Which AWS Exam Should I Take? Understanding AWS Certification

A certification from Amazon Web Services can help you learn and validate cloud computing skills, a high-demand skill that 85 percent of employers state their company needs more of [1]. Certifications are a common way for tech professionals to improve the quality of their work, engage with their career goals, and find ways to be more productive professionals. Across different fields within the tech industry, 93 percent of professionals have at least one certification, a figure that increased by 6 percent from 2023 to 2024 [2]. 

In addition to helping you learn skills that improve your work, earning a certification can also mean earning a higher salary. The Skillsoft IT Skills and Salary Report estimated that the average salary for professionals with an AWS certification is $148,261. Globally, on a list of the top 20 highest paying certifications on average, AWS had five credentials make the list [3]: 

• AWS Certified Machine Learning - Specialty: $171,725

• AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional: $164,012

• AWS Certified Security - Specialty: $158,594

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional: $155,905

• AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Specialty: $151,061

Explore the various levels of credentials AWS offers, how they relate to your professional experience, and how to navigate which AWS exam is right for your career goals. 

What is AWS certification?

Amazon Web Services is a cloud service company that offers certifications for professionals in careers that involve working with AWS Cloud. AWS Cloud solutions are expansive, offering companies access to artificial intelligence, e-commerce solutions, cloud migration solutions, DevOps tools, container services, and more. 

AWS offers 12 certification exams to help professionals learn skills relevant to careers that use cloud services and specific to working within AWS infrastructure. These certifications are available at four experience levels: foundational, professional, associate, and specialty, which can help guide you in determining which AWS exam aligns with your background and career goals. 

AWS certification path

AWS certification levels act as shorthand for the level of knowledge and experience each validates. When deciding which AWS certification is best for you right now, you can start by taking stock of your current qualifications. If you have yet to gain professional experience and want to learn basic skills with cloud computing or AI, you can consider the AWS Foundational level certifications. However, if you already have some experience in the industry and want to validate your knowledge or learn new skills, you might consider mapping your current experience with AWS certification exams to determine which might make the most sense for your future.

AWS Foundational certifications

Foundational-level certifications do not require previous experience and validate a fundamental level of knowledge about working with cloud computing services. These options are excellent for beginners, as they help build introductory skills in cloud computing and AWS. 

AWS Foundational certifications include the following: 

• AWS Certified AI Practitioner: Beginner-level credential for demonstrating knowledge of AI, generative AI, and machine learning (ML)

• AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner: Beginner-level credential for demonstrating cloud literacy 

AWS Associate-level certifications

At the associate level, AWS certifications demonstrate that certificate holders have some level of professional experience in related fields and validate knowledge of building, implementing, or working with solutions based on AWS cloud infrastructure. The experience requirement for AWS certification at the associate level varies between one and three years in relevant fields. 

For example, the AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer—Associate should have about one year of experience working directly with AWS cloud services and about one year of experience in machine learning. An AWS Certified Data Engineer Associate needs two to three years of experience working with data engineering or architecture and one to two years of experience working with AWS cloud services. 

Associate-level AWS certifications include the following: 

• AWS Certified SysOps Administrator: Measures abilities such as implementing security controls, monitoring AWS workloads, managing business continuity, and optimizing performance

• AWS Certified Developer: Assesses your ability to build, optimize, and deploy applications using continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD), as well as your skill in troubleshooting and resolving any issues that arise 

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect: Excellent starter credential to validate your skills in designing and implementing solutions optimized for cost and performance

• AWS Certified Data Engineer: Provides tangible proof of your skill level working with data-related AWS services, maintaining data quality, and managing data lifecycles

• AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer: Validates your ability to implement and operationalize machine learning workloads 

AWS Professional-level certifications

Professional-level AWS certifications demonstrate advanced skills in your field and at least two years of experience working with AWS Cloud. For the professional-level solutions architect certification, you will need two or more years of experience implementing AWS cloud solutions, and for the professional-level DevOps engineer certification, you will need two or more years of experience operating the software development lifecycle in AWS cloud services. 

You can choose from two certifications in this category: 

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect: Showcase your expertise in creating advanced solutions for complex issues while demonstrating skills in security, cost, and performance optimization

• AWS Certified DevOps Engineer: Ideal to build and validate your expertise in working with distributed application systems 

AWS Specialty certifications

The three available AWS Specialty certifications require between five and seven years of professional experience and help establish you as a trusted expert in your area.

To qualify for the AWS Certified Advanced Networking, you should have five or more years in networking experience with two or more years working with cloud or hybrid cloud networks. For the Certified Machine Learning Specialty, you should have two or more years of experience building and running machine learning workloads on AWS Cloud. For the AWS Certified Security Specialty, you should have three to five years of experience designing and managing security solutions and two or three years of experience creating solutions for cloud-based workloads. 

Which AWS exam should I take? 

Deciding on the appropriate AWS exam is a matter of determining your long-term career goals, your short-term career goals, and evaluating your ability to meet the prerequisites. Your short-term career goals and your current experience level can help you determine which certification makes sense for you to take right now. Your long-term career goals can help you chart a path through AWS certifications, earning more credentials as you gain experience and qualify for more certification levels.

Which AWS certification is best for beginners?

If you have yet to have an opportunity to gain experience working with cloud services, you may find that the best certification for you is one of AWS’ foundational level certifications: AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner and AWS Certified AI Practitioner. These AWS certification options do not require any prior experience before taking the exam and can help you learn fundamental skills in cloud computing and working with AI that you can translate into a technical career or a number of line-of-business roles, like sales and marketing professionals. 

Which AWS exam should I take? Choices according to long-term career goals

Your career goals will likely be among the first considerations while deciding which AWS exam to take. You may know, for example, that even though you still need to build experience in an entry-level role, you would one day like to be a solutions architect, designing and building cloud-based infrastructure and helping companies migrate to cloud services. 

Using that information, you might decide to start with both foundational-level courses (Certified Cloud Practitioner and Certified AI Practitioner), before gaining some experience in the field and eventually earning the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate. This type of path could help open opportunities and positions with increasing responsibility levels until you can eventually qualify to earn your Certified Solutions Architect Professional and fulfill your career goal by becoming a solutions architect. Later, you might decide to specialize further with an AWS Certified Security Specialty to demonstrate that you are an expert in cloud-based security solutions. 

Explore potential career paths based on a few example career goals [4]: 

How to prepare for AWS exams

To earn AWS certification, you will need to pass the related exam. AWS offers training programs to help you prepare and review the topics covered in the exams. These are optional, leaving you free to prepare however you prefer. After you determine which AWS certification you should take, you can download materials like the exam guide and explore options for digital training, including online courses. AWS also offers practice exams to help you get a sense of what the exam will be like and how your preparation has paid off. 

Prepare for AWS certification on Coursera

Earning a certification through AWS can help you learn new skills, improve your work performance, and earn more money. To start preparing for AWS certification, you can choose from programs on Coursera that can help you begin. 

For example, the AWS Cloud Solutions Architect Professional Certificate can help you prepare for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect—Associate exam. In this program, you have the chance to make informed decisions about when and how to apply key AWS Services for compute, storage, database, networking, monitoring, and security, as well as prepare for the certification exam, identify your strengths and gaps for each domain area, and build strategies for identifying incorrect responses.

Or, choose from other AWS learning products like the AWS Cloud Technology Consultant Professional Certificate, which can help you understand and translate business goals and drivers into appropriate technical solutions, provide technical direction and oversight to cloud implementation teams, create the conceptual, logical and physical design for cloud-based solutions for infrastructure and platforms, and learn how to gather technical requirements, assess client capabilities and analyze findings to provide appropriate cloud solution recommendations.