Different Levels of AWS Certifications Explained

Rashmi Karan
Manager - Co ntent

Updated on Oct 18, 2021 18:23 IST

Foundational Certif ication

Associate Certif ications

Prof essional Certif ications

Specialty Certif ications

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Image – Dif f erent levels of AWS certif ications (Source)

Foundational Certif ication

It requires candidates to have at least six months of AWS cloud and industry knowledge.
Foundational certif ication of f ered by AWS include:

1. AWS Cert if ied Cloud Pract it ioner

T his certif ication exam is meant f or candidates who have the knowledge to ef f ectively
demonstrate an overall understanding of AWS Cloud, independent of specif ic technical roles
addressed by other AWS Certif ications.

Recommended experience and knowledge –

Candidates should have at least six months of experience using the AWS cloud in any
role, including technical, administrative, f inancial, sales, and purchasing.

Candidates should have a basic understanding of IT services and their use cases on the
AWS cloud platf orm

Read more – What is AWS certification?

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Associate Certif ications

Associate certif ications require candidates to have one year of experience in implementing
solutions using AWS cloud. Associate-level certif ications of f ered by AWS include:

2. AWS Cert if ied Solut ions Archit ect (Associat e)

AWS Certif ied Solutions Architect certif ication exam conf irms your ability to identif y and
def ine requirements f or an Amazon Web Services-based application and to f ollow best
practices f or building secure and reliable applications on the AWS platf orm.

Learn how to become an AWS Solutions Architect.

Recommended experience and knowledge –

Excellent understanding of typical multi-tier architectures: web servers (Apache, nginx, IIS),
caching, application servers, and load balancers

RDBMS (MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server), NoSQL

Knowledge of message queuing and Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

Familiarity with loose coupling and stateless systems

Understanding of dif f erent consistency models in distributed systems

Experience with CDN and perf ormance concepts

Network experience with route tables, access control lists, f irewalls, NAT , HT T P, DNS, IP,
and OSI Network

Knowledge of REST f ul Web Services, XML, JSON

Familiarity with the sof tware development lif ecycle

Work experience with inf ormation and application security, including public-key encryption,
SSH, access credentials, and X.509 certif icates

3. AWS Cert if ied SysOps Administ rat or (Associat e)

T he AWS Certif ied Systems Operations Administrator – Associate Level exam certif ies
technical expertise in deploying, managing, and operating on the AWS platf orm.

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Recommended experience and knowledge –

One or more years of hands-on experience operating AWS-based applications

Experience provisioning, operating, and maintaining systems running on AWS

Ability to identif y and qualif y to def ine a solution to be built and operated on AWS

Capabilities to provide assistance in the operation and deployment on AWS of guidance

Explore AWS Certification Online Courses & Certifications

4. AWS Cert if ied Developer (Associat e)

T he Amazon Web Services (AWS) Certif ied Developer – Associate Level exam validates
technical expertise in developing and maintaining applications on the AWS platf orm.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Knowledge

Prof essional experience using AWS technology

Hands-on experience programming with AWS APIs

Understanding of AWS Security best practices

Understanding of automation and AWS deployment tools

Understanding storage options and their underlying consistency models

Excellent understanding of at least one AWS SDK

General IT Knowledge

Understanding of stateless and loosely coupled distributed applications

Familiarity developing with REST f ul API interf aces

Basic understanding of relational and non-relational databases

Familiarity with messaging & queuing services

Top AWS Architect Interview Questions and Answers

Prof essional Certif ications

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Prof essional AWS certif ications require candidates to have two years of comprehensive
experience in designing, operating and implementing solutions using AWS Cloud.
Prof essional-level certif ications of f ered by AWS include:

5. AWS Cert if ied Solut ions Archit ect (Prof essional)

T he AWS Certif ied Solutions Architect Prof essional Level exam validates advanced technical
skills and experience in designing distributed applications and systems on the AWS platf orm.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Knowledge

AWS core services, including Compute and Networking, Storage and CDN, Database,
Application

Services, Deployment and Management.

Security f eatures that AWS provides and best practices

Able to design and implement f or elasticity and scalability

Network technologies as they relate to AWS networking, including DNS and load
balancing, Amazon

Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), and AWS Direct Connect

General IT Knowledge

Large-scale distributed systems architecture

Eventual consistency

Relational and non-relational databases

Multi-tier architectures: load balancers, caching, web servers, application servers,

Loose coupling and stateless systems

Content Delivery Networks

System perf ormance tuning

Networking concepts including routing tables, access control lists, f irewalls, NAT , HT T P,
DNS, T CP / IP, OSI model

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 REST f ul Web Services, XML, JSON

6. AWS Cert if ied DevOps Engineer (Prof essional)

AWS Certif ied DevOps Engineer certif ication exam validates technical expertise in
provisioning, operating, and managing distributed application systems on the AWS platf orm.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Knowledge

AWS Services: Compute and Network, Storage and CDN, Database, Analytics, Application
Services, Deployment, and Management

Minimum of two years hands-on experience with production AWS systems

Ef f ective use of Auto Scaling

Monitoring and logging

AWS security f eatures and best practices

Design of self -healing and f ault-tolerant services

T echniques and strategies f or maintaining high availability

General IT Knowledge

Networking concepts

Strong system administration (Linux / Unix or Windows)

Strong scripting skillset

Multi-tier architectures: load balancers, caching, web servers, application servers,

T emplates and other conf igurable items to enable automation

Deployment tools and techniques in a distributed environment

Basic monitoring techniques in a dynamic environment

AWS Certification Exam, Cost and Eligibility

Specialty Certif ications

T he technical AWS cloud experience at the specialty level varies as per dif f erent

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certif ications. Specialty certif ications of f ered by AWS include:

7. AWS Cert if ied Advanced Net working Specialt y

AWS Certif ied Advanced Networking Specialty certif ication exam is f or candidates who
perf orm complex networking roles.

Recommended experience and knowledge

Candidates should have a current AWS Certif ied Cloud Practitioner or Associate-level
certif ication: AWS Certif ied Solutions Architect, AWS Certif ied Developer, or AWS
Certif ied SysOps Administrator – Associate

Advanced knowledge of AWS network concepts and technologies

Minimum of f ive years of practical experience in the design of architectures and in the
implementation of network solutions

Advanced network architectures and interconnectivity options (e.g. IP VPN, MPLS / VPLS)

Network technologies within the OSI model and how they af f ect implementation decisions

Development of automation tools and scripts

CIDR and subnets (IPv4 and IPv6)

IPv6 transition challenges

Generic solutions f or network security f eatures, including WAF, IDS, IPS, protection
against DDoS attacks and economic denial of service/sustainability (EDoS)

8. AWS Cert if ied Securit y Specialt y

AWS Certif ied Security Specialty certif ication exam is f or candidates who are in security
roles.

Recommended experience and knowledge

At least two years of hands-on experience protecting AWS workloads

Security controls f or workloads on AWS

Minimum of f ive years of IT security experience in relation to the design and

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9. AWS Cert if ied Machine Learning Specialt y

AWS Certif ied Machine Learning Specialty certif ication exam is f or candidates who are in
development or data science role.

Recommended experience and knowledge

At least two years of hands-on experience protecting AWS workloads

Security controls f or workloads on AWS

Minimum of f ive years of IT security experience in relation to the design and

10. AWS Cert if ied Alexa Skill Builder Specialt y

AWS Certif ied Alexa Skill Builder Specialty certif ication exam is f or candidates who perf orm
the role of Alexa skill builder. It validates a candidate’s ability to build, test, and publish
Amazon Alexa skills.

Recommended experience and knowledge

At least 6 months of hands-on experience building Alexa skills using the Alexa Skills Kit,
including skills that incorporate services f rom the AWS Cloud

Prof iciency with a programming language

Published an Alexa skill

Top 10 Reasons to learn AWS – Services and Benefits

11. AWS Cert if ied Dat a Analyt ics Specialt y

AWS Certif ied Data Analytics Specialty certif ication exam intends to validate a candidate’s
expertise in AWS data lakes and analytics services.

Recommended experience and knowledge

At least 5 years of experience with data analysis technologies

At least 2 years of practical experience working with AWS

Knowledge and experience working with AWS services to design, build, secure, and

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 maintain analytics solutions

12. AWS Cert if ied Dat abase Specialt y

AWS Certif ied Database Specialty certif ication exam intends to validate a candidate’s
expertise in AWS database services.

Recommended Knowledge and Experience

At least 5 years of experience with database technologies

At least 2 years of hands-on experience working on AWS

Experience and expertise working with on-premises and AWS-Cloud-based relational and
non-relational databases

An AWS certif ication not just validates your cloud knowledge but also demonstrates your
dedication and willingness to learn. Obtaining one of these degrees is not going to
guarantee a job by itself (the most relevant thing is and will always be your experience and
being able to demonstrate what you know how to do), and it gives you a competitive
advantage over candidates who are not certif ied. A valid AWS credential will help you stay at
the f oref ront of innovation. Based on your prof essional aspirations and line of work,
choose the one that f ulf ills your requirements.

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