How to crack Amazon web services (AWS) certification for Cloud Architect

I recently became an AWS certified Cloud solution architect. I will try to put my experiences and some tidbits on how one can achieve this certification.

I have been involved with AWS platform for more than a year and have been hands on it. I architect-ed a high load highly perform-ant customer portal on AWS using many AWS components and services. Some of the items included EC2, RDS, S3, Cloudfront, Elasticache, DynamoDB, IAM. Its very easy to use and configure cloud platform. After working on AWS for more than a year I decided to get a certification done. Following is my list of things to follow if you want to get AWS certification.

1. Read and understand various AWS offerings and services: First thing you need to do is to understand what AWS is all about, what it has to offer, how and where its services can be used.
2. Get Hands On: Nothing can replace a hands on experience while learning any new thing which also includes AWS. AWS offers a free account creation with a free tier limited time package to try things on. If you or your company already has an AWS account where you can try things, its even better.
3. Understand AWS certification requirements: Following link can help a person to understand what does AWS look in its certification process. http://aws.amazon.com/certification/
4. Read about all AWS services and technology in depth: AWS in my opinion has one of the best documented content on its services on the web. For each services specially read two important sections, Product details, and FAQs. e.g. for EC2 read http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/details/ and http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/faqs/. Also understand some key concepts in details such as VPC, Cloudfront etc.
5. Practice questions: Try various free sites such as https://cloudacademy.com to take some practice questions. Once comfortable take AWS offered practice exam which mimics real exam but with smaller set of questions.
6. Crack It and share!

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