# Passing AWS Certified Developer - Associate exam

I recently passed my first AWS exam after spending approximately one month preparing (1 to 2 hours a day) for it. Since it is an associate-level exam with only multiple-choice questions, the exam is relatively simple.  
  
I chose to take this exam because my recent projects revolved around creating AWS Lambda-based APIs and my company runs entirely on AWS EKS (Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service).

**The AWS Certified Developer - Associate Exam at a Glance:**

* **Duration**: 130 minutes to complete the exam
    
* **Cost**: $150 USD
    
* **Format**: 65 questions, either multiple-choice or multiple-response
    
* **Delivery Method**: Pearson VUE testing center or online proctored exam
    

**Exam Preparation:**

To aid in my preparation, I turned to Udemy, where I found two incredible courses:

1. **Ultimate AWS Certified Developer Associate 2023 NEW DVA-C02 by Stephane Maarek - To learn the concepts and lab walk-throughs.**
    
2. **390 Test Quiz Questions on DVA-C02 ! Practice the AWS Certified Developer Exam & ace the AWS Certified Developer Exam! by Stephane Maarek - 6 practice exams that are very similar to the actual exam questions.**
    

These courses provided comprehensive coverage of the exam topics and included hands-on labs and quizzes that helped solidify my understanding. Stephane Maarek's teaching style made complex concepts easy to grasp.

**Navigating the Exam Domains:**

While the exam covers a broad range of AWS services, some domains were particularly prominent:

* **AWS Lambda**: Understanding serverless computing was essential.
    
* **S3**: Mastery over Amazon S3, the object storage service, was a must.
    
* **Load Balancers (ELB, ALB)**: Knowledge of load balancing techniques was crucial for high availability.
    
* **DynamoDB**: This NoSQL database service was a hot topic. Learning the difference between GSI / LSI and how to optimize the queries.
    
* **IAM**: Understanding Identity and Access Management was central.
    
* **AWS Cognito**: Knowing the Use of Cognito user pools vs. identity pools (federated identities) vs. Cognito Sync.
    
* **SNS and SQS**: Learning the difference and when to use SNS vs. SQS.
    
* **KMS Encryption**: Security was a top priority, including different types of key management services.
    
* **Secrets Management**: Both AWS Secrets Manager (expensive) and AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store (cost-effective) were emphasized.
    
* **API Gateway**: Building and securing APIs was a common theme. Use of API Gateway to create different stages for testing APIs.
    
* **CloudWatch and X-Ray**: Logging, monitoring using CloudWatch and debugging in production using X-ray were key skills.
    

**Certification Benefits and Real-World Applications:**

The certification helped me understand all of the important AWS services and how to configure and deploy them. It is useful to understand how misconfigurations in AWS can negatively affect a service or enterprise, which is essential for a InfoSec profeesional.

**Future Certification Plans:**

The AWS Associate certification is just the beginning of my journey. In the future, I plan to tackle the Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) certification to further enhance my cloud and container orchestration skills.