This document provides an overview and frequently asked questions about AWS certification exams. It discusses why individuals pursue certification, the best study resources which include tutorial sites and practice exams, when the optimal time is to take exams based on material refresh cycles, where exams can be taken both in-person and remotely, tips for pacing oneself during the exam and using practice exams, and considerations for beta exams which have discounted prices but lack study materials and immediate scoring.

1. EPAM Proprietary & Confidential. 1
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2. AWS Certification FAQ
JOHN MERLINE | 6/20/2019
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmerline/

3. Active Certifications
Expired
Netskope Cloud Security Administrator
Netskope Cloud Security Integrator
Zscaler Certified Cloud Professional Internet Access
Zscaler Certified Deployment Specialist
Zscaler Certified Cloud Professional Private Access
Zscaler Certified Cloud Administrator Internet Access
Zscaler Certified Cloud Administrator Private Access
Retired

4. AWS Certification Overview
This talk is about lessons learned during a seven-year journey across
all the AWS exams (and a few other cloud providers). This session will
answer the questions below and include tips, links to resources, and
other useful information for anyone considering AWS certification.
| Why take certifications exams?
| What are the best study resources?
| When should I take them?
| Where do I take them?
| How do I pace myself during the exam?
| Do practice tests help?
| What about beta exams?

5. | Provides structure for keeping up with
technology
| Availability of high-quality educational resources
| Benefit from lessons learned by the community
| Third party validation of subject matter
| Increases career opportunities – LinkedIn, etc.
| Necessary for consultants and AWS Partners
| Access to certification lounge at AWS events ;-)
Why take certification
exams?

6. | A Cloud Guru not as focused on certifications as it once was
| Tutorials Dojo has the best practice exams and study materials for AWS
| Exam specific forums on training sites can be helpful
| Never attended AWS training classes - O’Reilly has the best live training currently
| There are boot camps at regional AWS Summits
| Download study materials to mobile devices – tables and phones
| Sales on subscriptions during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and holiday seasons
| A Cloud Guru, O’Reilly, and WhizLabs also have sandboxes and labs
| AWS Workshops (https://workshops.aws/) is a great resource but it is BYOA
What are the best study resources?

7. When should I take them?
| Certification exams have a lifecycle
| It takes months to create a certification course (video, labs, quizzes, etc.)
| Topics and questions on exams are updated at least annually
| Training resources have a half-life and become out of date over time
| Best time to use a study course is when it first comes out or at least recently
updated
| The advantage of the O’Reilly crash courses is they are up to date with latest
info

8. Where do I take them?
| Each cloud provider uses a different exam service
| AWS uses Pearson VUE
| Azure uses Pearson VUE
| Google STILL uses Kryterion
| OCI is online only
| (ISC)2 exams also Pearson VUE with palm scans
| Each vendor also supports remotely proctored exams
| The only option during the pandemic
| Need a laptop that allows install of third-party exam software
| Very reliable Internet connection is essential
| Clean desk and uncluttered room
| Can be more trouble than it is worth

9. How do I
pace myself
during the
exam?
| Calculate minutes per question – maybe write milestones on scratch
paper
| Better to spread the time over each question than mark and review
later
| Even if the answer is obvious, use the allotted time to reread the
question

10. Do practice tests help?
| Provide structure of the exam and types of questions
| Practice exams are often not the same quality as the real exam
| Save practice exam results and review the following day to reinforce learning
| Practice with exams that allow pause and resume do not need a block of time to
finish

11. What about Beta Exams?
| The challenges of being an exam pioneer
| The are discounted – usually half price
| No study resources other than possibly vendor training and documentation
| No practice exam either…
| Can take months to get your results
| I have taken Beta exams for the Advanced Networking and Machine Learning Specialty
exams

12. Any
Questions?