Hello, my name is Stuart Scott, I’m the AWS Content Director here at Cloud Academy, and throughout this learning path I’ll be joined by Jeremy Cook, our Content Solutions Director, Stephen Cole, our Certification Specialist, and Will Meadows, a Senior content creator specializing in AWS.

I have created this learning path to ensure that you have covered everything you need to know before sitting your exam, and to hopefully answer any details about the certification itself, such as the cost and how to book it.

Ideally before working through this content, you should have already completed our AWS Developer - Associate training found here: https://cloudacademy.com/learning-paths/developer-associate-certification-preparation-for-aws-june-2018-241/

Ok, so back to what we are going to cover in this learning path.  The content consists of webinars which have been carefully designed to help prepare you for any last-minute study sessions and answer some of the common questions you may have prior to taking your exam.

We start by focusing on the different domains of the exam.  In the first webinar Jeremy Cook talks to us about Domain 1: Deployment, which covers content relating to the the following services and features:

• CI/CD Concepts
• Deployment Patterns
• Code Deployment tooling
• AWS CodeCommit
• AWS CodeBuild
• AWS CodeDeploy
• AWS CodePipeline
• AWS Elastic Beanstalk
• AWS Serverless Applications Model (SAM)

Following this, I then focus on Doman 2: Security, during this webinar I highlight and discuss these key points:

• Identity & Access Management
• Authentication in AWS
• Making authenticated calls and requests
• Encryption at rest/in-transit
• S3 encryption mechanisms
• DB encryption options
• Controlling access to your APIs with API Gateway
• Using KMS to manage encryption
• Using CloudHSM as a custom key store
• Amazon Cognito authentication
• Using Secrets Manager to protect your secrets
• Exam tips for security

Following this webinar, Will Meadows will then take you through the requirements needed for Domain 3: Development with AWS Services.  During this session, Will Meadows covers the following:

• Writing code for serverless applications using Lambda, Fargate and Step Functions
• Translating functional requirements into application design
• Implementing application design into application code
• Writing code that interacts with AWS services by using APIs, SDKs, and AWS CLI
• Exam tips 

Following Will, Stephen Cole then takes us through the requirements for both Domain 4: Refactoring, and Domain 5: Monitoring and Troubleshooting in a single webinar.  As a result, Stephen will cover the elements covered by the assessment points of these domains which are as follows:

Domain 4: 

• Optimizing application to best use AWS services and features
• Migrating existing application code to run on AWS

Domain 5:

• Writing code that can be monitored
• Performing root cause analysis on faults found in testing or production

In the last webinar, we move away from the content required to pass the Developer Associate exam and turn our attention towards the logistics of sitting the certification itself.  Stephen Cole will guide you through some general strategies that you can apply when taking your first AWS exam, from home or on-site. As an experienced pro with several certs to his name Stephen will also go through…

• Advice on the realities of an at-home proctored exam
• Specific questions types and how to decode them more easily
• Insight into how AWS creates questions so you can understand what they’re looking for
• Dashes of in-exam personal recollections from someone who’s gone through the process multiple times

Ok, now you have an understanding of what to expect in this learning path, so let’s get started!