Cloud computing skills have a high demand, and if you are thinking of going for an AWS certification training, you are on the right path.AWS covers one-third of the cloud computing market. Getting a certification in AWS will enhance your cloud computing skills and give an excellent start to your career.

What Are The AWS Certifications?

Amazon Web Services offers 12 certifications, and they are amongst the most sought-after certifications in the IT world. They demonstrate your knowledge of the AWS platform, its services, tools, terminologies, and best practices.

To qualify for the certification, you are required to pass a multiple-choice exam. The exams test your prior IT knowledge, expertise, and knowledge. Based on the skills and experience needed for each exam, the certifications are divided into four categories:  practitioner, associate, professional, and specialty.

Let’s go through each certification category and find how why AWS certifications are considered difficult.

Practitioner Certification 

The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner is an foundational-level certification. It is considered the first step towards getting associate or professional level certifications. However, it is also suitable for people looking for a career in non-technical fields such as finance, sales, and management.

It covers AWS topics such as basic infrastructure, operation and deployment, key services, billing and account management, and security and compliance. It is recommended by AWS to have at least six months of experience with AWS working in the managerial, technical, sales, purchasing, or financial field.

If you are an IT engineer with networking experience, this exam won’t be too difficult for you. Some of its concepts will correlate to what you already know, such as EC2 is virtual machines, S3 is file storage, RDS is databases, etc. You can definitely go for higher levels, but the best is to get this foundational certification first, as there are many new things to learn.

Now, for those from the non-IT background. The path is surely a tough one. But the good thing is that you can still understand as it relates to roles in sales, management, finance, and more. So, basically, this certification is the easiest if you know about cloud technologies and AWS. But, if you are new to AWS, you will need to put lots of effort to do well.

Associate Level Certifications 

Three certifications are offered by AWS for associate-level: Solutions Architect, Developer, and SysOps. As there are no prerequisites for associate-level certification, IT background students can skip the foundational level certification and go directly for this too.

The associate level is not easy, and you will need to learn from all the possible resources and practice on the AWS console. There should be a proper plan of how you’re going to prepare for the exam and utilize different resources such as videos, AWS white papers, practice tests, labs, etc. All this can be hectic but an essential part of AWS training.

As the exams questions go deeper into the specifics, you may not find it easy to answer them. You may encounter some questions that have all answer choices technically correct, but only one is actually right. So, to tackle such questions, you will need to have a deeper understanding of the topics.

AWS associate-level exams are tough as they cover a lot.  You may get questions on one service in one attempt, while on the next attempt, the question will be on a completely different service. This shows AWS certifications have broad testing objectives. So, this exam is not going to be easy even though you put in extra hours.

Professional Level Certifications

If associate-level certification is challenging, then consider it 10 times more difficult. AWS offers two certifications at the professional level: Solutions Architect and DevOps Engineer. There is an obvious reason for it as the professional level exam is way beyond knowing about the AWS products and services, and you need to know how to use them.

You will need to prepare a study plan that makes you dive deeper into the subjects., You’ll have to do a deep analysis of questions when studying to ascertain your readiness.

Those who have taken this test have encountered the blows of questions for 170 minutes, and they are no easy questions. You will have lengthy questions talking about complex projects followed by questions that ask about their intricate details.

But the problem is way bigger as all the options look technically correct, and you really have to be smart to pick the right choice. Professional level exams are tricky because you not only require knowledge of tools but should know how to use those tools effectively.

Specialty Level Certifications

You might think they are the hardest to learn, but they are not as wide and deep as the associate and professional level certifications. Specialty exams are narrow, requiring a deep skill set and the difficulty level depends more on your experience.

Networking, Security, Big Data Specialty certifications are complex in nature, and you’ll have to push yourself to finish the exam on time. Actually, these exams test your experience and knowledge to the limit. For example, a Networking Specialty Certification will require you to know multi-region solutions, routing architectures, and connectivity practices inside and out.

Similarly, a Big Data Specialty exam will need to know how you can fit the AWS into the data’s lifecycle. And, if you are going for the Security Speciality exam, learn everything about KMS, ACLs, and Cloudtrail.

Technically, the Specialty exam is the highest level of AWS certification, and those with knowledge and experience in the subject sit for the exam. So, it is important to have at least 3-5 years of experience in the specialty area you have chosen for certification.

Conclusion 

So, you can say that every AWS certification has a different difficulty level. Certification validates your knowledge, skills, and experience of the AWS platform. So,  if you hold them, you will gain an edge in the job market.

No matter what position you are aiming for, certification will make you stand out. And, as AWS is growing, certified professionals will have better chances to get employed and a lucrative salary.