Cloud Labs provides hands-on access for learners to interact with cloud services, with zero pain from payments, setup, or cleanup, right here in your Educative account.
Table of Contents
Is AWS certification worth it?
5 mins read
Oct 28, 2024
Share
Key takeaways:
The certification increases your chances of landing an interview.
Around 88% of hiring managers consider certifications advantageous in resumes and demand cloud professionals with AWS certifications.
Almost 74% of cloud professionals reported an increase in salary after getting AWS certified.
62% of individuals feel their work quality improved after obtaining a certificate.
Whether you have just started your journey with AWS or are a skilled cloud professional, one question bugs everyone: Is AWS certification worth it? Well, that mainly depends upon the outcomes you expect after a certification. However, from a bird’s eye view, the answer is yes. To weigh it out more logically, let’s dive deeper.
Certifications, in any field, are a great way to validate your knowledge. They enhance your credibility and highlight your passion for your profession. AWS certifications can prove just as transformative for your career. They offer key benefits, including:
Better hiring prospects: According to the
Open Source job report https://8112310.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/8112310/LF%20Research/Open%20Source%20Jobs%20Report%202021%20-%20Report.pdf Higher salaries: Certified professionals have reported a
25-30% https://awsforengineers.com/blog/aws-certifications-salary-and-job-market-impact/ Expanding your knowledge: Certifications reinforce and sharpen your skills in AWS services and architectural patterns.
Let’s be honest: The job market is getting saturated, and landing tech job interviews is getting tougher than ever. An AWS certification shows off your expertise in cloud computing. The shiny certification badge boosts your resume and portfolio.
As per the
Around 89% of hiring managers demand cloud professionals with AWS certifications.
Almost 82% of hiring managers say cloud certifications make candidates more attractive.
Does AWS certification impact salary and career?#
AWS certification can help you get a salary hike if you are already in the market. According to AWS salary surveys, certified Solutions Architects earn an average of $121,000 annually. Meanwhile, non-certified Solutions Architects earn $110,000 on average. Similarly, AWS-certified developers earn almost $114,000 annually, while non-certified developers earn $105,000.
Master AWS Certified Developer – Associate (DVA-C02) Exam
Master AWS Certified Developer – Associate (DVA-C02) Exam
Cloud-native development has become the default for modern applications, and the AWS Certified Developer Associate certification reflects that shift. Today, developers are expected not just to write code, but to build, deploy, and manage applications in the cloud. The challenge is understanding how AWS services work together in real workflows, not just individually. I built the AWS Certified Developer – Associate (DVA-C02) course based on a pattern I’ve seen repeatedly: developers learn tools like Lambda, S3, or CI/CD services in isolation, but struggle to connect them into a complete system when preparing for the AWS Certified Developer Associate exam. This course focuses on that integration. You’ll work through core services like AWS CLI, SDKs, CodePipeline, and CloudFormation, alongside compute, storage, and security concepts. With hands-on Cloud Labs and exam-style practice, you’ll learn how to build and troubleshoot real applications. If you’re preparing for the developer associate certification, this course gives you a clear, practical path to passing the exam and building confidently on AWS.
Certification also improves your credibility in the market. It improves your productivity, skills, and job security.
Master AWS Certified AI Practitioner AIF-C01 Exam
Master AWS Certified AI Practitioner AIF-C01 Exam
AI is quickly becoming part of every developer’s workflow, from building intelligent features to integrating foundation models into production systems. As AWS expands its AI and ML ecosystem, the AWS Certified AI Practitioner certification has emerged as a practical entry point for engineers who want to understand how these systems are built and used in real environments. The challenge is knowing how to use the tools correctly and responsibly. I built this course from my experience working on large-scale cloud systems. A pattern I’ve seen is that learners are often introduced to AI concepts in isolation, without understanding how they connect to real cloud services. When preparing for the AWS Certified AI Practitioner exam, many struggle to bridge that gap between theory and practical application. This course is designed to make that connection clear. We focus on the fundamentals of AI and ML, then map them directly to AWS services like Amazon SageMaker, Bedrock, Comprehend, and Rekognition. You’ll learn how to think about real use cases, apply responsible AI practices, and understand how foundation models fit into modern applications. The course also includes hands-on Cloud Labs and exam-style practice questions that reflect the format and difficulty of the actual certification. This approach has helped learners build confidence not just for the AWS Certified AI Practitioner exam, but for applying AI in real projects. If you’re starting your journey as an AI practitioner and want a clear, practical path, this course is designed to get you there.
An
Around 74% of the respondents have reported higher salaries after AWS certification.
More than 90% of the AWS partners say that investing in AWS-certified staff has put their company in a competitive position for the next three to five years.
AWS certification: A good learning opportunity #
AWS certifications are a great learning opportunity. They broaden knowledge and prompt the learner to understand the AWS services in-depth, their unique features and best practices. If you have prior experience in AWS, preparing for certification is like putting the pieces of a puzzle together.
For example, while preparing for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Associate exam, you’ll get to explore the best practices for building scalable, secure, and resilient architectures. Preparing for the exam includes rewiring your brain to think about optimal architectures and utilizing the ideal service for a use case. This will help you pass the exam and be useful on the job.
Master AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate SAA-C03 Exam
Master AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate SAA-C03 Exam
Cloud architecture has become a core skill for modern engineers. Whether you're building backend systems, deploying microservices, or scaling global applications, understanding how to design on AWS is no longer optional. The challenge is that AWS is an ecosystem. Without a clear structure, it’s easy to get lost in services without understanding how to use them together to build secure, reliable systems. I built this course from my experience working on Azure’s Fabric Controller and Remote Desktop services for Windows Server. In those environments, we dealt with real-world problems around availability, fault tolerance, and large-scale system management. The pattern I’ve seen with learners is similar: they can learn individual services, but struggle to connect them into a complete architecture. This course is designed to help you think in systems, not just services. We focus on the core pillars of AWS architecture, security, reliability, performance, and cost optimization, and show how they come together in practical designs. You’ll learn how to secure accounts and resources, design for high availability using load balancing and replication, and choose the right storage and analytics services for performance. The course also includes hands-on Cloud Labs so you can deploy and interact with real AWS resources, along with practice exams aligned to the SAA-C03 certification. This approach has helped many learners build confidence in AWS and successfully prepare for certification. If you’re aiming to become an AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate and design systems the right way, this course gives you a clear and structured path.
Does a certification substitute for experience?#
AWS certifications require you to thoroughly learn the AWS environment. The AWS exam pattern is real-world scenario-based multiple choice questions. However, an actual job’s requirements are quite different from the exam.
Cramming up features of AWS services and practicing exam questions might prepare you for the exam but will not be a substitute for the hands-on experience required to get the job done. Depending solely on a certification for a real-world job without any hands-on experience is not a good idea.
For example, in an interview, you might be asked questions such as, “Tell me about a time when you encountered a high AWS bill and how you tackled it?” or, “Tell me about a data pipeline you have built using AWS analytical services.”
These questions cannot be answered unless you have hands-on experience in the cloud and have completed several projects.
But how to land the first cloud job without any experience? To prepare for the hands-on part of the job, several cloud labs are available online. Educative offers a plethora of cloud labs where you can get access to the AWS console. It allows you to perform hands-on while learning through the guided instructions.
Each cloud lab is engineered to meet the specific job requirements and you can easily search through the services of your interest.
What’s next?#
Once you have aced your AWS certification, what jobs can you get? AWS certifications open up multiple career paths, such as Solutions Architect, Cloud Developer, Data Engineer, System Administrator, DevOps Engineer, Cloud Security Engineer, and more.
The other side of the argument: What could go wrong?#
AWS certification is a challenging exam that demands extensive preparation. Besides, it costs comparatively high, so it does make sense to question the value of the certification, especially if you have a full-time job or are a student.
62% of individuals feel their work quality improved after obtaining a certificate.
However, choosing the right methods to prepare for the certification can help you save time. Educative offers an extensive course to prepare for the AWS Solutions Architect exam designed to help you understand scenario-based questions. The course also includes practice exam questions. Additionally, to help you prepare for the real-world job, it includes multiple Cloud Labs for each service that would prepare you for the challenges at work.
AWS is growing exponentially, and the requirement for professional cloud engineers is ever-increasing. AWS certification will help you validate your skills in designing scalable, resilient, efficient, and secure architectures on the cloud. In this competitive market, it is more of a prerequisite for getting a job than a unique selling point.
Therefore, start preparing for the certifications and get ready to flaunt your certification badge.
Not sure how to start preparing for the certification? Check out these reads to get started:
Frequently Asked Questions
Is AWS certification enough to get you a job?
Is AWS certification enough to get you a job?
Is AWS still in demand?
Is AWS still in demand?
What is the easiest AWS certification to pass?
What is the easiest AWS certification to pass?
How long is AWS certification valid?
How long is AWS certification valid?
What is the best AWS certification for a non-IT professional?
What is the best AWS certification for a non-IT professional?
Written By:
Zainab Mohsin
Related Courses
AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate Exam PrepMaster AWS Certified AI Practitioner AIF-C01 ExamAutomating a CI/CD Pipeline with AWS DevOpsAWS Security Fundamentals: A Practical Guide to AWS IAMBuilding Scalable Web Applications Using AWS CLI & WordPressAutomate Workflows with AWS Step FunctionsLearn the A to Z of Amazon Web Services (AWS)AWS API Gateway: The Unsung WarriorAWS Cost OptimizationA Complete Guide for Virtual Private Cloud Using AWSCI/CD Using Native Tools Available on AWSDynamoDB: From Basic To AdvanceDynamoDB Deep Dive: NoSQL for Software EngineersData Science in Production: Building Scalable Model PipelinesInfrastructure as Code Using Terraform
