I struggled with VPC peering example and route table references - it will take you 3 mins just to read things correctly. Authentication via IDP - then STS - then assume role API call, they will change sequence saying first STS and then authentication. Here all 4–5 options would sound like a correct solution but they will either tweak steps, or they will have some incorrect clause added in the answer.
Unlike the AWS SA Associate exam, you will not find a scenario where you can apply the rule of two.
Draw analytics out of every practice test that failed: How many questions guessed which were incorrect, how many questions marked for review which went wrong, questions skipped and identify gaps whether - knowledge is less, multiple answers ques going wrong, or simply didn’t remember the concept, understanding of concept needs deep dive so after every exam, this exercise might take 2–3 hours but it will help in getting better results in next attempt.I had this problem where if there is a question with select 2 or select 3 answers more often than not I used to pick up 1 wrong answer - so even if 1 answer of multi answer question is incorrect the entire question is marked incorrect, harsh reality and there are at least 15–20 questions which are multi answer questions so practice such questions thoroughly. Even if you manage to get above 75% my suggestion would be to attempt all 8 tests mentioned above as each covers different types of questions. Practice tests are way too difficult in the first go to get 75%.
I almost gave 8 practice tests with another 2 attempts to assure myself that I will be able to crack it.
Things where I went wrong: Procrastination - I rescheduled the exam thrice as I felt I was not prepared.Other Material: Jayant Patil Blog (Nicely Compiled), Whitepapers - There are many available but I personally went through Blue-green deployment, AWS VPC Connectivity options, AWS API Gateway Private APIs, and Private Integration.If you attempt all the above practice tests you should be 80% rest assured that you have attempted all types of questions for your exam.Practice Test: Jon Bonso Practice test (Most Difficult), Neal Davis Practice test (Tricky questions), Stephane Maarek Practice test (Lengthy questions and answers).
Exam Courses: Stephane Maarek SA Professional 2021 (Covers breadth but doesn’t cover depth), Jon Bonso Cheatsheet (Covers depth of every important AWS Service).I lost at least 15 mins in settling down and getting out of the panic situation. It really helps in cases like mine where my internet connection dropped twice as these covid times made me take the exam from home and not from the center. If you are a non-native English speaker do take advantage of ESL 30+ mins Accommodation.If you are AWS SA Associate Certified you will find it easier, though the Professional exam is 10X difficult considering the sheer complexity of questions, time constraints, length of questions, and answers.Following are the ones which I luckily managed to know which weren’t part of my learning material: Aws transfer for SFTP, Rds proxy, AWS cloud endure, AWS glue-data catalog, AWS Budget. There would be many services whose questions would come in the exam which are not part of the syllabus you might have gone through. Please go through AWS re: Invent and AWS Summit videos and make a list of all new services launched.Most common types of questions where you can go wrong. So such questions have generally around 6 answers with around 3 types of answers to choose from. The exam will have a lot of questions with Multi-select answers (Select two / Select Three).It is rated to be the most difficult ones AWS offers so if you manage to crack it then yes it’s not just an achievement but it’s actually proof that you are competent to design and deploy dynamically scalable, highly available, fault-tolerant, and reliable applications taking into consideration cost control strategies.