So, following on from my previous post on passing the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, I will now go into what I did to pass this exam!
Now, to be fair there isn’t much to tell. If you have studied and passed the Architect exam, there is minimal studying you need to do to pass the Certified Developer Exam!
To prepare for the exam, I bought the CloudGuru Udemy course:
Udemy CloudGuru AWS Certified Developer Course
At the start of the course, they mention that there is some solid overlap between the training material and what key things you need to focus on for the Developer exam if you have already done the other.
I practised the things I already knew and then focused on the things that would be on the exam, these were:
DynamoDB = Everything about it, indexes, query vs scans and understanding writes and reads and the calculations involved. Now when it comes to calculations I hate them and have a habit of getting them wrong. But these are super easy and you will realise that after you’ve done them a few times, it becomes second nature.
SNS/SQS/SWF = The basics of all of these and how they can interact with each other and other services
CloudFormation = Basics understand the various bits and what happens when there are errors etc
Then on top of all that just the general AWS things that I covered off in my previous post.
Overall I found the exam to be much much easier than the SAA 2018 exam I did, this developer exam is still the older style and does not really require you to be a developer at all. I have heard that the new Developer exam when it is released will be much harder and developer focused! I see why people do this exam directly after the SAA exam, it’s very minimal effort for another certification and it would be a shame not to!
Now I have to go to a PSI remote testing setting, that is remote proctoring, so I have to show my IDs over the webcam to the invigilator. I have had a few people say that they have not been able to have a pen or paper to write on. Now, both times I have done my exam, I have asked the remote proctor if I can have a pen and paper before the exam starts and they have said yes and I have been able to leave the room quickly and ask the local staff member to provide me with a couple of sheets of paper and a pen. The local staff will happily provide it for you if the proctor is ok with it. I have then shown them the blank sheets of paper and the pen over the webcam, and I have been able to start the exam.
When I am pondering a question or need to work something out, I like to write things down. I think some people just assume that if it is not directly available then you are not allowed, but as with many things in life……If you don’t ask you don’t get!
While making my own notes for the Developer exam I came across this post:
How to Pass AWS Certified Developer Exam
I basically ditched my notes and printed off these notes and just added a few bits on my own! If you can understand his notes and the details in there, you are in a very good position for this exam.
During the exam, at around halfway, I came across a scripting error which in turn caused the exam to crash and lock up! At first, I was unable to even send a message to the remote proctor via the message window. But after clicking multiple times I was able to message them. After doing so and waving my hands around at the webcam, they had a remote technician log in and investigate. At first, they tried to refresh the screen which in turn took me back a couple of questions but I was able to continue until I got to the same question again and it crashed out one more time. Then the technician signed out of the exam and out of the windows session and reloaded it all. In my mind, I was thinking ‘I hope I do not have come out and do this again!’. But after logging back into the session, it registered I was mid-exam, all my answered had been saved and I was able to continue on like nothing happened!
I have always been curious how such an issue would be handled for this kind of exam and I have to say I was impressed. Yes, the issue in the first place was annoying, but it was handled well and I could pick up exactly where I left off. Saying that I have never had any issue with multiple choice exams provided by VMware and Microsoft, but the handling of the error was great so hats off to @PSIServicesLLC for that!
So AWS Certified Sysops Administrator next? Stay tuned! The SysOps exam is what interests me the most, it is the hardest of the 3 exams and it covers key aspects that I will probably be using day to day myself.
Congratulations again on your achievement!
Overall Score: 90%
Topic Level Scoring:
1.0 AWS Fundamentals: 100%
2.0 Designing and Developing: 95%
3.0 Deployment and Security: 75%
4.0 Debugging: 100%
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