I earned four AWS certifications in a roughly 14-month sprint through 2020 and 2021:
- AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate (Dec 2020)
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (Jan 2021)
- AWS Certified Developer – Associate (Jan 2021)
- AWS Certified Alexa Skill Builder – Specialty (Mar 2021)
They all carried a three-year validity window. They’ve all expired.
I’m not renewing them right now, and I want to explain why — because the honest answer is more useful than the LinkedIn-optimized one.
Why I did them#
The 2020 pandemic window gave me something I hadn’t had in years: uninterrupted study time. I’d been running AWS infrastructure in production for a long time without any formal certification to show for it. The certs were partly a forcing function to fill gaps in my knowledge, and partly the pragmatic acknowledgment that some enterprise clients want to see the badge.
The SysOps exam came first because it mapped most directly to what I was already doing day-to-day. The Solutions Architect and Developer followed in quick succession — once you’re in study mode across the AWS service catalog, the material has significant overlap. The Alexa Skill Builder specialty was opportunistic; I’d done voice interface work and the exam was available.
What the exams actually test#
The Associate-level AWS exams are solid. They’re not trivial, but they’re not gotcha trivia either. They test whether you understand why you’d choose one service over another given a specific constraint — latency, cost, failure mode, compliance requirement. That kind of reasoning is genuinely useful to sharpen, even if you already have years of hands-on experience.
The Alexa specialty was narrower and more scenario-specific, but interesting from an interaction design angle. Voice UI has constraints that screen UI doesn’t, and the exam forces you to think about them explicitly.
Why I haven’t renewed#
AWS certs require renewal every three years, which means re-studying and re-examining. That’s a real time cost, and I had to weigh it against other priorities.
The honest answer: I know the material. The day-to-day work I do with AWS hasn’t changed because the certs lapsed. If a specific engagement or client requires current certification, I’d prioritize renewal. Otherwise, the time is better spent building things.
The old MCPD#
I also hold a Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD) credential for Enterprise Application Development — Credential #3650800. This is a legacy cert from the pre-Azure era of Microsoft development, back when the certification landscape was about .NET and Windows Server rather than cloud platforms. It’s not current in the sense that the program no longer exists, but it’s legitimate proof that I’ve been doing enterprise software development for a long time.
The takeaway#
Certifications are a forcing function, not a destination. The value is in the preparation — the structured pass through material you might have been avoiding, the edge cases the exam surfaces that you wouldn’t have hit in your specific production environment. The badge is a side effect.
If you’re considering AWS certs: do them. Study seriously, don’t just memorize dumps, and you’ll come out knowing things you didn’t going in.