Interview and Certification Prep

Sign in and add the helpers:

cd C:\aws-lab
aws login --profile saat-admin
$env:AWS_PROFILE = 'saat-admin'
$acct = aws sts get-caller-identity --query Account --output text
function Get-ExperienceMap([string]$Region = 'ap-south-1', [int]$Days = 90) {
  $s = (Get-Date).ToUniversalTime().AddDays(-$Days).ToString('o')
  $src = aws cloudtrail lookup-events --region $Region --lookup-attributes AttributeKey=ReadOnly,AttributeValue=false --start-time $s --max-results 3000 --query "Events[].EventSource" --output text
  ($src -split '\s+') | Where-Object { $_ } | ForEach-Object { $_ -replace '\.amazonaws\.com$', '' } | Group-Object | Sort-Object Count -Descending | Select-Object -First 10 @{ n = 'Service'; e = { $_.Name } }, @{ n = 'Changes'; e = { $_.Count } }
}
function Get-TagInventory {
  $arns = aws resourcegroupstaggingapi get-resources --tag-filters Key=course,Values=saatvedha-aws --query "ResourceTagMappingList[].ResourceARN" --output text
  ($arns -split '\s+') | Where-Object { $_ } | ForEach-Object { ($_ -split ':')[2] } | Group-Object | Sort-Object Count -Descending | Select-Object @{ n = 'Service'; e = { $_.Name } }, @{ n = 'Tagged'; e = { $_.Count } }
}

1Build your experience map

Paste this whole block. IAM and other global services log in us-east-1, so it checks both Regions (each takes a minute or so):

$map = Get-ExperienceMap
$map | Format-Table -AutoSize
Get-ExperienceMap -Region us-east-1 | Select-Object -First 3 | Format-Table -AutoSize

You should see something like this:

Service         Changes
-------         -------
ec2                 612
rds                 148
ssm                  97
cloudformation       54
elasticloadbalancing 41
s3                   38
dms                  33
kms                  21
logs                 17
monitoring           15

Service Changes
------- -------
iam         121
signin       48
sts          12

That’s your hands-on record in numbers: hundreds of changes across a dozen services. Interviewers can’t see your account, but you can say “I’ve made over 600 EC2 API changes building and breaking labs” and back it up.

2Audit what the course left in your account

Paste this whole block:

Get-TagInventory | Format-Table -AutoSize
.\Find-Spenders.ps1 -Regions ap-south-1

You should see something like this:

Service    Tagged
-------    ------
ec2            24
s3              2
cloudtrail      1
sns             1
iam             3

Nothing running or left behind in 1 Regions.

What remains is the foundation you kept on purpose: saat-vpc and its security groups, the trail and its bucket, the saat-alerts topic, roles, budgets and the anomaly monitor. None of it runs servers.

If you’ve finished with the account, delete in this order: anything Find-Spenders lists, the CDKToolkit stack (Lesson 35), the trail and its bucket, then the VPC; or close the account from the billing console. Otherwise keep it for practice.

3Write your interview notes

Paste this whole block. It writes a notes file with your experience map and five stories from the course; edit them in your own words afterwards:

$notes = @'
# My AWS interview notes

## What I built (from CloudTrail, last 90 days)
EXPERIENCE_HERE

## Stories (situation, what I checked, cause, fix, guardrail)
| # | Situation | What I checked | Cause | Fix | Guardrail |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Half the web servers unhealthy (final project scenario 4) | Target health, subnet, NACL | NACL without outbound ephemeral | Restored original NACL | NACL changes through review |
| 2 | New servers kept cycling (scenario 10) | Scaling activities, console output | CRLF user data in a new launch template version | Rolled ASG back to version 1 | Lint user data in the pipeline |
| 3 | RDS SQL Server high CPU (Lesson 65) | Database Insights, Query Store | nvarchar parameter vs varchar column | Matched parameter types | Code review for parameter types |
| 4 | DMS CDC task failed after a weekend (Lesson 64) | LastFailureMessage, log backups | Log backups deleted while task stopped | reload-target | Keep tasks running, alert on stop |
| 5 | Unexpected charges (Lesson 68) | Cost Explorer, Find-Spenders | Elastic IP left after NAT deletion | Released it | Anomaly detection, daily sweep |
'@
$notes.Replace('EXPERIENCE_HERE', ($map | Format-Table -AutoSize | Out-String).Trim()) | Set-Content C:\aws-lab\interview-notes.md
Get-Content C:\aws-lab\interview-notes.md | Select-Object -First 8

You should see something like this:

# My AWS interview notes

## What I built (from CloudTrail, last 90 days)
Service         Changes
-------         -------
ec2                 612
rds                 148
ssm                  97

Practise each story out loud in under two minutes. Here are the questions you’re most likely to be asked, and where you already practised each one:

4Plan your exam

A four-week plan for SOA-C03, built on what you’ve done:

Book the exam at the start of week 4 so the date keeps you honest. After SOA-C03, the same habits carry you through SAA-C03.

✅ Checkpoint: Your experience map lists your top services, the tag inventory and Find-Spenders show only what you kept on purpose, and C:\aws-lab\interview-notes.md holds your map and five stories.