7 Steps Guide to Become AWS Certified Solution Architect

My intent to write this blog is to help all those who are preparing for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate level certification. It is one of the tough exams that calls for through understanding of AWS infrastructure, various AWS services, AWS security, AWS risk & compliance, and architecting solutions considering features of AWS services & best practices. The more you know the better.

I will recommend a roadmap for preparation, share resources that I used and also add topics which I missed but realized their importance post clearing the certification exam. Following are the step that I would recommend:

• Get to know all the AWS services at high level & how they are used in various use case scenarios.
• Enroll for a course that can help you with preparation. I did a course from A Cloud Guru under Ryan Kroonenburg & that gave me a good head start in my preparation. This course also has labs so as to try out the services that you learn. Ryan is really good.
• Dig deeper in storage, compute, networking, IAM, & database services. Get your hands dirty with these services. Try out labs at Qwiklabs
• Read thoroughly following white papers:
• AWS Well Architected Framework ( PDF )
• AWS Cloud Best Practice
• AWS Storage Options ( PDF )
• AWS Security Whitepaper ( PDF )
• Watch AWS Re-Invent videos for gaining more clarity, for example last year's Re-Invent



• Maintain points to remember flash cards/sheets that can help you memorize important information. This will help answer straight forward questions really quick & save time for answering good number of lengthy convoluted questions in the exam.
• Take an AWS practice exam. It doesn’t cost much and will give you a fair idea of your readiness to take the actual exam. If you do well in the practice exam, it can be a good confidence booster.

I will continue to post on regular basis details on each topic that needs deep dive starting from storage services.