{"id":3634,"date":"2021-10-15T13:59:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T11:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.besharp.it\/?p=3634"},"modified":"2021-10-21T14:23:08","modified_gmt":"2021-10-21T12:23:08","slug":"how-i-scored-925-1000-on-aws-devops-engineer-professional-certification-in-2-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.besharp.it\/how-i-scored-925-1000-on-aws-devops-engineer-professional-certification-in-2-weeks\/","title":{"rendered":"How I scored 925\/1000 on AWS DevOps Engineer Professional Certification in 2 weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Practical Guide<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AWS DevOps Professional is undoubtedly one of the most essential and complex certifications to achieve, primarily because of the many arguments to study and understand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why should you take the exam? Because it focuses on software development lifecycle automation, IAM policies, best practices, HA, and Disaster Recovery solutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The knowledge gained from this exam will help you exploit these arguments in the right way, following best practices, keeping your deployments maintainable, secure, scalable, and resilient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, this certification is very well expandable in professional recruitment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I needed to recertify myself in July 2021, I had to refresh my memory on all of the topics covered in this exam and study new concepts and services introduced in the years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AWS always asks DevOps to be updated on all the new topics, hence the need for continuous recertification; by doing so, I found myself needing to write down all the notes I took in the process to help me study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I found my notes growing and growing, I’ve thought, “why not share my experience and what I’ve learned during my study process?” and so I’ve started taking more and more detailed information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After ten days of hard work, I took the exam and passed! Then, when I received my final score (925<\/strong>\/1000), I decided that my study material was worth sharing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So here we are: in this article, I’ll try to guide you as much as I can in covering all the topics of the DevOps exam, particularly the ones I\u2019ve found particularly important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll also share some valuable insights, tips & tricks, and resources to help you prepare as best possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, without further ado, let’s dig in!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exam Structure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The exam has a total of 75 questions<\/strong> for 170 minutes<\/strong>. If English is not your first language, you can ask for a bonus of 20 extra minutes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve found that doing the exam remotely via Pearson\/VUE<\/strong> grants me the extra minutes directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, I think that doing the AWS exams remotely, at home, is also an excellent way to feel more relaxed and thus more concentrated. But that is just my personal preference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you decide to do the exam remotely, just be sure to do the initial setup at least 1 or 2 days before the actual exams to verify your environment, documents, and internet connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of questions, I’ve found it generally helpful and applicable to all AWS exams: read the question carefully to find keywords<\/strong> or specific words that help you isolate the correct answer more efficiently. It works especially well for the more straightforward questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manage time carefully<\/strong> for all the questions; if one is too difficult to handle at the moment, mark it for later review<\/strong> to maximize your efficiency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Try to learn how to scan the questions<\/strong>: not all the text is essential: before reading, try to check the start, center, and last part of the text in search for keywords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When at home, you can\u2019t use pen and paper<\/strong> (at least I wasn\u2019t allowed) and are requested to keep a steady position all the time with your head visible in the computer camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Personal Experience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To recertify, I\u2019ve personally followed what I\u2019ve found in these years, being a good overall strategy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. I\u2019ve started assessing my preparation using some free online resources like AWS certified DevOps Engineer Professional SampleExam<\/a>
    <\/li>
  2. Prepared my daily routine to have at least half of my working day dedicated to studying. In my opinion, morning is more profitable, as I found myself too tired in the afternoon to focus correctly on learning.\u00a0
    <\/li>
  3. I\u2019ve mainly studied the following resources:
    1. Exam Readiness<\/a> I must admit that, in my opinion, this one was not exhaustive enough<\/strong> to cover the key concepts in detail for the exam.<\/li>
    2. This website<\/a> is becoming very well known, as it offers a broader overview of the critical stuff, divided by exam type. I\u2019ve used this site to check what to study in detail.<\/li>
    3. Amazon FAQs: this is my classic trick; whenever I want to discover exciting facts about a service I don\u2019t have fully experienced with, FAQs are, in my opinion, the fastest way to find out how it works, what peculiarities it has, how it costs, and most importantly its quota limits.
      <\/li><\/ol><\/li>
    4. When\u00a0 I study, I take many notes and schemes as I find myself memorizing and understanding things better that way, and this article is here, thanks to that.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      I\u2019ve dedicated myself for at least 4-5 hours a day, mainly in the morning. Don\u2019t take my words for granted. It depends on your experience on AWS; the more hands-on you have, the less time you\u2019ll need to prepare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Most important is defining the critical exams topic that will let you cover at least 80% of the questions<\/strong>. By doing this, you\u2019ll have at least a solid base of knowledge to tackle the exam, then, based on your confidence level, on your schedule, on your other tasks, you\u2019ll be able to dive deep into whatever argument you need\/want to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      To increase my odds of success, I\u2019ve also checked information and doubts with my teammates. It\u2019s vital to take advantage of other people\u2019s knowledge every time you can. We all recertify this year, so we confronted arguments, times, and references for studying. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Whenever you have people in your company that has already taken this or other AWS Certifications, by all means, interact with them to obtain precious insights!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      I would also like to talk about an aspect that I found a bit lacking in other guides online<\/strong>: time constraints! If you\u2019re trying this exam for the first time or choose to prepare just the bare minimum, you\u2019ll likely find yourself in need of more time to complete the questions, especially if English is not your primary language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      What I would suggest for managing your time correctly is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      1. Plan and apply for a time extension, if eligible, with AWS or directly with PSI or Pearson\/VUE. To do so, please check this page<\/a> under \u201cRequesting Accommodation.\u201d<\/li>
      2. Try to focus on questions that you are confident with, leaving uncertain ones for later review.<\/li>
      3. Try to prepare with many dumps; this will be your best option for faster reading actual questions and managing the comprehensive exam.<\/li>
      4. Become familiar with the keywords and specific topics we will be covering in the rest of the article; this will help you understand questions better and faster.<\/li>
      5. Try to remain calm; this will help you maintain focus.<\/li>
      6. Do at least 1 or 2 practice exams, and this will help you greatly in managing physical stress during the exam, which is quite long (almost 3 hours).<\/li>
      7. What I found is that typically you start losing concentration after the first 30-40 questions. Try to remember that to force yourself to remain focused.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        In the next part of this article, I\u2019ll give you a detailed guide of all the topics that, ideally, must be covered for the exam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Don\u2019t worry if they seem too much to handle; they are here to give a complete list, with reference links, to those of you that want to achieve the best possible results. I\u2019ll also cover the most critical topics in greater detail to maximize your studying efficiency in a .pdf file at the end of this article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Exam Topics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

        I recommend reading at least the FAQ on AWS for every argument presented here, which gives some insights into essential characteristics. If you’re experienced enough, just try to read them fastly to improve your efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        This list is created based on my personal experience in seeing what questions appeared the most, alongside the suggested topics from Jayendra Patil<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Infrastructure as Code & Managed Deploying services<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n