How I passed the AWS Solutions Architect Associate and Security Specialty Exams Back-to-Back

I recently passed the AWS Certified Security — Specialty (SCS-C01) exam less than three weeks after passing the AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Associate (SAA-C02) exam. Coming from a non-IT background, I thought I should draft this article to serve as a guide to others that are preparing for these exams, especially for those that are new to the industry. It was a lot of work, for sure, but also a lot of fun. If you’re currently preparing for these exams, or even if you’re just thinking about it, then I hope you’ll find this article helpful and encouraging.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate

AWS Certified Security - Specialty

Because the SCS-C01 exam requires your having the SAA-C02 (or SAA-C01) certification, we’ll start with what you’ll need for SAA-C02. Much of the stuff that you’ll learn in this exam will be applicable to the SCS-C01 exam anyways, so it’s a logical place to start.

If you’re new to cloud service providers, or even if you’re just new to AWS, then these exams may feel like drinking from a fire hose. But have no fear. The concepts that you’ll learn in these exams are accessible even for the non-technical individual.

Here’s my list of resources that I used to prepare for the SAA-C02 exam:

1. A Cloud Guru’s Certified Solutions Architect — Associate 2020 Course on Udemy
2. AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Practice Exams by Jon Bonso with Tutorial’s Dojo
3. The Official AWS Documentation
4. Tutorial’s Dojo Study Paths and Cheat Sheets

A Cloud Guru is a fantastic resource for preparing for any cloud service provider exam, and A Cloud Guru’s Certified Solutions Architect — Associate 2020 Course exam is no exception. They provide you with well-organized material, clear explanations, and useful exam tips. They also offer a great user interface on their website, including a cloud sandbox mode that allows you to play with the AWS environment without having to create an AWS account. It makes following along with their videos a breeze.

If you’re unsure if cloud certifications are right for you, then you might consider purchasing this same course through Udemy, likely with substantial savings over an A Cloud Guru membership. You can even then port your class back into A Cloud Guru in case you prefer their user interface.

Either way, it’s a great course that I strongly recommend.

Once you finish the A Cloud Guru course, it’s time to start practicing exam questions. This is where I recommend the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Practice Exams by Jon Bonso in order to practice exam questions. Jon Bonso does a fantastic job of creating realistic and challenging questions that very closely mirror the types of questions that I faced during the actual exam. Moreover, each question comes with a detailed explanation, with links for additional reading.

I took each practice exam 3 or 4 times before sitting my exam, and they were an invaluable resource. Each time I learned something new, and would often find myself going straight to the The Official AWS Documentation to learn more about the topics that I got wrong. If you like reading, you could probably skip the A Cloud Guru course and do 100% of your learning with the AWS Documentation. Most services have a user guide that provides you with a high level look at the service and its key concepts. The FAQs section of each service is also an outstanding guide for your learning. Many exam questions read as if they were pulled straight from an FAQs section of the AWS Documentation.

Finally, I found the study paths, cheat sheets, and comparison sheets at Tutorial’s Dojo highly valuable in reinforcing my learning. You will learn about a bunch of different services in preparing for these exams, and Tutorial’s Dojo does a great job at extracting large chunks of information and presenting it in a succinct way. Their cheat sheets are great for learning the subtleties and limitations of a service, and are especially useful when you don’t have the time to read through a whole FAQs section in the official documentation.

That’s it. That’s how I prepared for the SAA-C02 exam. I spent about a month preparing for it, and all in all I spent probably 100 hours in preparation. If I could go back, I would have done two things differently.

1. Practice in the console more
2. Make and utilize flashcards

I really didn’t provision a bunch of stuff in the AWS console in preparing for the SAA-C02 exam, but I wish that I had. I think it would have accelerated my learning. I also didn’t make very good notes, but instead opted to read, and re-read, materials, including exam answer choice explanations, cheat sheets, and the official AWS Documentation. It would have saved me a bunch of time had I made flashcards for key concepts, as I did in preparing for the SCS-C01 exam.

Now, once you prepare for and pass the SAA-C02 exam, you may feel a bit winded. But don’t stop now! Whether you know it or now, you’ve already made huge progress in preparing for SCS-C01. Many of the concepts that you learn in preparing for the SAA-C02 exam, such as CloudWatch, CloudTrail, IAM, and KMS, will constitute a major chunk of the knowledge base required to pass the SCS-C01 exam. Because of that, the amount of additional effort needed to pass the SCS-C01 exam will be substantially less than the amount needed to pass the SAA-C02 exam, so let’s get started.

Here are the resources that I used to prepare for the SCS-C01 exam:

1. Tutorial’s Dojo AWS Security Specialty Practice Exams
2. A Cloud Guru’s AWS Certified Security — Specialty 2020 Course on A Cloud Guru
3. The Official AWS Documentation
4. My Quizlet flashcards
5. This great Medium article by Pawel Rzepa and his publicly available notes

You may have noticed that I recommended the official A Cloud Guru course, sans Udemy. This is because they do not offer the SCS-C01 material on Udemy at this time. If you opted for an A Cloud Guru membership, then you can use their exam simulator to practice. That’s what I did. But don’t worry if you didn’t opt for their membership. Their exam simulator wasn’t a major component of my preparation. What’s most important for this exam is to understand the material, not necessarily the questions that you’ll be asked about the material. You just need to have a high level understanding of the types of questions that you’ll be asked. For that, I recommend you glance over the official AWS-provided sample questions.

In sitting this exam, I was struck by how challenging it was for me. You really have to think critically for each question, so having a thorough understanding of the services is important. Pay special attention to KMS, IAM, CloudTrail and CloudWatch. Make sure you understand each key concept for a given service, and familiarize your self with the FAQs of the aforementioned services.

All in all, the additional studying time needed for the SCS-C01 exam was about 20–30 hours. Not too bad. Certainly much less than I needed for the SAA-C02 exam. Check out my flashcards, above, or make your own!

And that’s it! There’s your path to getting double certified in a short period of time. Again, I’m pretty green to IT and cloud services. If I can do it, you can too. Feel free to reach out if anyone has questions or recommendations!

-Terry