Flash around your AWS badge of honor.
In this blog, I will go into more detail about:
- Why you should or should not consider getting AWS certified.
- My experience with AWS.
- Practical tips for studying for the exam.
- The result I achieved.
Why get AWS certified?
The title might make it sound as if I am immediately going to advocate getting AWS certified, but the first question to ask is always: why? Why would someone need a certification or badge? And how does a standardized test make you more knowledgeable as a developer?
The short answer is that you probably do not need a certification to gain the knowledge required to do your job well. For me, the main benefit is that someone else, such as an employer, can quickly validate that you have a certain level of knowledge required to work with their systems in AWS.
It is also a useful way to validate for yourself that you have the skills needed to work with AWS.
That does not mean pursuing a certification is useless. Quite the opposite. Regardless of how much knowledge you already have, working towards an AWS certification can expose you to topics and services you may not have encountered before.
Because you need to answer most of the exam questions correctly, you are encouraged to explore a much broader range of subjects. I experienced this as a period of "ultra learning": I learned a lot in a relatively short period and could immediately apply some of that knowledge in my daily work.
My experience with AWS
In October 2019, I started working at Yuma in my first full-time job. The first project I worked on required the use of AWS IoT, a specialized service for building Internet of Things solutions.
My first AWS project
As a front-end engineer, I was tasked with building an Angular application directly on top of the HTTP API provided by Amazon Web Services.
To access AWS services, we needed temporary credentials, which led me to use Cognito through AWS Amplify.
To host the website, we used:
- CloudFront as a CDN.
- S3 for storage.
This project sparked my interest in AWS and encouraged me to learn more about it from a theoretical perspective. The practical experience also proved very useful while studying for my first exam.
I chose to take the Developer Associate exam before the Cloud Practitioner exam because I already had practical AWS experience.
How I prepared for the AWS exam
Where I started
A good place to start is the official AWS certification preparation page: AWS Certification Prep.
If you first want a broader overview of AWS, I also recommend looking at these cheat sheets. They provide additional information about the different AWS services and concepts: AWS Cheat Sheets by Tutorials Dojo.
The course I followed
To prepare for the AWS Developer Associate exam, I followed the Udemy course AWS Developer Associate.
It provided a useful guided tour through several AWS services, but for me, the course alone would not have been enough to pass the exam.
These are the five additional study methods that helped me prepare.
1. Read the FAQs for important AWS services
When studying for the exam, much of the work involves learning about different AWS services. One useful way to understand them is by reading their FAQs, which cover many of the common questions people have about each service.
I did not do this for every service AWS offers, but I found it useful for getting a better understanding of what individual services are designed to do.
AWS service FAQs I used
More advanced services
2. Take practice exams
Practice exams help you become familiar with the way AWS asks questions and the type of knowledge you need to pass the exam. They can also help you determine whether you are ready to schedule the actual exam.
Whizlabs practice exams
The practice exam service I used was Whizlabs, where you can purchase exams with a one-time payment.
They also provide one free exam so you can try the platform first. This free exam contains fewer questions, so it is not fully representative of the other practice exams.
Official AWS practice exams
You can also purchase an official AWS practice exam, although this is more expensive.
After successfully completing an exam, you receive:
- A free official practice exam for your next certification.
- A 50% discount towards your next exam.
These benefits can be found on the AWS Certification benefits page.
There are five practice exams available.
Learn from the questions you get wrong
Another benefit of learning through practice exams is that you can explore additional information based on the questions you answered incorrectly or correctly.
You can also purchase labs to gain hands-on experience with the topics covered in those questions.
3. Save useful resources while taking practice exams
Whenever I came across a topic during a practice exam that I did not know enough about, I saved relevant resources so I could study them later.
One resource I saved
This is something I wanted to do more often before taking the exam, but I did not get around to it because I had already scheduled my exam in advance. Still, I found it particularly useful during the earlier stages of studying.
I had also taken notes while following the Udemy course, so I ultimately saved only one additional link during my Whizlabs preparation.
What I would do differently next time
For my next exam, I plan to save more resources based on the questions I encounter in Whizlabs rather than taking another Udemy course.
Personally, I learn more quickly by being confronted with exam questions and then exploring additional references after making a mistake than by following a video-based course.
4. Follow the exam preparation training from AWS
A few days before taking the exam, I followed this AWS exam preparation course.
The course explains in more detail how AWS structures its questions and provides an interactive way to identify the important information within them.
For example, you may notice that the first sentence of a question is often not essential to finding the correct answer.
The impact on my practice score
The course is free and takes a few hours to complete. In my case, it helped increase my practice exam score from 67% to 84%.
5. Schedule your exam before you feel completely ready
To make sure you actually follow through with your plan to get certified, I recommend scheduling the exam before you feel completely ready.
Having an exam date gave me an additional incentive to study and improve my practice exam scores. My goal was to get them above the required 80% before taking the real exam.
In my experience, I put roughly three times as much effort into studying during the final two weeks leading up to the exam.
My AWS certification result
In the end, all that studying paid off.
- My score: 880 out of 1,000.
- Minimum passing score: 720.
You can find more information about the scoring system on the AWS certification preparation page.
What the exam cost at the time
At the time, the exam cost $150, approximately €135.
Personally, I would not spend this amount out of pocket, particularly because the cost includes tax and it can be more beneficial to have the exam paid for through your own company or employer.
2026 update: AWS certification pricing
AWS certification pricing has changed in euros since this blog was originally written.
Current AWS exam prices
As of 2026, AWS lists the following certification exam prices:
- Foundational: €85.
- Associate: €128.
- Professional: €256.
- Specialty: €256.
The AWS Certified Developer - Associate exam therefore currently costs $150 or €128. Applicable taxes may apply.
AWS notes that local-currency exam prices are reviewed at least annually and may change based on exchange rates.
AWS Certification discount
AWS-certified individuals can also receive a 50% discount voucher that can be used towards recertification or another AWS Certification exam.
Continuing to develop my AWS knowledge
At the company I work for, we continuously develop our cloud knowledge.
In 2021, we started participating in "Cloud the Game", a game created by colleagues to help other colleagues learn about cloud technologies.
My next AWS goal
My professional goal for 2021 is to learn more about security in AWS. I plan to do this by pursuing the AWS Certified Security - Specialty certification.
