My Journey to AWS Certified Developer Associate (DVA-C02)
I’m a ReactJS/NodeJs developer based in Paris. I recently cleared AWS developer certification exam, and I would like to share my certification experience as it might motivate or guide fellow developers who are planning to get certified.
Background:
I had my first exposure to AWS services (RDS, EBS, S3, Beanstalk, CodePipeline etc) in my current project and I thought it would be a good idea to pursue a certification alongside as I was navigating through different services and tools.
I believe studying and working with these services in parallel greatly enhances your understanding of services and you can better navigate through different services, tools and their use-cases.
Amazon recommends passing Certified Practitioner and Certified Solution Architect before passing Developer Certification but I skipped the both. The first one because it’s quite basic, I already have a good understanding of what it covers and it does not offer much value for money. I skipped the Solution Architect Certification because it’s not quite aligned with my current job role and I don’t have necessary exposure to solution architecture as yet.
Exam Preparation:
I started out with acloudguru as they provide you with a number of hand-on labs and a very good cloud sandbox to test and play around with AWS resources without worrying about any charges. I took a few practice test from Whizlab after this course and I scored quite poorly although I was doing well on acloudguru tests. It turns out that the course materiel isn’t detailed enough.
Then I started Stéphane Maarek’s course on Udemey which is quite detailed and course slides are excellent resource for revision. Big shoutout for stéphane.
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The Test Day:
I took my test on 31st May, in person at IBS global in Paris. Although you can take it at your home or office but there has been reports of glitches and bad user experience in the past. Apparently, their online exam proctoring system isn’t as reliable. Test went smoothly although it was a bit more challenging than the practice tests and coming out of test center, my thoughts were that it could go either way. I was relieved to see my badge this afternoon with 82% score. It’s not a great score but at the end of the day, it’s a pass or fail exam and I passed it.
The Good Part:
Apart from employer recognition (yes, it’s disputable), the good part is that certification preparation forces you learn in a structured and organized way, you get a holistic view of most common AWS services and you can better navigate through a large palette of services and technologies.
The bad Part:
The bad part is that no certification replaces practical experience and this one is no exception. It also sets you back a few hundred bucks (exam, courses, tests etc.), if your employer is not paying for that. Technically, you can pass the exam without ever writing a single line of code, or using an ounce of logic.
TLDR:
I would strongly recommend to go for it if you have some practical exposure to AWS or you are working on a project that relies on AWS. You will get a good overall view of most commonly used services and ‘ll be better equipped to pick the right tool for a given use-case.
Don’t rush for it if your only motivation is some developer salary survey that mentions six-digit salaries for AWS certified developers. Get some hands-on first, somehow.
Voila, that’s it for now. Please do like and share.
