Learning Experience with AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate

After two+ years of learning experience across AWS topics, managed to get recognised as official certified AWS Architect (Associate) and hence this article aim to summarise the learning experience.

Learning Strategy

Following areas of labs helped shaping a keyboard experience to cloud which is super critical for cloud learning and adaptation:

1. HandsOn with AWS Cloud based Labs through ROI Labs,

2. HandsOn with A Cloud Guru (via Pluralsight),

3. HandsOn with regular work on AWS along with GCP experience (helped in comparison of like-to-like features/resources between cloud providers)

Learn from Newsletters

Subscribe to this newsletter on top right. These are highly useful content relevant to this certification:

Study Materials

Highly relied on 'hands-on' helps in this paper since most are case based questions and rely on theory only to have clarity via Youtube, Coursera and Pluralsight/A Cloud Guru for references and examples. Some of the study materials consolidation helped getting oversight of where to reach when in doubt:

1. Pluralsight based course.

2. Coursera based course.

3. Collective contributions from practice exams.

4. Github based practice exams.

5. Stéphane Maarek's Udemy course.

6. Stéphane Maarek's practice exams.

7. Jon Bonso's TutorialsDojo study guide.

8. Jon Bonso's TutorialsDojo practice exams.

100% Free courses:

🔸 Starting your Career with Amazon AWShttps://lnkd.in/giU7B6xF

🔸 Amazon Web Services (AWS) - Zero to Herohttps://lnkd.in/gzkABsZw

🔸 AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Introductionhttps://lnkd.in/gtuUZFrd

🔸 AWS Developer Associate traininghttps://lnkd.in/geuvqZbs

🔸 EU Privacy Laws & AWS: Build Compliant Data Architectureshttps://lnkd.in/gEB9FZuX

🔸 Serverless computing in AWShttps://lnkd.in/ghn2tSKP

🔸 Amazon Web Services - Learning and Implementing AWS Solutionhttps://lnkd.in/g_9FZSMK

🔸 All About AWS Lambda and Serverlesshttps://lnkd.in/gpvUZjkN

🔸 AWS Tutorials - DynamoDB and Database Migration Servicehttps://lnkd.in/gpPjfNzu

🔸 Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2: An Introduction https://lnkd.in/gb4kPnnu

🔸 AWS VPC Transit Gateway - Hands On Learning!https://lnkd.in/gzpVD5Rt

🔸 Cloud Computing With Amazon Web Serviceshttps://lnkd.in/g4R7qdDU

🔸 A Practical Introduction to Cloud Computinghttps://lnkd.in/gv4uSgE2

Source: Recent post from Viktoria, AWS

Vouchers

Useful campaign of AWS to get 50% discount on AWS Associate certifications

Exam Experience

Took the opportunity to take the exam midnight and the exam proctors were helpful from PearsonVUE over the chat and calls(via laptop) to talk and perform checks before and during the test when the network gets disconnected.

Schedule Exam: Link

Results of the Exam

After 'End Exam' results were not displayed and it has to be a wait of 5 business days-but the results arrived after 9 hours as an email from credly with the badge and no results yet. Exam score made available after 13 hours post exam on the AWS training and certification site to download PDF. Similarly the certificate made available an hour or two later after the score

📌Credly Link: https://lnkd.in/e5FT-dcD

👉Forum Discussions helpful in tracking latest result timelines: Link1, Link2, Link3

Background of Learning and HandsOn

Curated from huge list of hands-on labs to shortlist selected labs that are useful prior to taking this exam-these labs are accessible from ACloudGuru: Link

Attending (100% Free Hands-on sessions) from ROI Training helped understanding basics of cloud hosting during 2021-24. Highly recommended to watch their free offerings time to time: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/roi-training-inc-8383376707

Interesting webinar recordings 100% Free: AWS and GCP

My favourite Lab (from ACloudGuru/Pluralsight) on AWS Bastion Host:

Some of my interesting hands-on Labs related to securing cloud resources:

2023 Learning Summary

2024 Learning Summary

Annual View Time of 50 Hrs in Two Years

2023:

2024:

Conferences

Attending focused AWS topics (Sustainability in AWS) helped sharpening knowledge over key possibilities of digital transformation:

Learning Tricks

Just before going to exam, revising key services helps 'connecting the dots' to mentally prep for a complex 140 minutes exam to tackle 65 questions.

Source: Link

Favourite Integration Topics

These last minute revisions of integration points were highly helpful to handle case studies part of the exam.

• DynamoDB<>S3

• Amazon Macie<> Amazon Events Bridge <> Amazon SNS

• Amazon Machine Images (AMI) <> AWS Cloud Formation

• Amazon Kinesis Data Stream<>Amazon Kinesis Firehose <> S3 Data Lake <> AWS Redshift

• AWS FSx for Windows File Server <> FSx File Gateway

• AWS OpenSearchService <>Amazon Elastic Search Service

• AWS Pinpoint-Kinesis Data Stream

• KCM for EBS and Aurora & ACM for ALB

• SMB Clients <> FSx Server

• Security Group ID <>  VPC

Insightful Actions

These interactions and key actions between commands/events were helpful to revise two days prior to the exam.

• Provisioned IOPS SSD Storage of Database

• Regional Data Transfer Changes

• AWS Systems Manager->Run Command

• AWS Systems Manager->Run Custom Command

• Autoscaling for RDS Oracle Instance

• Invoke/configure ChangeMessageVisibility API Call

• AWS Data Sync (over) AWS Direct Connect

Favourite Topics

Here are key points and brief summaries for each of the listed topics, tailored to help with AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (DVA-C03) exam preparation in the final two weeks:

1. AWS WAF - API Gateway

• AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF) protects web applications from common threats like SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS).

• Can be integrated with API Gateway to filter and monitor HTTP(S) requests.

2. IAM Parameter Store

• AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store offers secure, hierarchical storage for configuration data and secrets.

• Supports encrypted and plain-text parameter storage, integrated with IAM policies for fine-grained access control.

3. AWS Backup

• Centralized backup service for AWS services like EC2, EFS, RDS, DynamoDB, and more.

• Includes backup plans, retention policies, and compliance features.

4. AWS RDS Proxy

• Fully managed database proxy for Amazon RDS that improves application scalability, availability, and security.

• Reduces database connection overhead and provides connection pooling.

5. AWS DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX)

• Fully managed, in-memory caching for DynamoDB to improve performance by providing microsecond response times.

• Compatible with DynamoDB and reduces read latency.

6. HPC and Linux-Based Systems (Linked to FSx and Lustre)

• FSx for Lustre provides high-performance file systems for HPC workloads, offering fast data access for large-scale processing.

• Integration with Amazon S3 enables high-throughput data processing.

7. Amazon Athena

• Serverless query service that allows you to run SQL queries on data in Amazon S3 without needing to load it into a database.

• Supports data formats like CSV, Parquet, ORC, and JSON.

8. AWS Lake Formation

• Service to easily set up a secure data lake using AWS S3.

• Helps manage access control, data governance, and data cataloging.

9. S3 Lifecycle Policy

• Automates the movement of objects between storage classes based on age or other criteria.

• Supports transitions (e.g., S3 Standard to Glacier) and expiration (e.g., delete old data).

10. S3 Storage Classes

• S3 Standard-IA: For infrequently accessed data with low latency.

• S3 Glacier: Low-cost archival storage for data that is rarely accessed.

• S3 Glacier Deep Archive: Lowest-cost storage for data that is rarely needed.

• S3 with Compliance Lock: Ensures data is immutable, useful for regulatory compliance.

11. S3 Cross-Region Replication

• Automatically replicates objects across different AWS regions.

• Ensures high availability and disaster recovery.

12. AWS EventsBridge (CloudWatch Events)

• Event bus service for building event-driven architectures, integrates with AWS services, SaaS apps, and custom sources.

• Replaces CloudWatch Events for more flexible and scalable event routing.

13. AWS Organizations & Service Control Policies

• AWS Organizations allows centralized management of multiple AWS accounts.

• Service Control Policies (SCPs) define permissions for accounts in an organization.

14. AWS Control Tower & Data Residency Guardrails

• AWS Control Tower simplifies governance and provisioning of multi-account AWS environments.

• Data Residency Guardrails ensure that data remains within specific regions.

15. AWS CloudWatch Composite Alarms

• Combines multiple CloudWatch Alarms into a single alarm, triggered when multiple conditions are met.

• Used for more complex monitoring scenarios.

16. AWS Elastic File System (EFS)

• Fully managed NFS file system for use with AWS Cloud services and on-premises resources.

• Scalable and provides a simple, elastic, shared file storage solution.

17. AWS Snowball Edge

• Physical device used for data transfer to AWS in environments with limited or no internet connectivity.

• Supports both storage and compute functionality.

18. AWS Simple Queue Service (SQS)

• Fully managed message queuing service that enables decoupling of applications.

• SQS FIFO: Ensures the order of message processing.

19. AWS Simple Notification Service (SNS)

• Fully managed pub/sub messaging service to send notifications to subscribers or other applications.

• Supports SMS, email, HTTP(S), Lambda, and SQS as endpoints.

20. AWS Simple Email Service (SES)

• Cloud-based email sending service for bulk email, marketing, and transactional emails.

• Supports high deliverability rates with built-in feedback loops.

21. Network File System (NFS) & SMB (Server Message Block)

• NFS: Distributed file system protocol for Linux/UNIX systems, supported by EFS.

• SMB: File-sharing protocol commonly used by Windows-based applications, supported by FSx for Windows File Server.

22. Amazon Route 53 & Multi-Value Routing

• DNS service to route end-user requests to endpoints like EC2, S3, and CloudFront.

• Multi-Value Routing: Enables multiple IPs to be returned for a single DNS query for load balancing.

23. AWS Shield Advanced

• Managed DDoS protection service that provides enhanced protections for AWS resources, including CloudFront and ELB.

24. AWS Well-Architected Framework

• A set of best practices to ensure AWS workloads are designed for high performance, security, cost efficiency, reliability, and operational excellence.

25. AWS Systems Manager

• Offers operational insights and automation for managing AWS resources.

• Includes features like Run Command, Patch Manager, and Automation to manage infrastructure at scale.

26. AWS Direct Connect

• Dedicated network connection from on-premises to AWS, providing low-latency and high-throughput connections.

27. AWS Macie

• Fully managed service for discovering, classifying, and protecting sensitive data like Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in Amazon S3.

28. AWS Textract & Rekognition

• Textract: Extracts text and data from scanned documents using OCR.

• Rekognition: Analyzes images and videos for object and scene detection, facial analysis, and more.

29. Amazon Machine Images (AMI)

• Pre-configured OS images used to launch EC2 instances. Supports custom AMIs for specific application configurations.

30. AWS CloudFormation

• Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) service that allows users to model, provision, and manage AWS resources using YAML or JSON templates.

31. Amazon Aurora Global Database

• Multi-region database for globally distributed applications with low-latency reads and disaster recovery capabilities.

32. Amazon CloudFront Distribution

• Content Delivery Network (CDN) service for low-latency, high-speed content delivery globally.

33. Amazon ElasticCache

• Managed in-memory cache service supporting Redis and Memcached for accelerating web applications.

34. Amazon Kinesis

• Firehose: Real-time data streaming to destinations like S3, Redshift, or Elasticsearch.

• Data Analytics: Real-time analytics for processing streaming data.

35. Amazon ECS with Fargate

• ECS: Container orchestration service for deploying Docker containers.

• Fargate: Serverless compute engine for ECS, allowing container management without the need to provision servers.

36. AWS Key Management Service (KMS)

• Managed service for creating and controlling cryptographic keys used for data encryption.

37. AWS Transfer Family

• Fully managed service for transferring files via protocols like SFTP, FTPS, FTP, and AS2 to and from AWS storage services.

38. Network Load Balancer & Application Load Balancer

• NLB: Handles TCP traffic with ultra-low latency and high availability.

• ALB: Layer 7 load balancer supporting HTTP/HTTPS traffic with routing based on content.

39. AWS Site-to-Site VPN

• Secure VPN connection between on-premises networks and AWS VPCs.

40. Recovery Point Objective (RPO) & Recovery Time Objective (RTO)

• RPO: Maximum allowable data loss (time).

• RTO: Maximum allowable downtime.

41. DynamoDB Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR)

• Allows for recovery of DynamoDB tables to any point within the last 35 days.

42. Trusted Advisor

• AWS service providing real-time recommendations to optimize your AWS environment for cost, performance, security, and fault tolerance.

43. Elastic Block Store (EBS)

• Persistent block storage for EC2 instances. Supports different volume types like SSD, HDD, and provisioned IOPS.

44. Active MQ Queue

• Fully managed message broker service for queuing applications.

45. AWS Resource Group Tagging

• Organize AWS resources with tags for efficient management and reporting.

This summary will help you focus on the essentials of each topic for the DVA-C03 exam!

Compare Cloud Services

Following are some of my articles useful for GCP ,Azure cloud services to compare and learn similarities:

Best Cloud Project Award-Finalist during 2023

Learning is useful only when it gets implemented and reaches the stakeholders with the satisfaction of achievement. Adapting cloud best practices not only helped understanding basics, but extended to get recognised in some wonderful recognitions during this learning journey:

#GrowWithPurpose is a mantra that led us throughout 2022/23 to focus on what matters to application resilience-In my experience, getting talented engineers to teams and attracting them to contribute to latest tools and technologies are not that easy and it is not going to happen on day 1. But this has been made possible after a series of relentless efforts from group of engineers working with me in digital native app journeys. Asa a result, this incredible progress on #CloudTransformation led us to be finalist to #CloudExcellenceAwards 2023-read the latest article here: https://lnkd.in/ekGUFRzM

🙌 Thanks to Sai Mallick Nandam for being a brilliant Lead in implementing code #reusability through multiple engineering interventions, Saumya Patni has been exceptional in testing native applications for improved #accessibility #automation, Adesh Patra has been kind enough in fixing native app test code, SUHARSHINI JONNALAGADDA has been managing code across multiple journeys, proud to see the strong leadership from Sandip Ravindran , Kunal Nagpal and truly inspiring contributions from Abhishek Tyagi on Cloud Transformation in these recent five+ years👏

Final words..

“We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.” — Peter Drucker

Consistency, Perseverance are two great characteristics important to clear this certification. Develop a passion for learning.One hour per day of study in your chosen field is all it takes. One hour per day of study will put you at the top of your field within three years. Within five years you’ll be a national authority. In seven years, you can be one of the best people in the world at what you do (Quote from Earl Nightingale)

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