Can I directly take the AWS professional certification exam without an associate certification?

Training is recommended as part of your certification preparation, but it is not mandatory for the completion of the certification. For professional and specialty certifications, it is recommended, but not required that candidates hold AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification and/or an associate-level certification.

We recommend candidates have five years of IT security experience designing and implementing security solutions, and at least two years of hands-on experience securing AWS workloads.

https://aws.amazon.com/certification/faqs/

Before 2018 an associate certification was mandatory before pursuing Professional certification. Also, it was required to have Cloud Practitioner or Associate certification before pursuing Specialty certification.

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