Lots of times folks in my class are interested in pursuing AWS certifications. The classes I teach are good at preparing you to be certified, but are definitely not certification classes. Here’s the answers I give to students interested in being certified:
To get certified, you should review the page for the cert you want. Here’s the page for the AWS Architect – Associate certification.
When I got certified, I re-read the student guide from the class and made sure I understood everything covered in it. I didn’t just look at what the student guide had–I went to the AWS documentation as well. I also read some whitepapers as outlined in the exam guide (found on the certificate page linked above). I then took the sample questions (answers not provided, but you can find them via googling, anda again, on the certificate page) and then the practice exam (which costs $20, I believe, and gives you familiarity with the test format, but can only be taken once.). Those gave me feedback that I was on track to pass the exam.
Note that the course is more hands on than the exam and doesn’t map strictly to the exam. However, AWS does a good job of explaining what they are looking for in the exam guide (on, you guessed it, the certificate page).
Some of my students and colleagues have also had good luck with acloudguru, but I have no personal experience with that service. The company for which I work (but for which I do not speak) also offers a course that is designed to help folks pass certain certs, but I have no experience with the course.
Finally, it’s worth noting that all the certs I have taken have been proctored. Depending on where you live, you may have a number of test centers available, or one (or none). Find that out before hand! I also found that the exams I wanted were never available next day–I had to schedule them out a few weeks in advance. YMMV.
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