AWS is the well-known name in the cloud computing industry. If you are planning to start your cloud career, AWS is the right place to begin the learning process. It offers different levels of certifications i.e. Associate level, Professional level, Specialty level, and the Entry-level certifications for the cloud professionals. There are three associate level AWS certifications, among these AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate certification is considered the most important one for the administrators.
- AWS Solutions Architect Associate Certification
- AWS Developer Associate Certification
- AWS SysOps Administrator Associate Certification
AWS SysOps certification is considered as the toughest one among all the associate level AWS certifications. So if you want to pass this certification exam, you need to prepare well. This exam tests your knowledge of how to deploy and configure each service in the cloud environment. Whereas, other two certifications are more focused on testing your knowledge on how to use those services.
Whizlabs AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate practice tests have been updated as per the new version of the exam released on September 24, 2018. Check it now –
In this article, I would like to share important tips that are required to be followed for the effective preparation of AWS SysOps Administrator Associate exam. You can start with the official documentation that is available on the Amazon’s site for the exam preparation.
Top 7 Tips for AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate Exam Preparation
AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate certification exam is intended for the professionals who are involved in operations, management and deployment on the AWS platform. Being the toughest one, it is not easy to pass AWS SysOps Certification. It’s a challenge to pass this AWS certification as it requires a lot of preparation. But if you are determined to work hard and choose to follow the preparation guide, it will become an easy task for you. So, prepare well and get certified!
Note: AWS has released the new version of AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate exam, valid from September 24, 2018. And we have updated this preparation guide as per the updated version of the exam. Read our new blog for the more details of the Updated AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate exam.
Here we bring top 7 tips on how to prepare for the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator certification exam.
1. Visit the Official Site
Once you have planned for the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator exam, the first step is to look at the official site to start the exam preparation. The official site provides all the information about the exam such as the type of questions, prerequisite, duration, etc. Visiting the official site will give you a fair idea of the certification exam.
- https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certification-prep/ – This is the common homepage for the AWS certification. This link lists all the AWS certifications.
- https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-sysops-admin-associate/ – This is the official link for the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate certification exam.
You won’t find some details like the total number of questions, passing score etc. for the exam on the official website. But, we are revealing that is the expected from the previous exams:
- Number of Questions: 70-80 Multiple Choice/ Multiple Answer Questions
- Duration: 130 Minutes
- Passing Score: 65 – 72% (It is not fixed, and depends on statistics)
2. Have a Look at Exam BluePrint
Once you have gone through the exam details, you might wonder which exam topics are covered in the exam. There is a BluePrint document published for every certification on the AWS website. The Blueprint contains the details of all the topics covered in the exam. It also provides some other information like the number of questions expected from each objective, list of white papers, etc.
3. Create Free Tier Account
Hands-on experience is the most important thing that will ensure your success in the exam. Without hands-on experience, you will not be able to understand the concepts and real-time scenarios. Because the exam might test you with scenario based questions, real-time knowledge is required.
Amazon offers the one-year free account to access their most of the services with certain limitations. This offer is intended for those who are new to AWS platform or preparing for an AWS cloud certification.
Once you have signed up for free tier account, start using various services and learn the concepts on your own.
4. Go Through FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are one of the valuable resources that are useful to prepare for the certification exam. There is a dedicated FAQs section for each service on AWS website that will clarify all your questions about Amazo Web Services.
It is a comprehensive source of information for each service. For example, the section EC2 FAQs covers everything about the EC2 instance. It also provides the service information like how to configure, related resources, different types, etc. These are the topics which will be tested in the certification exam. Here is the link to read AWS FAQs.
Select from the given list of Product and Technical FAQs. Browse through these FAQs to find answers to the commonly raised questions. If you’re a new user of the AWS services, we encourage you to go through the relevant articles.
5. WhitePapers and Books
AWS Whitepapers section features a comprehensive list of technical AWS whitepapers, covering topics such as architecture, security, and economics.
Here is the recommendation provided for whitepapers on the AWS official website.
- AWS Security Best Practices
- Architecting for the Cloud: AWS Best Practices
- Development and Test on AWS
- AWS Well-Architected Framework
- Amazon Web Services: Overview of Security Processes
- Amazon Virtual Private Cloud Connectivity Options
- Backup and Recovery Approaches using AWS
- How AWS Pricing Works
White papers are one of the most important resources to prepare for the certification exam. The above list of whitepapers is very important from the exam point of view. Especially Security Process, Storage Options (S3), etc. are the must-read for AWS Certified SysOps Administrator exam.
You have to thoroughly go through the whitepapers to be more confident for the exam. If required, read every whitepaper more than once to understand the key concepts.
Apart from whitepapers, it is very important to read some AWS books for the preparations of AWS SysOps certification. Here, we are listing a few books that are highly recommended for the exam preparation. So, go through these books to get ready for this certification exam.
- AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Official Study Guide: Associate Exam by Stephen Cole, Gareth Digby, Steve Friedberg, Chris Fitch, Michael Roth, Jerry Rhoads, Blaine Sundrud, and Shaun Qualheim
- AWS Administration Cookbook by Lucas Chan and Rowan Udell
- AWS Administration – The Definitive Guide by Yohan Wadia
- Learning AWS by Amit Shah and Aurobindo Sarkar
- Amazon Web Services in Action by Andreas Wittig and Michael Wittig
6. Watch Online Videos
Apart from going through the documentation, FAQs, Books, and Whitepapers, it is also good to watch few of the good videos for the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate certification exam. There are a number of good videos for the beginners on the Amazon website that will help you understand the basics. It will also save you a lot of time to read the documentation.
- Intro Series Videos – These intro series videos explain the basic concepts of cloud computing, AWS, and other services.
- AWS – Youtube Channel – This is official Youtube channel for AWS
- Introduction to Amazon Web Services by Jeff Barr – Jeff Barr is the chief evangelist for AWS and in his videos, he explains the introduction to AWS. Watching his videos will be a good start to learn about AWS.
AWS training online courses also provide an important mean to prepare for the AWS certifications. There are a number of online certification training providers, you can choose one of them to prepare for the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate certification exam. Whizlabs is the pioneer in online certification training and offers you online course for AWS SysOps certification. This AWS training online courses contain online videos of about 5 hours and 40 minutes covering all the objectives of the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate certification exam.
7. Try Practice Questions
Once you have gone through the documentation, videos, and any other resources and have the better understanding of AWS concepts. It is time for you to test your knowledge by taking the practice tests. There are few good commercial practice exams in the market that help you practice through questions similar to the real exam. I would recommend Whizlabs that provides one of the best practice material for the AWS Certifications.
Whizlabs is aimed to help you in your preparation so that you could pass the AWS certification exam on the first attempt. For this, it offers 420+ unique practice questions for the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate certification exam. These SysOps Administrator Associate Practice Questions will help you check your current level of preparation along with your weaknesses and strengths. Then, it will make you work on the weak areas so that you will be fully prepared to pass the certification exam.
Preparing for AWS SysOps certification exam? Here are the Free Practice Questions for AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate certification exam.
Conclusion
AWS Cloud Certifications are at the top in the list of most demanding and highest paying IT certifications. AWS Certified SysOps Administrator certification is the important associate level certification for the administrators. This AWS certification is highly expected by the AWS solutions providers and corporations. We are aimed to help you pass this important certification exam.
I hope this article provides sufficient information to start your preparation for the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate certification exam. Please be informed that Amazon keeps changing the certification topics based on the new services released. So, you need to remain up to date with whatever you are preparing for the exam. We are aimed to keep you up with the latest updates, and so we have updated the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate practice tests as per the new version (Released on September 24, 2018).
It is not easy to crack this one of the toughest AWS certifications. But if you truly dedicate 2 months for the preparation, it will become easy for you to pass the AWS SysOps certification exam.
Have any query regarding AWS SysOps certification? Just put a comment below or reach us at Whizlabs Helpdesk we will be happy to answer you.
Good luck with your exam!
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Nice
Great tips for studying for the AWS Certified SysOps exam!
Hi, can you let me know how “hard” you would class the questions in your practice exams compared to the real exam? I have taken a few other and gained ~70% but only got 40% in this, I found the questions significantly harder than anything else I had used, enough for me to question if I had take the Pro exam by mistake. They are so deeply specific to the sort of knowledge you wold only get by using it for over a year IMO, using every single service and understanding it literally inside out. Is the real exam really this hard? Doubting if I will ever be able to pass without using it professionally for a significant amount of time 🙁
I took the exam twice and failed, I lost with 71% that might give you an idea of how hard is this exam.
Hi Alberto, Why you’re not trying Whizlabs Study Materials and Practice Test for AWS Certified SysOps Administration Associate. Definitely. you’ll crack exam in the first attempt.
I found WhizLabs questions are significantly more difficult than other practice exams. Since I have taken the real exam twice and failed it, I think that WhizLabs practice exams are much closer to the real exams than any others. If I can pass the WhizLabs practice exams, that will significantly increase my confidence in taking the real exam again.
Hi Mupopa
It’s better to be prepared more than enough of what is required. Some of the questions may look like tougher than the actual exam, it will help you to answer any kind of scenarios in the real exam. Go through to the explanations carefully.
Are you sitting for the next attempt before September 23?
Nice Information about AWS SysOps Certification. This article very useful for who are ready to clear AWS SysOps Training Certification
Failed this exam today. Hardest exam i took… reviewed around 500 practice exams from Linux Academy and Udemy. Did labs, got the theory of whole AWS services. Unfortunately, I failed and I don’t know why.
Hi Babski,
Try Whizlabs Study Materials and Practice Test once for AWS Certified SysOps Administration Associate. Definitely. you’ll crack exam in the first attempt.
Nice tips Neeru Jain clearing AWS SysOps Certification. This tips will definitely help our students for clearing their certification.