at a Professional level.
It's very rare that I would recommend anyone take
a Specialty cert until they have
the Solutions Architect Professional.
I like to think of the Solutions Architect Professional
as a foundation for all of the specialties
in the same way that I think
of the Solutions Architect Associate as a foundation
for all of the Role Based certifications within AWS.
Now, let's quickly finish up talking about the order
of the certifications.
There's no right answer when it comes to which order
to tackle the AWS Certifications.
There are routes that people will recommend.
Traditional routes which they've taken
through the various certifications,
but in all honesty, anything is possible.
It depends on your desired outcome
and how much effort you're willing to put in.
What I will say is this.
You should 100% start at the Associate level.
I've mentioned a few times I'm not a fan of studying
for the Practitioner exam, and so in most cases,
I'd start by skipping the Practitioner level.
The Associate level is where employers start taking notice,
and in my opinion, it's also where it starts getting fun.
Whatever your current job role, I would also recommend
always starting with the Solutions Architect Associate.
Architecture is at the core of everything else,
and it also happens to be the easiest
Associate level certification.
Starting with any of the others makes no sense.
Even if you're a developer or work in operations,
you'll end up studying less efficiently
because both of the other Associate certifications
rely on architecture.
Now, from an exam perspective,
the format is multiple choice or multiple answer.
You have a total of 130 minutes,
and the cost is $150 US.
Now, questions at the Associate level
tend to be between one line and two to three lines,
and then you generally have four or five answers,
each of one line each.
So, this is what to expect at the Associate level.
Once you have the Associate Architecture exam,
then this is where you have a choice.
Historically, the recommended route
was to always do the Developer Associate next,
and then follow this up with the SysOps Associate.
The Developer Associate isn't an exam
which requires any development experience.
Rather, it tests you on products and features
that developers will use.
In practice, this means the exam
is very much like the Solutions Architect Associate,
but with some extras like DynamoDB,
SQS, Elastic Beanstalk, and much more.
The overlap makes it pretty efficient
to do the Developer straight after the Solutions Architect.
The Developer Associate exam format is similar in style
to the Solutions Architect.
The format is multiple choice and multiple answer.
You have a total of 130 minutes, and the cost is $150 US.
Now, the SysOps Associate is a similar story.
It's the hardest of the Associate exams,
but it still has an overlap
with the Solutions Architect Associate.
Where the Architect is about designing and integrating,
the SysOps is about doing and fault-finding.
It's the same product scope in general,
but with a much more operations focus, and so again,
there are efficiencies that you can achieve by doing this
straight after the Solutions Architect Associate.
Now, if you decide on this route, at this point,
you will have all of the Associates.
Something which is known in the AWS Certification community
as All Three.
So, that's option number one,
and if you've taken option number one, the next step
is to move to the Professional level certifications.
Now, these are much harder than the Associates,
and students can often fail because they underestimate
just how much of a difference there is.
Traditionally, you always did all three Associates
before attempting any of the Professionals.
And one of the things I wanted to achieve
with my new courses is to allow students
to do stream-based study.
That is to start with a Solutions Architect Associate,
and then move on to the Solutions Architect Professional.
You'll still experience the jump in difficulty.
That will always be the case.
But I wanted to allow the path which avoids the need
to do the Developer and SysOps Associate.
You can still do those, but only if you want to.
At a Professional level, you need to prepare
for the difficulty jump.
The exams are longer, the questions tend to be
four to five lines, there are four to five answers,
and each of the answers ranges from two to four lines.
This means that you need to read, understand,
interpret, and select the right answer or answers,
and do that consistently for three hours.
It's 180 minutes, so only 50 more than the Associate,
but it will feel 10 times as long.
It's a much more difficult exam.
Now, the order to do the Professional exams
is also a point of contention
with many AWS professionals and trainers.
For me, it's an easy choice.
Do the Professional Architect first,
because architecture is at the core of everything.
Even if you have skills and experience in the DevOps space,
you'll still need a detailed understanding of AWS,
and so do the Solutions Architect Professional first,
and then you can finish up the Professional tier
with the DevOps Professional exam.
Now, with both of these, there is overlap.
When I was studying for them both,
I allocated three months of study,
studied the combined subject areas,
and then set the exams weeks apart.
I wanted that efficiency.
But at this point, if you follow the traditional route,
you will have five certifications,
three Associate, two Professional,
and in the community, this is known as All Five.
Now, I want to give you a moment to pause
and just reiterate the Professional exams
are really difficult.
Don't think that the Associates
are a three out of 10 difficulty and the Pros are a five.
If all of the AWS Certifications
are on a scale of one to 10, with the Associates at a three,
then the Pros are at a 10.
I personally think that the Professionals
are harder than the Specialty exams
because of the breadth of knowledge that you'll require.
The specialties, in theory, need a deeper knowledge,
but because of how narrowly focused they are,
it's easier to really focus
and retain the knowledge that you need.
The Professional exams are $300 US,
and so they're much more expensive
than the Associate certifications,
and this is another reason to give them
the respect they deserve, and make sure
that you achieve that first time pass.
Now, because I'm a completist, at this point
I would probably loop back and pick up
the Practitioner certification if you haven't already,
just to round off the Role Based certifications.
You don't have to, but I'm pretty obsessive,
and for me, I had to get this completion.
Now having just one cert was bothering me too much,
so if that's you as well, go wild and complete
all of the Role Based certs by finishing up
with the Cloud Practitioner.
Now, at this point, my suggestions
become very personal to your situation.
The Specialty exams can require significant effort,
or they might be relatively easy,
if you already have advanced skills
in that one specific area.
They vary considerably in difficulty.
The Advanced Networking is regarded as the hardest,
and Security or Alexa as the easiest,
but it all depends on your skill level.
The order depends on your skills.
If you're a networking engineer,
you might start with the Advanced Networking certification,
though you might already have taken this
based on what I discussed earlier.
So, if you already have skills in this one particular area,
then potentially, you could do cert and specialties
before you take the Professional Architect certification.
It depends on your skills, so tackle them in order
of how difficult you find the topics.
The Specialty exams are slightly shorter
than the Professionals.
170 minutes rather than 180, but they cost the same.
Question and answer structure is similar
to the Professional levels, so all involve
a lot of reading and understanding, but the questions test
a much deeper understanding of skills
in that one specific niche topic.
Now, attached to this video I've linked to the details
of all of the current AWS Certifications,
and I'll keep this updated as any changes or additions
are made to the lineup.
You can see details of each certification
within each of the exam overview documents,
and where appropriate, I've linked to some sample questions
which will give you an idea on complexity.
It's also worth mentioning that the exams
do also have practice tests which you can pay for,
which have more examples of questions.
Now, at this point, I hope this has been useful,
but this is everything which I wanted to cover
in this video, so go ahead and complete this video
and I hope to speak to you again in a future video.