Best products from r/AWSCertifications

Keep your head up!

I failed the CISSP, and like you, had to do some soul searching on why I failed. It turns out, it had nothing to do with how smart I was, or how much I studied, but it was how I was studying that made the difference.

Please see this video detailing how I studied for and passed the CISSP on my second try and 4 AWS exams after that using the same exact method:

https://youtu.be/wod92WIn92E

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The materials I used to pass the SAA:

1. The Official AWS SAA Study Guide. It was written by the people who write for the exam and work for AWS
   
   https://www.amazon.com/Certified-Solutions-Architect-Official-Study/dp/1119138558/ref=sr_1_3?crid=31WZJJVGJE1SS&keywords=aws+certified+solutions+architect+official+study+guide&qid=1570917672&sprefix=aws+crti%2Caps%2C256&sr=8-3#customerReviews
   
   
2. The testing engine at Whizlabs.com . You can put the testing engine into audit mode where after you answer each question, it will tell you the correct answer(s) with citations from AWS on why those answers are correct and why the ones that aren't are incorrect. I start with doing 5 questions, then after getting 70% or higher with 5, move onto 10 questions after starting over again. Then after scoring 70% on 10 questions, move onto 20 questions and so on until I get the whole exam done and I know the correct answers and why they are correct.
   
   Also, don't sit for the exam until you feel comfortable enough to take it, but if you follow the guidelines in the first link above, it has helped myself pass as well as other people I've worked with pass AWS exams and the CISSP.
   
   Keep your head up, and don't let this exam beat you. Please feel free to reach out should you have any questions.
   
   Hope this helps!
   
   My background: Passed CSAA, CDA, SysOps, Cloud Practitioner and CISSP

If you plan to take the RHCSA exam (which is hands-on), aside from the courses at Linux Academy,
there are three popular resources to prepare for it:

(1) This book by Sander Van Vugt
(2) Video courses by Sander Van Vugt
(3) This book by Michael Jang

If you like to learn by reading books and doing their practice exercises, I recommend first reading the Vugt book and doing its easier exercises, and then going through the Jang book with its more challenging exercises.

The Vugt book has some typos, but I liked that it has many short easy chapters to learn the concepts.

Near the start of Michael Jang's book, he writes that he expects a reader to have an LPIC-1 level of knowledge/experience before going through his book. So I suggest you go through the LPIC-1 course at Linux Academy to get yourself up to that level (even if you don't take the LPIC-1 exam) before attempting the RHCSA-level material.

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P.S. If you do want to get an LPIC-1 certification, one approach is to pass the current pair of multiple-choice exams needed for a CompTIA Linux+ certification, called "Linux+ powered by LPI". Once you attain the Linux+ certification, you simply have CompTIA send your information to LPI, and LPI will grant you the LPIC-1 as well. It doesn't work the other way (getting a LPIC-1 will not get you a Linux+). This arrangement between CompTIA and LPI is in effect until September or October. Visit r/CompTIA to find posts by people who've taken those exams.

There are books... such as this https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1789617316/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (they might have a few issues/mistakes/be a bit old by the time you read them... but easier to cover large amounts of content in books than video form, easier to make notes on them, etc)

Just another quick note - as i remember them...

https://www.amazon.com/AWS-Certified-Security-objectives-preparation/dp/1645469182/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2ZOFX8UDMCDC4&keywords=aws+security+specialty&qid=1569951792&sprefix=aws+security+spe%2Caps%2C169&sr=8-2

While this book doesn't go too deep into any particular subject, it does serve as a great refresher just before the test. You can get through the entire book in 4-5 hours.

Oddly enough, he does actually mention container security and the book was published in 2019. So it's current.

https://www.amazon.com/Certified-Solutions-Architect-Official-Study/dp/1119138558/

The Amazon trainer for the SA course that I took said that this book has the best questions for the tests.

Something like this one? https://www.amazon.com/Certified-Cloud-Practitioner-Practice-Questions-ebook/dp/B07BK1VJMX

(The first Google search result for "cloud practitioner practice exam kindle")

Actually I did at first.... I started with this book I found on Amazon, but I do NOT recommend it at all. The information in the book is good, but it's outdated and some answers to questions have changed since this was published so all it did was confused me when I started taking online practice tests


https://www.amazon.com/Certified-Solutions-Architect-Associate-SAA-C01/dp/1260108279/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?keywords=aws+certified+solutions+architect+official+study+guide&qid=1564545106&s=gateway&sprefix=aws&sr=8-4

How about the official study book?
https://www.amazon.com/Certified-Advanced-Networking-Official-Study/dp/1119439833

I used The Hundred-Page Machine Learning Book and the Coursera ML course from Stanford by Andrew Ng for background. I used A Cloud Guru for review material. I also read through the SageMaker documentation and the legacy AWS ML documentation and took extensive notes on both.

Is this the book?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1260108279/ref=dbs_a_w_dp_1260108279