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Maintaining All AWS Certifications

 2021-06-01 /  1693 words /  8 minutes

Holding all AWS certifications is the goal of many AWS practitioners. In addition to considerable bragging rights, holding all AWS certifications shows substantial depth and breadth of knowledge and the eligibility to participate in the Subject Matter Experts (SME) program. At AWS re:Invent, the annual AWS convention for these practices, there is a room dedicated to AWS Certified attendees with swag, drinks and snacks! With over ten certifications, though, what’s the best approach to first attaining and then maintaining them all? This post takes you through an approach.

At the time of writing, AWS offers eleven different certifications, arranged into four different sections.

  • The foundation section holds:
    • AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
  • The associate section holds the following certifications:
    • AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate
    • AWS Certified Developer - Associate
    • AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate
  • The professional section holds the following certifications:
    • AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional
    • AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional
  • Finally, the specialty section holds the following certifications:
    • AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Speciality
    • AWS Certified Data Analytics - Speciality
    • AWS Certified Database - Speciality
    • AWS Certified Machine Learning - Speciality
    • AWS Certified Security - Speciality

The AWS Certified Big Data - Specialty has been effectively replaced with the AWS Certified Data Analytics - Specialty, while the AWS Cetified Alexa Skill Builder - Specialty was retired in March 2021.

All AWS Certifications - from AWS Training and Certification Site

Exam Renew Cycle

The whole point of certification programs is to provide evidence that holders know about the technology. Technology changes all the time, though, and it’s easy to forget about things that aren’t constantly reinforced. There are three basic approaches that certification programs use.

Some support a model which only requires a one-time exam pass to attain a lifetime certification. This model works well for versioned shrink-wrapped technology where the certification is awarded for a specfic version of the technology. At one time, VMware supported this certification model. If you passed an exam specificially for VMware vSphere 4 then you were awarded that certification for life. When VMware vSphere 5 was launched, you were still certified for VMware vSphere 4, but not certified for the newer technology. You would need to pass the certification exam for VMware vSphere 5 to show that you understood the newer technology.

Some certification programs use a Continuous Professional Education (CPE) model. This model works well when the certification doesn’t apply to a specific technology, but perhaps an entire field. The International Information System Security Certification Consortium’s (also known as the (ISC)²) certifications such as the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) use this model. After an initial exam, certification holders must upload evidence that they had kept upto date with the field by attending seminars or lectures, or read articles or books each of which awards CPE credits. Over a three year period a specific number of CPE credits are required to maintain the certification.

AWS certifications take a third approach which basically requires passing a re-certification exam every 3 years. This model works well with AWS because:

  • specific technologies (services) evolve frequently over time, but those technologies aren’t versioned
  • the certification spans multiple technologies (services) so referring to specific technology versions doesn’t make sense If certification holders successfully renews their certification within the 3 year window, AWS will extend their certification from the date of the first certification.

For example, if candidates pass an exam on February 1st 2017, then their certications are valid until January 31st 2020. If they successfully pass the renewal exam on January 31st 2020, then their certifications will show that their certifications are valid from February 1st 2017 to January 31st 2023. However, if they do not pass the renewal exam by the January 31st 2020, but instead pass it on March 1st 2020, then they will effectively have two separate certifications, the original one valid from February 1st 2017 to January 31st 2023, and a new one valid from March 1st 2020 to February 28th 2023.

Generally, if you intend to maintain your AWS certifications, it’s better to renew before the certifications expire.

Automatic Extension

The next important aspect of AWS Certification relates to automatic extension. We’ll look at a few specific certifications here and how automatic extension applies to them.

The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner is the foundation exam within the AWS certification program. As a result, when you pass any other AWS certification, the expiration date for any valid AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner is extended to the expiration date of the new or renewed certification. So, for example, if you passed the Certified Cloud Practitioner on February 1st 2020 which would make it valid upto 31st January 2023, but then you passed another AWS certification one March 1st 2020 which would be valid until February 28th 2023, then the validity of the Certified Cloud Practitioner would be extended also to be valid until February 28th 2023. So long as you renew other AWS certifications, you’ll always hold a valid AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner.

The associate exams work in a similar way but for specific professional exams. A valid AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate certification is automatically extended whenever the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional is extended and whenever the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional is renewed, valid AWS Certified Developer - Associate and valid AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate certifications are extended.

Specialty exams aren’t impacted by any automatic extension rules. Each one must be renewed every three years.

The details here though are in the fine print. Only valid existing certifications are extended so if you don’t hold a specific certification, you won’t automatically be awarded with it, and if you let an certification expire it won’t be automatically extended even if you later pass a certification exam which should automatically extend it. For example, if you passed the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate on February 1st 2017 which would make it valid upto 31st January 2020, but you only passed the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional on March 1st 2020, then the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate would expire on 31st January 2020 and would not be automatically extended.

Using automatic extension allows candidates to take fewer exams in order to maintain their certifications. Effectively by passing the two professional level certification exams, you maintain six certifications (two professional, three associate and the Cloud Practitioner). Using automatic extension though also increases the impact if you fail an exam. For example, if you fail the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional, you could lose 4 certifications (the DevOps Pro, two associate and the Cloud Practitioner).

Timing and Retake Policies

The AWS Training and Certification site states:

Test takers who do not pass an exam must wait 14 days before they are eligible to retake the exam. There is no limit on exam attempts until the test taker has passed. For each exam attempt, the full registration price must be paid. Beta exam test takers are eligible for one attempt only.

When taking the first certification exam, there is no penalty to pushing back the exam date, but during the renewal cycle for the reasons given above you don’t want to push the exam date past the certification expiration date. You may also want to ensure that you have time to take the test a couple of times before the certification expiration date. Vehicle issues while getting to the testing center, or network or power issues if you’re taking the virtual test, or illness may all result in a less than satifactory outcome so giving yourself at least 14 days before your certification expires will give you enough time to rescheduled and another chance to pass.

The Plan

Due to the automatic extension, there are four exams which you’ll hopefully never need to take twice, so get the Cloud Practitioner, the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate and the AWS Certified Developer - Associate and AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate certifications completed. That leaves seven certifications currently. After that, consider the timing of the renewals in three years and how quickly you want to attain all the certifications.

If you want to take three years to attain all the AWS certifications, I would suggest taking the professional exams and two specialty exams in year two. The professional exams give a broad overview of the entire AWS ecosystem. Take the two speciality certification exams that you are most comfortable with and leave the three remaining speciality exams for year three. With this schedule, you’ll have approximately three months to pass each exam, but don’t be tempted to rush them because this will give you some flexibility at renewal time! You’ll also get a year off because you will not need to renew the associate or Cloud Practitioner exam, but this year could be used to take any new certifications that AWS announces.

If you’re happy to attain the certifications over two years, then start with the Professional Certifications and then do the five specialty exams in year two. With this schedule, you’ll have less than two months to pass each exam and you’ll get two years off. While this might seem great, taking too much time off between exams can be counterproductive.

If you want to attain all the certifications in a single year, you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you! Take the Cloud Practioner, AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate and AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional within a month, but in that order. The following month, plan to take the AWS Certified Developer - Associate, AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate and AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional certifications in that order. Plan on taking a specialty exam every month after that. This will give you a little time if you need to retake or postpone an exam for any reason, but still give you a little slack during the renewal period.

Conclusion

While passing all the AWS certification exams shows both technical ability and commitment, maintaining the credentials over three years is the real challenge. By leveraging automatic extension and spacing exams appropriately it can be possible to attain and maintain AWS cerifications for many years.


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Categories:  AWS  Certification  AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner  AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate  AWS Certified Developer - Associate  AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate  AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional  AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional  AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Speciality  AWS Certified Data Analytics - Speciality  AWS Certified Database - Speciality  AWS Certified Machine Learning - Speciality  AWS Certified Security - Speciality  AWS Certified Big Data - Specialty  AWS Cetified Alexa Skill Builder - Specialty

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