Todd Cooke

AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 13:19:02 -0400

I recently earned my AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate certification, so I’d like to reflect on why I chose to seek it, how I studied for it, and how the exam itself went.

Why get the CSA - Associate certificate?

I blame AI :)

I had been out of work for a minute or two, and felt that I needed to stand apart from the crowd when job hunting. I can’t immediately change my job history, which I feel is about average, and personal projects don’t really hold the same weight anymore, given that anyone can ask Claude/GPT to generate anything. Ironically then, I consulted Claude, which recommended the AWS CSA - Associate. I thought that sounded doable, given I have been using AWS since college.

Name Checker

Fri, 04 Aug 2023 09:47:35 -0400

I just created a tool called Name Checker.

The idea is if you want to create a new project and don’t want to check all the places (npm, apt, GitHub) for a name collision, you can just use this tool instead.

I started working on this because I noticed on HN folks sometimes create a new company and SAAS and they didn’t notice that the name was already taken. I intentionally have not checked (the irony) to see if a tool like this exists, because it seems like with over 8 billion people on the planet there will always be someone that got there more quickly. That shouldn’t prevent me from making something even better, but it tends to discourage me from even starting. So… check, but don’t check :)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Here are the places you can find me on the internet:

Consulting

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Todd Cooke — AWS Certified Solutions Architect (Associate), available for consulting and contract work through Todd Cooke VT LLC.