AWS - Certification

Certification Provider

As of January 1st, 2023 all exams are delivered by Pearson VUE.

Certifications are able to be done by visiting a testing center, or remotely from home. Previously you would obtain the results of a base pass/fail at the end of the exam, however now they typically email it out within 24 hours. The quickest I've received it was within 8 hours (on a Saturday).

In-Person Testing

I've selected In-Person testing for my Associate and CCP exams. The process was fairly simple, however any delays in the tests commencing can also be tedious. You are typically told to lock all of your personal things in a locker well before the exam commences, and have to wait around for the examination to happen. 1/3 times the wait was upwards of 45 minutes after arriving on time.

One situation I did arrive and a system outage caused the exam to not happen. It did take 6 weeks to obtain a code to re-schedule my exam, albeit this was through PSI, and not Pearson.

Online Testing

I've selected Online testing for my Professional exams and my Security Specialty. The process does demand a very simple setup on your computer, and you will need to show that any extra peripherals and other bits and pieces have been removed from the computer. I've experienced no real issues with having the software working on Windows based machines, however you will need to ensure that every unneccessary application is turned off using Task Manager.

I've had situations where both providers have had their systems experience issues which did lead to rescheduling. For Pearson it was quicker to call the help line from my mobile as I was unable to check-in. The exam was re-scheduled, HOWEVER it did count towards the "two reschedules" which you're typically able to do per exam.

It may be advisable to use an external USB Webcam, as they will ask you to do a check around your desk and room, and moving a wired machine or laptop is extremely difficult. Pearson will also give you a link to a webapp you can open on your phone to do ID, and working area photo's.

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate

There is 65 questions in this exam with a total time of 2hr 30 minutes available. 15 of the exam questions are not scorable, but you don't know which.

AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional

AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional

AWS Certified Security - Specialty

Achieved Certifications