How I passed AWS SysOps Administrator Associate Certification [SOA-C01]

If you intend to prepare this certification, either because you want an improvement in your professional career, because you want to apply for a position in which it is helpful to have it, or because you like challenges, this article may interest you. In my case, my company offered me the opportunity to become certified, so I accepted the challenge.

A few days ago I successfully passed the certification exam (968/1000), so the purpose of this article is to give you some tips based on my experience that can be helpful for you.

How is the exam?

• The AWS Certification FAQ
• List of the main services you should know for certification from TutorialsDojo

Recommended courses:

• A Cloud Guru - AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate 2020
  It was the course I took since it was paid by my company, it addresses the main concepts in a basic way, but it was not enough. It gives you a good knowledge base and does a lot of practical demos using the AWS Console, but you need to ask exam questions to complete the training, as we'll see later on.
• Stephane Maarek - Ultimate AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate 2020
  I have very good references for this course, it is more complete than the previous one but its price is also higher. On Udemy, offers often come out to get it much cheaper.
• Linux Academy - AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate (SOA-C01)
  Very complete, extensive course and it has the particularity that you can have an AWS account to apply the learned theory (better than the free tier). Probably the most didactic option of all.
• AWS re: Invent videos on Youtube.
  AWS has a collection of very interesting videos that explain their services in detail.
• The official documentation of AWS to investigate those services in which you have more doubts, I believe that to study deeper is the best source.
• You can find free courses on Youtube about the SysOps Administrator.

Notes:

• SkullTech - AWS Solutions Architect Associate Notes
  Despite being for SAA-C02 certification, many of the contents overlap.
• John Kevin Losito - AWS SysOps Administrator Review Notes
  Outline of the concepts covered by the certification.
• TutorialsDojo - AWS Cheat Sheets
  A very good page where all the AWS services are explained in a simple way.

Exams to practice

• Jon Bonso - AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate Practice Exams
  I did not do them, but they are recommended in the forums, they are similar to the official exam.
• ExamTopics.com - AWS SysOps
  This is MANDATORY if you want to pass the exam. Many questions from the official exam appear here. Be careful, many answers that appear by default are wrong, so look at the discussion section on each answer to know which one is correct and analyze the links related to the AWS documentation where it is explained.
  This is my list of right answers based on my own research and discussion forums: SysOps Answers
• VCEGuide.com - AWS SysOps
  It is a backup of ExamTopics, it does not have the answers with discussions and explanations, but it may be worth it if ExamTopics is down.

How to prepare it?

It depends a lot on your previous AWS experience and how much time do you want to spend on learning more. I can tell you from my point of view what is the minimum you should do:

• If you have several years of experience and already know many of the services that the exam addresses, probably reading the notes and taking the ExamTopics tests is enough.
• If you are inexperienced, take a course better, practice in the AWS Console and take ExamTopics exams.
• If you have little experience in AWS, I recommend taking the official AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner course first to get an overview of all the services, then taking a course focused on SysOps certification and finally taking ExamTopics exams.

To all these steps add more courses, videos, readings from the official documentation, etc. that complement what has been learned. Remember that the important thing is the path you follow until you pass it, that is what really enriches you.

In my particular case, I work daily with AWS and I already knew many of the services. I prepared the course for A Cloud Guru, I used my own notes, and I completed them with those in the list, and finally, I answered (understood well) the ExamTopics questions reading the official AWS documentation related to them.

Good luck! Leave any questions, interesting sources of knowledge related to certification, or comments about your own experience.

I say goodbye with a phrase:

"The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding." - Leonardo da Vinci