AWS certification is a designation examination conducted by Amazon Web Services to the IT Professionals. The professionals working on AWS takes the AWS Certification exam to check and validate their knowledge and skills in AWS. AWS provides different levels of AWS Certification to Cloud Practitioners, Solutions Architects and DevOps Engineers. The validity of AWS Certification lasts for 2 years therefore the IT Professionals can recertify their certification after it expires.
Now let’s understand these certifications in bief.
There are 4 levels of AWS Certifications namely Foundational, Associate, Professional and Speciality Certifications offered by AWS.
Let’s first understand the Foundational-Level AWS Certification
1. Foundational-Level AWS Certification
There is 1 certification offered by AWS in Foundational-Level AWS Certification.
Cloud Practitioner
The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner examination is intended for the professionals who have the prior knowledge of AWS platform which includes available services and their common use cases, AWS Cloud architectural principles, account security, and compliance. It is recommended that candidates have at least 6 months of experience with the AWS Cloud in any role, including traditional and non-traditional students, educators, and individuals exploring the AWS Cloud, including project managers, IT managers, sales managers, decision makers, and marketers, as well as those working in finance, procurement, and legal departments.
It checks as well as validates the attendees’s ability to:
- Explain the value of the AWS Cloud.
- Understand and explain the AWS shared responsibility model.
- Understand AWS Cloud security best practices.
- Understand AWS Cloud costs, economics, and billing practices.
- Describe and position the core AWS services, including compute, network, databases, and storage.
- Identify AWS services for common use cases.
Must have the knowledge of
- Basic IT services
- IT Services usage in the AWS Cloud platform.
- Multiple Choice Questions – One correct answer and 3 wrong answers
- Multiple Response Questions – 2 or more correct answers out of 5 or more options
- Domain 1: Cloud Concepts 26%
- Domain 2: Security and Compliance 25%
- Domain 3: Technology 33%
- Domain 4: Billing and Pricing 16%
- TOTAL 100%
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Exam Instructions
A. Response Question type
There are 2 types of questions to be attempted by the attendees:
B. Examination Content Outline
Examination Topics with % of them in the examination:
You have an idea about the Foundational certification. Now let us understand the Associate-Level AWS Certification.
There are 3 certifications offered by AWS in Associate-level AWS Certifications.
Solutions Architect – Associate
AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification certifies the professionals in designing highly available systems. This examination checks and validates the skill to create architect and deploy secure and robust applications on AWS technologies.
Prerequisite
Hands on experience in:
- Designing available
- Cost-efficient
- Fault-tolerant
- Scalable distributed systems on aws
- Using compute, networking, storage, and database aws services
- Aws deployment and management services
Must have the knowledge of
- Identifying and defining technical requirements for an AWS-based application
- Identifying which AWS services meet a given technical requirement
- Recommended best practices for building secure and reliable applications on the AWS platform
- Basic architectural principles of building on the AWS cloud
- AWS global infrastructure
- Network technologies as they relate to AWS
- Security features and tools that AWS provides and how they relate to traditional services
Exam Instructions
A. Response Question type
There are 2 types of questions to be attempted by the attendees:
- Multiple Choice Questions – One correct answer and 3 wrong answers
- Multiple Response Questions – 2 or more correct answers out of 5 or more options
B. Examination Content Outline
Examination Topics with % of them in the examination:
- Domain 1: Design Resilient Architectures 34%
- Domain 2: Define Performant Architectures 24%
- Domain 3: Specify Secure Applications and Architectures 26%
- Domain 4: Design Cost-Optimized Architectures 10%
- Domain 5: Define Operationally Excellent Architectures 6%
- TOTAL 100%
Developer – Associate
AWS Developer Associate certification certifies the professionals in developing applications for the cloud. One year of hands on experience in development and maintenance of cloud based applications is recommended.
Prerequisites
No prerequisite
Must have the knowledge of
- At least one high-level programming language
- AWS services, uses, and basic AWS architecture best practices
- Developing, deploying, and debugging cloud-based applications using AWS
- Using the AWS service apis, AWS CLI, and sdks to write applications
- Identify key features of AWS services
- AWS shared responsibility model
- Application lifecycle management
- Using a CI/CD pipeline to deploy applications on AWS
- Using or interact with AWS services
- Applying a basic understanding of cloud-native applications to write code
- Writing code using AWS security best practices (e.g., not using secret and access keys in the code, instead using IAM roles)
- How to author, maintain, and debug code modules on AWS
- How to write code for server less applications
- Using of containers in the development process
Exam Instructions
A. Response Question type
There are 2 types of questions to be attempted by the attendees:
- Multiple Choice Questions – One correct answer and 3 wrong answers
- Multiple Response Questions – 2 or more correct answers out of 5 or more options
B. Examination Content Outline
Examination Topics with % of them in the examination:
- Domain 1: Deployment 22%
- Domain 2: Security 26%
- Domain 3: Development with AWS Services 30%
- Domain 4: Refactoring 10%
- domain
- TOTAL 100%
- domain
SysOps Administrator – Associate
AWS SysOps Administrator Associate certification certifies the professionals whose role is to automate applications, networks, and systems. This certification is intended for the professionals who have an expertise at deploying, managing as well as operations on AWS. Minimum of one year hands-on experience in managing and operating systems on AWS is mandatory. It is recommended to have a hands-on experience with the AWS CLI and SDKs/API tools and in implementing security controls and compliance requirements as well as 1-2 years of prior experience as a systems administrator in a systems operations role.
It checks as well as validates the attendees’s ability to:
- Deploy, manage, and operate scalable, highly available, and fault tolerant systems on AWS
- Implement and control the flow of data to and from AWS
- Select the appropriate AWS service based on compute, data, or security requirements
- Identify appropriate use of AWS operational best practices
- Estimate AWS usage costs and identify operational cost control mechanisms
- Migrate on-premises workloads to AWS
Prerequisites
No prerequisite
Must have the knowledge of
- AWS tenets – architecting for the cloud
- Network technologies as they relate to AWS
- Security concepts and how to implement security controls and compliance requirements
- Deploying, managing as well as operations on AWS
- Managing and operating systems on AWS
- AWS CLI and SDKs/API tools
- Understanding of virtualization technology
- Monitoring and auditing systems experience
- Networking concepts (e.g., DNS, TCP/IP, and Firewalls)
- Translating architectural requirements
Exam Instructions
A. Response Question type
There are 2 types of questions to be attempted by the attendees:
- Multiple Choice Questions – One correct answer and 3 wrong answers
- Multiple Response Questions – 2 or more correct answers out of 5 or more options
B. Examination Content Outline
Examination Topics with % of them in the examination:
- Domain 1: Monitoring and Reporting 22%
- Domain 2: High Availability 8%
- Domain 3: Deployment and Provisioning 14%
- Domain 4: Storage and Data Management 12%
- Domain 5: Security and Compliance 18%
- Domain 6: Networking 14%
- Domain 7: Automation and Optimization 12%
- TOTAL 100%
Now you have a clear vision about the Associate-Level certification. Now let us understand the Professional-Level AWS Certification.
There are 2 certifications offered by AWS in Professional-level AWS Certifications.
Solutions Architect – Professional
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional Certification checks and validates the professional’s skills and experience in designing distributed applications and systems on the AWS platform. It is mandatory to have a hands-on experience in designing and deploying cloud architecture on AWS.
It checks as well as validates the attendees’s ability to:
- Design and deploy applications on AWS
- Select appropriate AWS services to design and deploy an application based on given requirements
- Migrate complex, multi-tier applications on AWS
- Design and deploy enterprise-wide scalable operations on AWS
- Implement cost-control strategies
Must have the knowledge of
- How to evaluate cloud application requirements and make architectural recommendations forimplementation, deployment, and provisioning applications on AWS
- Architectural design across multiple applications andprojects of the enterprise
- a scripting language
- Windows and Linux environments
- AWS CLI, AWS APIs, AWS CloudFormation templates, the AWS Billing Console, and theAWS Management Console
- Five pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework
- Map business objectives to application/architecture requirements
- Designing a hybrid architecture using key AWS technologies (e.g., VPN, AWS Direct Connect)
- Architect a continuous integration and deployment process
Exam Instructions
A. Response Question type
There are 2 types of questions to be attempted by the attendees:
- Multiple Choice Questions – One correct answer and 3 wrong answers
- Multiple Response Questions – 2 or more correct answers out of 5 or more options
B. Examination Content Outline
Examination Topics with % of them in the examination:
- Domain 1: Design Resilient Architectures 34%
- Domain 2: Define Performant Architectures 24%
- Domain 3: Specify Secure Applications and Architectures 26%
- Domain 4: Design Cost-Optimized Architectures 10%
- Domain 5: Define Operationally Excellent Architectures 6%
- TOTAL 100%
DevOps Engineer – Professional
The AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional examination checks as well as validates the skill of the professional in provisioning, operating, and managing distributed application systems on the AWS platform. It is certifies the professionals who perform the usage DevOps practices to develop and maintain AWS applications. Two or more years of prior experience in provisioning, operating, and managing AWS is recommended.
It checks as well as validates the attendees’s ability to:
- Implement and manage continuous delivery systems and methodologies on AWS
- Implement and automate security controls, governance processes, and compliance validation
- Define and deploy monitoring, metrics, and logging systems on AWS
- Implement systems that are highly available, scalable, and self-healing on the AWS platform
- Design, manage, and maintain tools to automate operational processes
Must have the knowledge of
- Experience developing code in at least one high-level programming language
- Multiple Choice Questions – One correct answer and 3 wrong answers
- Experience administering operating systems
- Understanding of modern development and operations processes and methodologies
Exam Instructions
A. Response Question type
There are 2 types of questions to be attempted by the attendees:
- Multiple Choice Questions – One correct answer and 3 wrong answers
- Multiple Response Questions – 2 or more correct answers out of 5 or more options
B. Examination Content Outline
Examination Topics with % of them in the examination:
- Deploy, manage, and operate scalable, highly available, and fault tolerant systems on AWS
- Implement and control the flow of data to and from AWS
- Select the appropriate AWS service based on compute, data, or security requirements
- Identify appropriate use of AWS operational best practices
- Estimate AWS usage costs and identify operational cost control mechanisms
- Migrate on-premises workloads to AWS
Prerequisites
No prerequisite
Must have the knowledge of
- AWS tenets – architecting for the cloud
- Network technologies as they relate to AWS
- Security concepts and how to implement security controls and compliance requirements
- Deploying, managing as well as operations on AWS
- Managing and operating systems on AWS
- AWS CLI and SDKs/API tools
- Understanding of virtualization technology
- Monitoring and auditing systems experience
- Networking concepts (e.g., DNS, TCP/IP, and Firewalls)
- Translating architectural requirements
Exam Instructions
A. Response Question type
There are 2 types of questions to be attempted by the attendees:
- Multiple Choice Questions – One correct answer and 3 wrong answers
- Multiple Response Questions – 2 or more correct answers out of 5 or more options
B. Examination Content Outline
Examination Topics with % of them in the examination:
- Domain 1: SDLC Automation 22%
- Domain 2: Configuration Management and Infrastructure as Code 19%
- Domain 3: Monitoring and Logging 15%
- Domain 4: Policies and Standards Automation 10%
- Domain 5: Incident and Event Response 18%
- Domain 6: High Availability, Fault Tolerance, and Disaster Recovery 16%
- Domain 7: Automation and Optimization 12%
- TOTAL 100%
Now you have an idea about the Professional-Level certification. Now let us understand the Speciality AWS Certification.
There are 5 types of Speciality AWS Certifications.
Advanced Networking – Specialty
The AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty is intended for the professionals who perform complex networking tasks.
It checks as well as validates the attendees’s ability to:
- Design, develop, and deploy cloud-based solutions using AWS
- Implement core AWS services according to basic architectural best practices
- Design and maintain network architecture for all AWS services
- Leverage tools to automate AWS networking tasks
Must have the knowledge of
- Professional experience using AWS technology
- AWS Security best practices
- AWS storage options and their underlying consistency models
- AWS networking nuances and how they relate to the integration of AWS services
- Advanced networking architectures and interconnectivity options (e.g., IP VPN, MPLS/VPLS)
- Networking technologies within the OSI model, and how they affect implementation decisions
- Development of automation scripts and tools
- Routing architectures (including static and dynamic)
- Multi-region solutions for a global enterprise
- x. Highly available connectivity solutions (e.g., DX, VPN)
- xi. CIDR and sub-netting (IPv4 and IPv6)
- IPv6 transition challenges
- IPv6 transition challenges
- Generic solutions for network security features, including WAF, IDS, IPS, DDoS protection, and Economic Denial of Service/Sustainability (EDoS).
Exam Instructions
A. Response Question type
There are 2 types of questions to be attempted by the attendees:
- Multiple Choice Questions – One correct answer and 3 wrong answers
- Multiple Response Questions – 2 or more correct answers out of 5 or more options
B. Examination Content Outline
Examination Topics with % of them in the examination:
- Domain 1: Collection 17%
- Domain 2: Storage 17%
- Domain 3: Processing 17%
- Domain 4: Analysis 17%
- Domain 5: Visualization 12%
- Domain 6: Data Security 20%
- TOTAL 100%
Security – Specialty
The AWS Certified Security Specialty examination is intended for the professionals who perform a security role and performs practices for securing the AWS platform. This exam check on the validity of an attendee’s ability to effectively demonstrate knowledge about securing the AWS platform.
It checks as well as validates the attendees’s ability to: