The AWS Associate certs are similar to what you describe, particularly the "Solutions Architect" which is IMO common sense for a systems admin. The "Developer" one, though, requires memorizing some trivia around APIs and limits (eg., SQS queue sizes and stuff like that).
However, the AWS Professional certs are said to be MUCH harder, and while multiple choice, require reading a lot of scenario information quickly, and then selecting more than one answer (sometimes not being told how many answers). I haven't taken it but I expect to take the DevOps Professional exam at some point. I could be wrong, but everything I've seen so far, including sample questions, suggests it requires a fair bit of hands-on experience.
However, where everything I said becomes false is around the culture of answer dumps. I'm pretty sure there are dumps sold out there for cheaters to purchase. It's a pretty silly thing to do, especially because you'll be fired if you demonstrate incompetence in the field, but it does undermine the multiple choice test mechanism for certifications.
I can definitely tell you the Professional exams are harder. It’s hard to fake your way through that. I breezed through the Associate ones but the professional ones took time just to read and comprehend the questions.
I would never try to get a pure AWS job with just theoretical knowledge.
The AWS Associate certs are similar to what you describe, particularly the "Solutions Architect" which is IMO common sense for a systems admin. The "Developer" one, though, requires memorizing some trivia around APIs and limits (eg., SQS queue sizes and stuff like that).
However, the AWS Professional certs are said to be MUCH harder, and while multiple choice, require reading a lot of scenario information quickly, and then selecting more than one answer (sometimes not being told how many answers). I haven't taken it but I expect to take the DevOps Professional exam at some point. I could be wrong, but everything I've seen so far, including sample questions, suggests it requires a fair bit of hands-on experience.
However, where everything I said becomes false is around the culture of answer dumps. I'm pretty sure there are dumps sold out there for cheaters to purchase. It's a pretty silly thing to do, especially because you'll be fired if you demonstrate incompetence in the field, but it does undermine the multiple choice test mechanism for certifications.