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The badge isn’t the point—practice is.
Over the past three years I earned every AWS certification.
My certification triathlon study loop was simple:
That tight loop carried me across the finish line for every exam.
Do You Really Need a Certification Triathlon?
I think the answer is yes—at least for your first rep.
"The New-Car Effect"
Buy a car, and suddenly you see the same model everywhere.
I refer to this phenomenon as "the New-Car Effect".
Certifications work the same way: once my head was packed with VPC quirks and Lambda limits, blog posts, conference talks, and even hallway chats lit up with “Hey, I know this!” moments.
That learning tuned my attention, and it wasn’t limited to AWS services; even general foundational computer-science concepts started jumping out at me.
“Use It Three Times and It’s Yours”
A skill sticks after three meaningful reps, even if the first one happens on paper.
Because AWS exams don’t include a hands-on lab, Rep #1 takes place in the multiple-choice arena: you architect in your head, choose an answer, and a wrong pick costs nothing but a red X.
Badge in hand, I volunteered for two bite-sized projects—Rep #2 and Rep #3—where whiteboard sketches became CloudFormation stacks and IAM policies. That’s when theory clicked into muscle memory.
Takeaway
Certs don’t replace experience; they accelerate it.
The exam delivers a low-risk Rep #1, and the New-Car Effect immediately tunes your radar—you start noticing tickets, hallway questions, and side projects that echo the blueprint you just drilled. Grab those chances: Rep #2 and Rep #3 will show up almost automatically, and the badge will turn into working muscle faster than any other route.
Over the past three years I earned every AWS certification.
My certification triathlon study loop was simple:
- Watch one AWS Black Belt video on the target domain
- Drill through domain-specific question sets
- Review every miss (and every hit) the next morning
That tight loop carried me across the finish line for every exam.
Do You Really Need a Certification Triathlon?
I think the answer is yes—at least for your first rep.
"The New-Car Effect"
Buy a car, and suddenly you see the same model everywhere.
I refer to this phenomenon as "the New-Car Effect".
Certifications work the same way: once my head was packed with VPC quirks and Lambda limits, blog posts, conference talks, and even hallway chats lit up with “Hey, I know this!” moments.
That learning tuned my attention, and it wasn’t limited to AWS services; even general foundational computer-science concepts started jumping out at me.
“Use It Three Times and It’s Yours”
A skill sticks after three meaningful reps, even if the first one happens on paper.
Because AWS exams don’t include a hands-on lab, Rep #1 takes place in the multiple-choice arena: you architect in your head, choose an answer, and a wrong pick costs nothing but a red X.
Badge in hand, I volunteered for two bite-sized projects—Rep #2 and Rep #3—where whiteboard sketches became CloudFormation stacks and IAM policies. That’s when theory clicked into muscle memory.
Takeaway
Certs don’t replace experience; they accelerate it.
The exam delivers a low-risk Rep #1, and the New-Car Effect immediately tunes your radar—you start noticing tickets, hallway questions, and side projects that echo the blueprint you just drilled. Grab those chances: Rep #2 and Rep #3 will show up almost automatically, and the badge will turn into working muscle faster than any other route.