Over a year late, but I finally managed to complete my AWS Associate level trifecta certifications by passing the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator exam this past Friday. I obtained the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification on November 2019 and the AWS Certified Developer – Associate certification on September 2020. The Solutions Architect certification is by far the easiest of all three, while the SysOps Administrator is the most difficult of all three.

As far as the study material, I used Stephane Maarek’s Ultimate AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate 2022 and Neal Davis’ AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate 2022 courses. Both courses, are a combined of almost 40 hours worth of training material. I come from a moderately heavy AWS background, so I think anyone with at least an intermediate to advance level experience working in AWS environment, really only just need these two great courses to pass the exam. Thus said, unlike the Solutions Architect Associate and Developer Associate, I feel this certification does require to have real world experience or at least substantial hands-on training before taking the test!

One thing about this certification in particular, although not in its entirely, but at least it’s finally using actual hands-on AWS labs scenarios, instead of the entire exam being the traditional question and answer test. I love this new hands-on approach, since in my point of view, its truly the only way it can solidify whether or not an exam candidate is competent sufficient to actually solve AWS related problems.

What’s next?
My AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification expires on November 2022, so my next goal is to obtain the more advanced AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional before the Associate level one expires.