AWS Certified Security - Specialty
February 2022
On 16 February 2022, I passed the AWS Certified Security - Specialty (SCS-C01) exam, and am now an AWS Certified Security - Specialty.
Unlike my previous exams, I did not have one specific primary study material. Instead my study resources included formal classroom training, a non-specific training course by Adrian Cantrill, and labs from Tutorials Dojo. The specific study resources used were:
- Practical experience through working professionally with AWS
- Adrian Cantrill’s Solutions Architect - Professional training course
- Practice Exams by Tutorials Dojo
- Study Guide eBook by Tutorials Dojo
- Security Engineering on AWS delivered by Bespoke Training Services
The exam experience itself is pretty typical for AWS, consisting of 65 multiple choice questions with 180 minutes allowed to answer them. Some of the questions were quite easy, with a short sentence in the question itself and 2-3 word answers. However, some were much harder either due to lengthy questions and answers or very subtle differences in the answers.
There were a few questions that I was not confident in answering. One such question mentioned an AWS service, AWS Signer, which I had not previously encountered, obviously this is never a good thing in an exam. Overall I found the exam to be reasonably difficult, but did end up finishing with about 50 minutes left on the clock. In terms of difficulty, I would place it between the Associate and Professional exams that I have completed previously.