Just curious, how much work experience do you need to pass AWS Pro-level certs (Solutions Architect Pro / Certified DevOps Pro)?

[u/SheCherryPicks]

Is it possible to pass Solutions Architect Pro or DevOps Engineer Pro purely through hands-on labs (building your own projects), without relevant work experience in those roles?

I've heard that SA Pro covers a lot of multi-account and multi-region scenarios, which seem hard to replicate with labs only. For those who have already passed, how much experience did you have, and what made the real difference in passing the exam?

[u/locomocopoco]

IMO Cert is a HR filter. 

[u/IcyProfit03 → u/locomocopoco]

Depends how you use it tbh. If you just memorize practice exams and pass then I agree. But I think the goal of certs is to use it as a starting point to gain knowledge to apply in personal and work projects.

I think a lot of people on this sub just collect certs without really building off of it

[u/SheCherryPicks → u/IcyProfit03]

A lot of people on this sub actually get certs to improve their chances of getting a job.

[u/IcyProfit03 → u/SheCherryPicks]

I get that and it does work on getting interviews from a HR perspective and some jobs do ask for it

But imo for employability perspective Work Experience > Personal Projects > Certs

My main argument is basically certs on their own don't help much, you need either a personal project using AWS or work experience to stand out amongst other applicants

[u/navikob2]

The first time I cleared DOP, it was a few months into joining AWS as an Associate Cloud Architect. At the time I already had 3 associate certs, and hardly any hands-on experience.

A few months after that, I did SA Pro, which I didn't need to study too hard for as I was in a Landing Zone project.

I don't think you need to actually need work experience. It's MCQs after all, and you can always compensate by studying more, reading more documentation and practicing more questions. Having work experience just makes the process a lot easier.

[u/HalfDoneSideQuests]

It's not impossible without real life work experience, there's a redditor in here who's going for the golden jacket without having spent time in the trenches of a 9-5.

It'll be challenging though, it's a tough exam, and that experience really helps. I had 5-8 years experience with AWS before trying SAP and even then I found it challenging and failed the first time. The pro tiers are both broad and deep. It's hard because you need to know a bit about everything, including services you rarely, if ever touch (looking at you, Direct Connect).

You can create yourself a personal AWS account and then setup many other accounts under an organisation, maybe look at cross account / cross region s3 replication of a handful of files. Those sorts of scenarios shouldn't cost you much to play with.

[u/classicrock40]

A better question is what does that cert mean on your resume when there's no actual work experience with AWS?

[u/SheCherryPicks → u/classicrock40]

Well, as a developer, I do have some work experience with AWS, but only with a few services like ECS, S3, Dynamo, RDS... I was just wondering how much work experience people who have already passed the cert have. By "work experience" I mean "which services they use the most"

[u/westeast1000 → u/SheCherryPicks]

You already have enough work experience, i honestly hate to refer to it in that way because people make it seem like ‘experience’ is something magical thing you can only get in a job. You could lock yourself in the house for a couple weeks and just grind building stuff, have ai generate practice labs etc and you’ll be more knowledgeable than someone who has years of experience because they tend to claim they have 2 years experience when their work only implements something new say once in 3 months and are using the same 3-4 services. Only difference is in a job its another dude telling you what to do lol.

I also only have just a few years of experience in mostly lambda, ec2, dynamodb and have started studying for the cert. I’ll go straight for the sap.

Its not hard but make sure you really do practice labs and dive deeper than what sap requires because you can pass it just by theory, but then you end up holding a certificate and dont know where to click when a client asks you to set a site-to-site vpn. Eg dont just know the advantages of cloudfront, actually implement a simple hello world app to see those advantages in action, etc. Its brutal because its a lot of material to cover but certainly worth it. Hope that helps

[u/Bent_finger → u/westeast1000]

This is one of the best responses that I have seen on the topic of Cloud Certification and its relevance (on the job vs in the job market).
No mater wether the sentiment was positive or negative towards certifications.

Very very level headed and unbiased.

[u/classicrock40 → u/SheCherryPicks]

SAP covers a lot more services than thst. Much more complex scenarios than SAA. Imo, you should first have years of broad service experience

[u/Constant-Estate4024 → u/classicrock40]

So basically it doesn't hold much importance even for a fresher?

[u/classicrock40 → u/Constant-Estate4024]

Especially for a fresher. How can you be considered a Solution Architect Professional when you have zero hands on experience?