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Tips to Pass the AWS Solutions Architect Associate Exam

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Tips and tricks to pass the AWS Solutions Architect Associate Exam

AWS certifications are highly regarded in the industry and can open doors to exciting job opportunities. The AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification, in particular, is a valuable credential that demonstrates your expertise in designing distributed systems on Amazon Web Services. However, to pass the AWS Solutions Architect Associate Exam can be a challenging endeavor. The exam covers a wide range of topics, from cloud architecture principles to AWS services and best practices. But fear not, as this blog is your comprehensive guide to not only understanding the exam’s intricacies but also mastering it with confidence.

In the following sections, we’ll provide you with a treasure trove of tips and tricks that will not only help you navigate the AWS Solutions Architect Associate Exam but also increase your chances of passing it on your first attempt. Whether you’re a seasoned IT professional looking to validate your AWS expertise or a newcomer to the cloud seeking a career boost, this blog has you covered.

Let’s dive in and uncover the strategies, resources, and insights you need to conquer the AWS Solutions Architect Associate Exam and set yourself on a path to success in the world of cloud architecture.

Steps to Pass the AWS Solutions Architect Associate Exam

To be clear, the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate exam is not simple. It is not a test that you can simply buy a stack of practice exams and run through them repeatedly and expect to pass. The exam is heavily scenario-based. Anyone interested in learning how to prepare for AWS certification should keep the following in mind: AWS writes its questions in such a way that only those with real-world experience and knowledge of their services can pass. Let us go through this step-by-step strategy to help you clear this exam –

Step 1- Know about the exam Details

The examination includes two types of questions: multiple choice responses with one correct answer out of four options, and multiple response questions with two correct answers out of five alternatives. It is critical that the candidate answers all of the questions because there is no negative marking for incorrect answers; however, an unanswered question is considered a wrong answer. Certain unscored content may be included in the exam for survey purposes. These have no effect on the test outcome.

The certification would put practical knowledge to the test. As a result, hands-on practice and experience with AWS deployment, management services, databases, networking, storage, and computer services are advised. In addition, prerequisite knowledge for an AWS Solution Architect would include the ability to comprehend basic architectural principles, AWS global infrastructure, network technologies, AWS security features and tools, and the ability to build robust applications on AWS.

Next, it is important that you know about the exam objectives –

Step 2- Exam Objectives

Go through detailed study guide and documentation to understand each service at length.

Domain 1: Design Secure Architectures
Task Statement 1: Design secure access to AWS resources.

Knowledge of:

Skills in:

Task Statement 2: Design secure workloads and applications.

Knowledge of:

Skills in:

Task Statement 3: Determine appropriate data security controls.

Knowledge of:

Skills in:

Domain 2: Design Resilient Architectures
Task Statement 1: Design scalable and loosely coupled architectures.

Knowledge of:

Skills in:

  • Designing event-driven, microservice, and/or multi-tier architectures based on requirements (AWS Documentation: Event-Driven Architecture)
  • Determining scaling strategies for components used in an architecture design
  • also, Determining the AWS services required to achieve loose coupling based on requirements (AWS Documentation: Loosely Coupled Scenarios)
  • Determining when to use containers (AWS Documentation: Determining task size)
  • also, Determining when to use serverless technologies and patterns
  • Recommending appropriate compute, storage, networking, and database technologies based on requirements
  • Using purpose-built AWS services for workloads (AWS Documentation: Database)
Task Statement 2: Design highly available and/or fault-tolerant architectures.

Knowledge of:

Skills in:

  • Determining automation strategies to ensure infrastructure integrity (AWS Documentation: Protecting Compute)
  • Determining the AWS services required to provide a highly available and/or fault-tolerant architecture across AWS Regions or Availability Zones (AWS Documentation: Architecture guidelines and decisions)
  • Identifying metrics based on business requirements to deliver a highly available solution
  • Implementing designs to mitigate single points of failure (AWS Documentation: Withstand Component Failures)
  • Implementing strategies to ensure the durability and availability of data (for example, backups)
  • Selecting an appropriate DR strategy to meet business requirements (AWS Documentation: Plan for Disaster Recovery (DR))
  • Using AWS services that improve the reliability of legacy applications and applications not built for the cloud (for example, when application changes are not possible)
  • Using purpose-built AWS services for workloads (AWS Documentation: Database)
Domain 3: Design High-Performing Architectures
Task Statement 1: Determine high-performing and/or scalable storage solutions.

Knowledge of:

  • Hybrid storage solutions to meet business requirements (AWS Documentation: Hybrid Cloud Storage)
  • Storage services with appropriate use cases (for example, Amazon S3, Amazon Elastic File System [Amazon EFS], Amazon Elastic Block Store [Amazon EBS]) (AWS Documentation: Storage)
  • Storage types with associated characteristics (for example, object, file, block)

Skills in:

  • Determining storage services and configurations that meet performance demands (AWS Documentation: Storage Architecture Selection)
  • Determining storage services that can scale to accommodate future needs (AWS Documentation: Storage)
Task Statement 2: Design high-performing and elastic compute solutions.

Knowledge of:

  • AWS compute services with appropriate use cases (for example, AWS Batch, Amazon EMR, Fargate) (AWS Documentation: AWS Batch on AWS Fargate, Compute Services)
  • Distributed computing concepts supported by AWS global infrastructure and edge services (AWS Documentation: Global infrastructure)
  • Queuing and messaging concepts (for example, publish/subscribe) (AWS Documentation: Pub/Sub Messaging)
  • Scalability capabilities with appropriate use cases (for example, Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling, AWS Auto Scaling) (AWS Documentation: Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling)
  • Serverless technologies and patterns (for example, Lambda, Fargate) (AWS Documentation: Serverless)
  • The orchestration of containers (for example, Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS) (AWS Documentation: Orchestrating the containers)

Skills in:

  • Decoupling workloads so that components can scale independently (AWS Documentation: Event-Driven Architecture)
  • Identifying metrics and conditions to perform scaling actions (AWS Documentation: Monitor CloudWatch metrics)
  • Selecting the appropriate compute options and features (for example, EC2 instance types) to meet business requirements (AWS Documentation: Amazon EC2 Instance Types)
  • Selecting the appropriate resource type and size (for example, the amount of Lambda memory) to meet business requirements
Task Statement 3: Determine high-performing database solutions.

Knowledge of:

  • AWS global infrastructure (for example, Availability Zones, AWS Regions) (AWS Documentation: Global infrastructure)
  • Caching strategies and services (for example, Amazon ElastiCache) (AWS Documentation: Caching strategies)
  • Data access patterns (for example, read-intensive compared with write-intensive) (AWS Documentation: Best practices for Amazon RDS)
  • Database capacity planning (for example, capacity units, instance types, Provisioned IOPS)
  • also, Database connections and proxies (AWS Documentation: Using Amazon RDS Proxy)
  • Database engines with appropriate use cases (for example, heterogeneous migrations, homogeneous migrations) (AWS Documentation: Heterogeneous database migration)
  • also, Database replication (for example, read replicas) (AWS Documentation: Working with read replicas)
  • Database types and services (for example, serverless, relational compared with non-relational, in-memory) (AWS Documentation: Database)

Skills in:

  • Configuring read replicas to meet business requirements
  • Designing database architectures (AWS Documentation: Database Architecture Selection)
  • also, Determining an appropriate database engine (for example, MySQL compared with PostgreSQL) (AWS Documentation: Best practices for Amazon RDS)
  • Determining an appropriate database type (for example, Amazon Aurora, Amazon DynamoDB)
  • Integrating caching to meet business requirements
Task Statement 4: Determine high-performing and/or scalable network architectures.

Knowledge of:

  • Edge networking services with appropriate use cases (for example, Amazon CloudFront, AWS Global Accelerator) (AWS Documentation: Edge networking with AWS)
  • How to design network architecture (for example, subnet tiers, routing, IP addressing) (AWS Documentation: VPC with public and private subnets (NAT))
  • Load balancing concepts (for example, Application Load Balancer) (AWS Documentation: Application Load Balancer)
  • Network connection options (for example, AWS VPN, Direct Connect, AWS PrivateLink) (AWS Documentation: AWS Direct Connect)

Skills in:

Task Statement 5: Determine high-performing data ingestion and transformation solutions.

Knowledge of:

Skills in:

Domain 4: Design Cost-Optimized Architectures
Task Statement 1: Design cost-optimized storage solutions.

Knowledge of:

  • Access options (for example, an S3 bucket with Requester Pays object storage) (AWS Documentation: Using Requester Pays buckets for storage transfers and usage)
  • AWS cost management service features (for example, cost allocation tags, multi-account billing) (AWS Documentation: Using Cost Allocation Tags)
  • also, AWS cost management tools with appropriate use cases (for example, AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets, AWS Cost and Usage Report) (AWS Documentation: Analyzing your costs with AWS Cost Explorer)
  • AWS storage services with appropriate use cases (for example, Amazon FSx, Amazon EFS, Amazon S3, Amazon EBS) (AWS Documentation: Storage)
  • Backup strategies (AWS Documentation: AWS Backup)
  • Block storage options (for example, hard disk drive [HDD] volume types, solid state drive [SSD] volume types) (AWS Documentation: Amazon EBS volume types)
  • Data lifecycles (AWS Documentation: Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager)
  • Hybrid storage options (for example, DataSync, Transfer Family, Storage Gateway)
  • Storage access patterns
  • also, Storage tiering (for example, cold tiering for object storage) (AWS Documentation: Using Amazon S3 storage classes)
  • Storage types with associated characteristics (for example, object, file, block) (AWS Documentation: Storage)

Skills in:

Task Statement 2: Design cost-optimized compute solutions.

Knowledge of:

  • AWS cost management service features (for example, cost allocation tags, multi-account billing) (AWS Documentation: Using Cost Allocation Tags)
  • also, AWS cost management tools with appropriate use cases (for example, Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets, AWS Cost and Usage Report) (AWS Documentation: AWS Cost Explorer)
  • AWS global infrastructure (for example, Availability Zones, AWS Regions) (AWS Documentation: Global infrastructure)
  • AWS purchasing options (for example, Spot Instances, Reserved Instances, Savings Plans) (AWS Documentation: Instance purchasing options)
  • Distributed compute strategies (for example, edge processing) (AWS Documentation: Amazon SageMaker Distributed Training Libraries)
  • Hybrid compute options (for example, AWS Outposts, AWS Snowball Edge) (AWS Documentation: Compute Services)
  • Instance types, families, and sizes (for example, memory optimized, compute optimized, virtualization) (AWS Documentation: Memory optimized instances)
  • Optimization of compute utilization (for example, containers, serverless computing, microservices)
  • Scaling strategies (for example, auto scaling, hibernation) (AWS Documentation: Warm pools for Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling)

Skills in:

  • Determining an appropriate load balancing strategy (for example, Application Load Balancer [Layer 7] compared with Network Load Balancer [Layer 4] compared with Gateway Load Balancer) (AWS Documentation: Elastic Load Balancing FAQs)
  • also, Determining appropriate scaling methods and strategies for elastic workloads (for example, horizontal compared with vertical, EC2 hibernation) (AWS Documentation: Best practices for EC2 Spot)
  • Determining cost-effective AWS compute services with appropriate use cases (for example, Lambda, Amazon EC2, Fargate)
  • also, Determining the required availability for different classes of workloads (for example, production workloads, non-production workloads) (AWS Documentation: Workloads)
  • Selecting the appropriate instance family for a workload
  • Selecting the appropriate instance size for a workload (AWS Documentation: Tips for Right Sizing)
Task Statement 3: Design cost-optimized database solutions.

Knowledge of:

  • AWS cost management service features (for example, cost allocation tags, multi-account billing) (AWS Documentation: Using Cost Allocation Tags)
  • also, AWS cost management tools with appropriate use cases (for example, Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets, AWS Cost and Usage Report) (AWS Documentation: AWS Cost Explorer)
  • Caching strategies (AWS Documentation: Caching strategies)
  • Data retention policies
  • Database capacity planning (for example, capacity units) (AWS Documentation: Read/write capacity mode)
  • also, Database connections and proxies (AWS Documentation: Using Amazon RDS Proxy)
  • Database engines with appropriate use cases (for example, heterogeneous migrations, homogeneous migrations) (AWS Documentation: Heterogeneous database migration)
  • also, Database replication (for example, read replicas) (AWS Documentation: Working with read replicas)
  • Database types and services (for example, relational compared with non-relational, Aurora, DynamoDB) (AWS Documentation: Database)

Skills in:

  • Designing appropriate backup and retention policies (for example, snapshot frequency)
  • Determining an appropriate database engine (for example, MySQL compared with PostgreSQL) (AWS Documentation: Best practices for Amazon RDS)
  • also, Determining cost-effective AWS database services with appropriate use cases (for example, DynamoDB compared with Amazon RDS, serverless)
  • Determining cost-effective AWS database types (for example, time series format, columnar format) (AWS Documentation: AWS Cloud Databases)
  • Migrating database schemas and data to different locations and/or different database engines (AWS Documentation: Best practices for AWS Database Migration Service)
Task Statement 4: Design cost-optimized network architectures.

Knowledge of:

Skills in:

  • Configuring appropriate NAT gateway types for a network (for example, a single shared NAT gateway compared with NAT gateways for each Availability Zone) (AWS Documentation: NAT gateways)
  • furthermore, Configuring appropriate network connections (for example, Direct Connect compared with VPN compared with internet) (AWS Documentation: AWS Direct Connect FAQs)
  • Configuring appropriate network routes to minimize network transfer costs (for example, Region to Region, Availability Zone to Availability Zone, private to public, Global Accelerator, VPC endpoints)
  • Determining strategic needs for content delivery networks (CDNs) and edge caching (AWS Documentation: Working with Content Delivery Networks (CDNs))
  • Reviewing existing workloads for network optimizations (AWS Documentation: Optimize over time)
  • Selecting an appropriate throttling strategy (AWS Documentation: Throttle API requests for better throughput)
  • Selecting the appropriate bandwidth allocation for a network device (for example, a single VPN compared with multiple VPNs, Direct Connect speed) (AWS Documentation: Site-to-Site VPN single and multiple connection)

Now, it is important to know about the exam preparation resources –

Step 3- Refer to AWS Whitepapers

AWS whitepapers can help candidates prepare for AWS. These are legitimate study materials that can assist candidates in understanding AWS services. Whitepapers, on the other hand, are PDF versions of the topics found on Amazon’s official certifications page. Whitepapers not only help you better prepare, but they also assist you in developing a strong strategy to focus on. Also, AWS also provides candidates with sample papers to help them gain additional knowledge and skills in preparation for certification exams.

Step 4- Join online Communities

It may be beneficial to form a study group if you participate in online groups or communities. Study groups may benefit you in more ways than just providing an organized framework for your learning. They also help to develop a new perspective on the problem, which reduces delays. These groups can help you with everything from technical support and break/fix issues to advise and instruction on relevant topics. You can keep up to date on test revisions by participating in group discussions with subject-matter experts about your concerns.

Step 5- Refer to AWS Training

Firstly, AWS offers training to candidates to help them develop competence, confidence, and credibility through practical cloud skills. Candidates can learn at their own pace online; Or from an AWS instructor who has been trained by AWS experts. Both novices looking to improve their existing IT skills and professionals with cloud knowledge will benefit from this.

Step 6- Evaluate yourself with practice tests

Finally, we arrive at the crux of your studies: the AWS Solutions Architect Associate Practice Tests. This is an important component that will assist you in better preparing for the exam. In other words, practice tests are beneficial because they allow you to assess your own strengths and weaknesses. So, by practicing, you will be able to improve your answering skills while also saving time.

Tips for Exam Day Success

The AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam is a challenging but rewarding certification that can significantly enhance your career prospects in the cloud computing industry. To maximize your chances of success, it’s essential to prepare effectively and adopt effective strategies for exam day. This section will provide you with valuable tips to help you manage your time efficiently, solve problems effectively, and mitigate exam-related stress.

  • Allocate time for each question based on its difficulty and point value.
  • If you’re struggling with a question, move on and come back to it later.
  • Mark questions for review if you’re unsure about the answer.
  • Focus on answering questions you’re confident about first.
  • Simplify the problem into smaller, more manageable parts.
  • Use process of elimination to narrow down your choices.
  • Carefully review each answer choice before making a selection.
  • Refer to the question prompt and any given context.
  • A well-prepared mind is less likely to feel anxious.
  • Deep breathing, meditation, or visualization can help calm your nerves.
  • Ensure you’re well-rested before the exam.
  • Focus on your strengths and believe in your abilities.

Conclusion

By following the tips outlined in this blog post, you can significantly increase your chances of successfully passing the AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam. Remember to focus on building a strong foundation, practicing consistently, and managing your time and stress effectively. The journey to certification may be challenging, but the rewards are well worth the effort.

Anandita Doda
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