Is It Still Worth It to get AWS Certified this 2023?

Last updated on May 30, 2023

10 years ago, on April 30 2013, Amazon Web Services launched its AWS Global Certification Program. The primary purpose of this program is to validate the necessary technical skills and knowledge required for building secure and reliable cloud-based applications using the AWS Cloud. Passing the AWS Certification exam means that you can prove your expertise and knowledge in AWS to your current employers or even to the prospective companies you wish to apply for.

The AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate exam was the first AWS certification that was released in that year. This is followed by two other role-based certification exams: the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate and the AWS Certified Developer Associate. Since then, AWS has continuously expanded the certification program – launching the Professional and Specialty-level certifications that cover various domains such as machine learning, data analytics, advanced networking, and many others. As AWS services continue to evolve, a new and updated version of the AWS certification exam is released on a regular basis. This is to reflect the recent service changes and to include the new knowledge areas.

There are basically two Professional-level exams offered by AWS, which are the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional and the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional. The first version of the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional exam (SAP-C00) was released in May 2014. This was followed by the first version of the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional exam (DOP-C00) on February 2015 and a series of AWS Specialty certifications.

AWS Certification Exam Changes through the Years

After almost five years since its initial release, an updated version of the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification was launched in February 2018 with an exam code of SAA-C01. AWS released another version of this test with an exam code of SAA-C02 in March 2020. This is followed by yet another new exam version released in August 2022. The following version of this certification test has an exam code of SAA-C03 which contains the new services that were recently released by AWS. As you can notice, the last digit of the exam version code increments for every new version of the SAA exam. So from SAA-C01, it becomes SAA-C02, SAA-C03, SAA-C04, and so on and so forth. Knowing the latest exam code is important for finding the most up-to-date reviewers for this AWS exam.

The very first version of the AWS Certified Developer – Associate and the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator exam were both released on January 2014, with an exam code of DVA-C00 and SOA-C00/SOA-C01 respectively. Four years after, on June 2018, AWS released the updated version of the AWS Certified Developer – Associate test with an exam code of DVA-C01. AWS unveiled the third iteration of this test with DVA-C02 as its latest exam code. For the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate exam, AWS released its new version called SOA-C02 which has a combination of multi-choice/multi-response questions and a series of Exam Labs which is a unique section where a test-taker needs to complete certain tasks on an actual AWS Management Console. However, as of March 28, 2023, the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate exam will not include exam labs until further notice. This removal of exam labs is temporary while AWS evaluates the exam labs and do the required improvements to provide an optimal candidate experience.

Let’s now recap the Professional-level certs:

The first version of the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional exam (DOP-C00) on February 2015. After 4 years, an updated version of the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer — Professional certification was launched on February 2019 with an exam code of DOP-C01. The AWS Certification and Training team released yet another version of this certification test with an exam code of DOP-C02. The latest version of the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer — Profesional certification exam was released on the 7th day of March 2023. Based on this trend, it can be assumed that the new version of the DevOps Professional exam will be coming in around 2025 or 2026 with an exam code of DOP-C03.

The SAP-C02 is the 3rd iteration of the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional exam, which was initially launched about a decade ago. The very first version of this certification test was released on May 2014 with an exam code of SAP-C00. AWS released the second version on February 2019, which is 5 years from the first one, with an exam code of SAP-C01. The third, and also the latest, exam version of the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional exam has an exam code of SAP-C02 which became available on November 15, 2022.

Today, the AWS Global Certification Program is composed of the following 11 certification exams:

1 Foundational Exam:

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

3 Associate-level Exams:

2 Professional Exams:

5 Specialty Exams:

AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty
AWS Certified Data Analytics – Specialty
AWS Certified Database – Specialty
AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty
AWS Certified Security – Specialty
AWS Certified: SAP on AWS – Specialty

Is an AWS Certification Still Worth it this 2023?

There are varying opinions in the IT Industry as to whether getting any sort of certification is worth it or not. However, the job market should be the judge as to whether or not having a certification is still worthwhile. Having substantial years of experience in the industry doesn’t necessarily guarantee a job. Your experience and skills must still be relevant to the needs of your would-be employer. For some companies, it’s actually a deterrent if you have a decade of experience but in an obsolete tech stack that almost nobody uses. With the advent of platform engineering, serverless, generative AIs (e.g. ChatGPT, CodeWhisperer, Github CoPilot, etc), and other technologies, most of the manual tasks you’ve been doing at work can now be done way cheaper, faster, and more efficient than ever before. Therefore, you cannot just say that having long years of work “experience” suffice since there are a lot of people who have the same set of skills as yours.

Let’s do a quick experiment. Go to your favorite job site and search for the word: “AWS” as shown on the links below:

Jobs that require AWS

You can see that the demand for AWS-based skills is still aplenty and some job postings offer higher salaries for certified AWS Professionals. Of course, a certain level of experience is essential in several job openings but nonetheless, having an AWS Certification under your belt can help you get into the peripherals of certain headhunters or even hiring managers.

The Future of AWS Certifications

Cloud Computing offers a lot of benefits to companies, startups, and other businesses to the point that it becomes an indispensable component of most enterprises. AWS cuts down the high operational costs of running and maintaining traditional on-premises servers and replaces them with a more flexible pricing option that doesn’t sacrifice the scalability, availability, and reliability of your systems. Serverless computing, app containerization, and ML (machine learning)-based workloads are steadily increasing in popularity as well, which can be easily achieved by using AWS.

Companies are always looking for IT Professionals to help them in their digital cloud transformation which can increase their business income while lowering down their OPEX (operating expenses). Getting a job offer is quite challenging considering that there are hundreds of thousands of job applicants, who have the same level of job experience, educational background and skillset as you, who are also vying for the same position. You need to have a competitive edge against other candidates so you can have a fighting chance to land a job.

With an AWS Certification in your Curriculum Vitae (CV), you are increasing your chances of landing your dream job and staying relevant in this ever-competitive world of Information Technology.

Written by: Jon Bonso

Jon Bonso is the co-founder of Tutorials Dojo, an EdTech startup and an AWS Digital Training Partner that provides high-quality educational materials in the cloud computing space. He graduated from Mapúa Institute of Technology in 2007 with a bachelor's degree in Information Technology. Jon holds 10 AWS Certifications and is also an active AWS Community Builder since 2020.