Earning the three Amazon Web Services Associate certificates was not my original intention when I started with the Solutions Architect Associate training and passed the exam in 2020. My plan was to just earn the SAA cert and proceed to the Security Specialty. Overall, the three AWS Associate exams were straight forward, while the Developer exam was the most difficult for me and with the lowest score out of the three, possibly because of my IT Operations background or considering I took less than a month to prepare for it based on the wrong assumption that since the SysOps was adjudged to be the most difficult of the Associate exams and I passed fairly well and easily, the Developer would be easy, I was wrong.

Resources Used for the SysOps and Developer Exams

I am going to share only links to resources I used for the SysOps and Developer exams because I passed the two not long ago, however the creators have relevant content for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect as well.

  1. r/AWSCertifications and r/AWS subreddits: r/AWS for discussions on general AWS topics and r/AWSCertifications specifically for exam related posts, reviews and advice. I got suggestions on the best resource for each exam from the subreddit.

  2. Stephane Maarek’s Ultimate AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate and Ultimate AWS Certified Developer Associate training: Stephane is a superstar and the best trainer on Udemy and only The Cyber Mentor and Mumshad Mannambeth are on the same level in my opinion and those two don’t have AWS related content. If you have to go with just a single resource for the AWS Associate exams go with Stephane Maarek and thank me later, I used his courses for all three Associate exams and was the main contributor to my success.

  3. Tutorials Dojo / Jon Bonso’s Practice Exams: Tutorial Dojo Practice exam is the second essential on the AWS exam checklist, And Yes, Tutorials Dojo questions and explanations are better than the Official AWS Practice exams.

AWS Certified Developer - Associate

Several trainers such as Neal Davis, ACloudGuru and Adrian Cantrill were also recommended in different forums. I read the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Study Guide by Brett McLaughlin and Sara Perrott but will recommend it only as reference or better still use the AWS Documentation website

In Summary, with Stephane Maarek, Jon Bonso and little hands-on experience, you should pass on your first try.