How I Became An AWS Developer Associate At Age 13
View My Badge on Credly: https://www.credly.com/badges/d3f9c9c2-9c58-436e-a0a2-950746da9a2d
Recently, I got my AWS Certified Developer Associate certificate at the age of thirteen. Doing this has possibly put me among the youngest to ever do so (since AWS’s minimum age requirement to take the exam is 13), and I want to tell you how you can achieve something similar. But you are probably asking, why did I even go for something like this?
My Certification Path
To me, this seemed like a fun thing to learn when I started training a couple months ago. I figured this could help me with the small projects I was building, so I wanted to start. My dad also did a similar certification a few years prior, so he helped me understand the key topics I needed to know. Plus, I noticed the growing field in cloud computing and wanted to learn more about it.
My original plan was to just do the Cloud Practitioner exam as it was more high level and easier. And I actually did study for it a lot, doing practice labs and even a few practice tests for it. But my dad had done the Solutions Architect Associate certification, and I wanted to know the difference.
Well in a nutshell, the difference was that the Solutions Architect certification was harder and more in-depth. My dad also told me about the SysOps and Developer Associate certifications and I was intrigued. I had already done some practice and knew the high level overview of most of the important AWS services, so I decided to challenge myself and go straight for the Associate certs.
Having only really had coding experience with regards to cloud computing or even computing in general, I was more inclined to pick the Developer Associate certification – so I did. I looked into the required knowledge and saw the breadth of services I needed to know in and out, and I learnt them by doing practice labs and questions. Honestly, it was hard work.
But my training finally came to fruition on 21/02/25, when I took the 2 hour and 40 min exam containing 65 questions and passed, gaining a score in the 800s (the scaled score being out of 1000 and required 720 to pass). Of course, I was ecstatic!
##Study Tips
https://ieeecs-media.computer.org/wp-media/2018/07/12233357/man-with-laptop-and-abstract-image-of-connected-devices-in-the-cloud-l.jpg
During my revision I was also looking at others’ revision tips from their own experiences, some which I resonated with and some which I didn’t. I believe the following three points, which I followed, should help you pass your AWS certification too, be it AWS Developer Associate or a different one.
Tip 1 – Create a Schedule and Have a Deadline In Mind!
An issue I definitely faced was procrastination. I would often just study in bursts but then leave it off for a while. I’d say this did delay my exam a bit, but deciding on a deadline for when to take the exam really helped me. Without booking the exam (because that can be risky) I gave myself a date and a general schedule of what to do in the lead up to the exam. Usually people I saw made incredibly detailed revision schedules with timings for everything, and this could work for some people. But for myself, just setting a date and putting one sentence next to it was much better; I could just put “01/02/25” and “Do a practice test and review it” next to it and that was enough. In the day I could plan when to do the test and when to review it so I still had some flexibility.
Tip 2 – Labs, Labs, LABS!
Nothing helped me more than getting practical lab exposure. I kid you not, at least 15 questions from the real exam weren’t specifically taught to me, and I just had to remember it from a hands-on I conducted. One of the questions I remember was about an issue with a CloudFormation stack not deleting due to a resource failing to delete, and I actually faced this issue in a real lab I did before. I was stuck not being able to delete the template for long but the frustration and the difficulty really helped it to stay in my mind, and I am pretty sure I got the answer correct in the exam. Another thing I need to emphasise is that you can follow tutorials, but make sure to do your own labs to. The labs which I did myself really helped me remember key points. If you’re struggling to come up with ideas, you can just ask AI to help you. I can guarantee doing your own labs will help you.
Tip 3 – Practice Your Knowledge!
A lot of people on Reddit say that doing one practice test is enough. To be honest, only doing one test isn’t enough to really rule out your weak points. You can find a few free practice questions online but I would recommend purchasing a cheap set of practice exams that are high quality so you can get that extra practice. If you don’t want to buy practice papers, you can just use AI! I used ChatGPT with the prompt "Generate 20 extremely difficult practice questions for the AWS Developer Associate Exam with a good mix of all key services" with Reasoning on and it gave me legitimately very good questions! If you find any services which you struggle with (for example X-Ray for me) you can just ask ChatGPT to focus on those! By one way or another, I highly recommend you get some practice in so you both know what to expect with the exam format and so you are ready for any questions that come your way.
After revising using these tips and then during the exam, I finished all of the questions leaving an hour and a half, from the two hours and forty minutes I had, to review the questions. I believe sticking to a good schedule with a set (but not set-in-stone) deadline, practicing with labs and doing practice questions will be enough to pass your AWS exam.
A final few words of encouragement: don’t be disheartened if your preparation isn’t going well. I woke up that day feeling extremely nervous thinking I wouldn’t pass, yet here I am having passed the Developer Associate exam at 13. If I can do it, you can. Go for it!!
– Written By Hamd Waseem (13)