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AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional content outline updated to align with latest trends and innovations

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Changes to exam draw on veterans’ experience

Registration for the updated AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional exam is open now. This updated version aligns with the AWS Well-Architected Framework and focuses on specific pillars such as reliability and resilience. The first date to take the updated exam is November 15, 2022. Candidates who are preparing for the current exam will need to take it by November 14, 2022.

The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional certification validates advanced knowledge and skills in architecting complex solutions to complex problems, optimizing security, cost, and performance, and automating manual processes. At this level, professionals should focus on providing the best AWS solutions to address stakeholder and customer requirements rather than troubleshooting issues. This certification ranks #1 on the Skillsoft® list of 15 Top-Paying IT Certifications of 2022, with a salary potential of USD168,080.

What’s new in this updated content outline

Matt Adorjan, Platform Engineering (Cloud & DevOps) Manager, Balyasny Asset Management L.P.,  and Don Spidell, Cloud Architect Lead at Summit Technology Group, were part of the Job Task Analysis (JTA) team that reviewed and updated the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional content outline (learn more about how AWS Certification exams are written). They are both experienced cloud professionals and hold several AWS Certifications, including AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional.

“The updated version of this exam looks not only at migrating existing applications but at post-migration modernization of applications,” says Adorjan. “Architects need to design for reliable and resilient architectures, where availability, recovery, and fault tolerance are built in. Professionals at this level understand services and how things work, and take it a step further to modernize, add capabilities, and think about cost implications at each stage.”

To this end, the following changes have been made to the content outline:

  1. Increased focus on modernization of applications and acceleration of migrations.
  2. Troubleshooting tasks have been removed from the domains of this exam. The focus of the updated outline is on architecting aligned to the AWS Well-Architected Framework. Work practices of professionals at this level have moved away from troubleshooting to optimization and modernization of applications. Plus, there are other AWS Certification exams such as the AWS Certified Developer – Associate and the AWS Certified Sysops – Associate that address troubleshooting.
  3. The current version of this exam has a domain specific to cost optimization “Cost control”. Looking at industry trends we found that cost is an integral part of using the public cloud and should be part of every domain. Therefore, the cost control domain was integrated into all the domains in the updated outline.

Below is an image showing a comparison between the current exam and updated exam content outlines.

Chart showing current AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional exam vs. updated exam content.

This chart shows the comparison between the current AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional exam and updated exam content.

Note: The image here shows a comparison between current and updated domain topics. The domains overall are similar, but the weights of the domains have changed along with increased focus on specific pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework.

Speaking to how the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional differs from the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, Spidell says “At the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate level, one understands AWS concepts and has learned, for example, what an EC2 instance is, and how to use features and services. At the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional level, one would analyze, evaluate, and bring higher level, holistic thinking—a deeper understanding of the AWS ecosystem to rearchitect and modernize applications.”

How to prepare for the updated AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional exam

To prepare for this updated exam, check out the following free resources that can help a candidate understand what content and services the exam covers, as well as the ways in which the questions are formatted and scored.

Deepen your learning with Advanced Architecting on AWS (classroom training) and inject some fun into your learning by subscribing to AWS Skill Builder for access to the AWS Cloud Quest role-playing game for solutions architect, serverless developer, security specialist, and machine learning specialist.

Who should get this certification?

The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional certification is for candidates with two or more years of hands-on experience designing and deploying cloud architecture on AWS. Both Adorjan and Spidell agree that there is no substitute for hands-on experience designing and deploying cloud architecture on AWS to prepare for this exam.

“The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional is an advanced certification that will give certified individuals credibility and confidence to design, deploy, and evaluate applications on AWS within diverse, complex requirements,” says Spidell. “For candidates with on-premises or other cloud services experience, with little or no prior AWS Cloud experience I would recommend they consider attaining the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate first, to familiarize themselves with the breadth of AWS services and concepts before preparing for and attaining the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional certification.”

Certified AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professionals can aspire to job roles like Solutions Architects, Senior Partner Solutions Architect, Senior Technical Account Manager, Senior Consultant, Senior Cloud Infrastructure Architect. This updated exam will be available to take starting November 15, 2022. Candidates preparing for the current AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional exam will need to take the exam by November 14, 2022.

Visit the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional exam page to learn more.

Note: The updated AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional exam is offered in 9 languages. However, exams in French (France), German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish (Latin America) will only be available through Pearson VUE.