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Showing posts with label Certification. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Certification. Show all posts

Saturday, April 5, 2025

How did I clear SAP-C02?

Introduction

I recently cleared the AWS Solutions Architect – Professional (SAP-C02) exam. It’s an intense experience that truly tests you to the core. This was the toughest AWS certification I’ve taken so far. Clearing it on the first attempt is quite challenging. In this post, I’ll be sharing my exam experience and preparation journey, which I hope will help others too.

Preparation

When I began preparing for the exam, it was mostly about reading content, experimenting on AWS, and browsing the internet to learn from the experiences of others who had cleared it. Initially, I was completely directionless—I had no clear plan. As the exam date got closer, the pressure started to build. Preparing while managing a full-time job made it even more challenging.

I realized that the exam isn’t just about knowing services—it's about applying the right solution for a given scenario, considering all the constraints. I juggled between multiple resources (listed below) and focused on understanding the context and purpose of each service as much as possible.
I focused more on understanding the services rather than just memorizing facts. That doesn't mean you can skip memorization entirely—some questions do require specific knowledge, like API Gateway and Lambda timeouts, maximum allowed S3 object size, CIDR block details, and similar technical limits.

I also tried a couple of mock exams on Udemy for practice, which helped me reflect on my understanding and gave useful feedback on my preparation. It's important to mention—don’t rely blindly on the mock test answers. Always question the answers, understand the reasoning behind them, and focus more on learning than just the scores.

During preparation I focused on following things for all the services which I was studying,
  • When to use primarily?
  • When not to use and alternatives?
  • Limitations and Restrictions
  • Scalability, Availability, Fault Tolerance

Exam

The exam is mentally exhausting and can completely drain you with its scenario-based questions and tricky answer choices. Some options may seem correct at first glance and give you a false sense of confidence, but once you deep dive into the question, you realize they're wrong. In fact, the most obvious-looking answers are often the incorrect ones!

I would recommend following,
  • Time Management is extemely important (I almost failed in this!
  • Use Whiteboard wisely during the exam to find most important clues from the question.
  • Don't rush to answer, take time and re-validate your answer.
  • Flag question for review and move ahead if you don't know. Don't invest time there!

If you have a solid understanding of services in Compute, Storage, Security, and Networking, you should be able to answer more than 50% of the questions, based on my experience. However, that alone isn't enough—you need to score at least 750 to pass the exam.

Summary

If you are planning to appear for this exam, you should be confident enough with the understanding of different AWS services along with their use cases and limitations. This exam is bit difficult to clear if you don't have hand-on experience of AWS in my opinion. However, with proper planning and consistency in study can surely make you clear this exam. All the best! 
 

* The sticky note idea is copied from this reddit thread.


Sunday, March 9, 2025

I passed AWS Certified Data Engineer – Associate Exam! 🎉


Intorduction

I recently passed the AWS Certified Data Engineer – Associate exam and wanted to share my experience, hoping it might help others in the future.  

Although this is an associate-level exam, it thoroughly tests your understanding of data engineering concepts and the relevant AWS services through realistic scenarios.


Preparation

I used Udemy course, AWS Certified Data Engineer Associate 2025 - Hands On! by Stephan & Frank Kane which helped me to understand the concepts in detail. It includes hands on sessions in multiple services, which you can follow along. For some services like Redshift, Glue, EMR, Kinesis I had to practically explore things on my own.

However, going through the course wasn't enough, thus I decided to go with some mock exams.


It is more about understanding the nature and application of the services. Multiple services can be used for same solution but questions checks what is best in terms of cost, operation overhead, time and efficiency. 

For revision I used the slides from the same Udemy course.

Exam Day

The day of the exam started off frustrating. Due to a slow internet connection, I was unable to check in, and I feared I might have to reschedule and repay for the exam. Even after my internet speed improved, I was still not allowed to check in, leaving me completely unsure of what was going on.


I tried calling Pearson support but had no luck. I attempted to reschedule, but initially, I didn’t see that option. After 10–15 minutes, it finally appeared, and I was able to reschedule. Phew...  

The exam was quite challenging, packed with tricky and confusing scenarios. I struggled to stay focused on the lengthy questions. The exam consisted of 65 questions with a total duration of 130 minutes—just 2 minutes per question. (I later realized that non-native English speakers get an additional 30 minutes, but it must be claimed before scheduling the exam.)  

Some questions were straightforward, and I felt confident answering them, but the majority required a solid understanding of the relevant AWS services.

Conclusion

The exam evaluates your clarity on AWS services and their use cases. It took me approximately 3.5 weeks to prepare, including completing the course and taking mock tests. That said, my prior experience with AWS, along with having previously passed the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate exam, significantly helped streamline my preparation and reduce the required study time.

Suggestion

If you're planning to take this exam, prioritize understanding how services apply in terms of time, cost, and operational overhead, as these were the key themes for me. Rather than just memorizing facts, focus on grasping real-world use cases.

References

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