AWS Certs: ML Engineer Associate vs ML Speciality. What's the difference?
This post compares the AWS ML Engineer Associate and ML Specialty certifications, highlighting their target audiences, skill levels, and focus areas to help you choose.
Published Aug 16, 2024
I recently participated as an SME on the AI Practitioner exam, while the ML Associate exam was being developed. That made me wonder how this new exam was going to be and how it differs from ML Speciality. Furthermore, I have seen people asking the same question online so I figured it was time to compare them.
Target Audience and Skill Levels
The AWS Machine Learning Engineer Associate (MLE Associate) and the AWS Machine Learning Specialty (MLS) exams are for professionals with varying degrees of experience and expertise in machine learning.
- ML Engineer Associate: The MLE Associate certification is ideal for candidates with at least one year of experience in Machine Learning or a related field. This certification is more accessible to those who are earlier in their careers or transitioning into the ML space, as it allows professionals without prior ML experience to gain knowledge through available training and exam prep resources. The focus here is on building and operating ML applications on AWS.
- ML Specialty: This certification is designed for individuals with at least two years of hands-on experience developing, architecting, and running machine learning (ML) or deep learning workloads in the AWS Cloud. It’s aimed at those who can express the intuition behind basic ML algorithms, perform hyperparameter optimization, work with ML and deep learning frameworks, and follow best practices for model training, deployment, and operations. The MLS certification is perfect for professionals already well-versed in ML on AWS and looking to validate their deep technical expertise.
Exam Difficulty
In general, Associate and Specialty exams have different difficulty levels, the questions’ complexity is different, reflecting their respective target audiences:
- ML Engineer Associate: This certification focuses on understanding, determining, using, and classifying knowledge related to machine learning on AWS. The questions will test candidates’ ability to comprehend core concepts, implement solutions effectively, and solve practical problems in ML engineering. Expect varied complexity like in any Associate exam (Intermediate level)
- ML Specialty: The exam requires candidates to analyze, evaluate, and assess complex ML scenarios. This involves a deep understanding of ML algorithms, the ability to evaluate different approaches critically, and making informed decisions in specialized domains; questions are generally longer and require deep knowledge (Like in most Professional/Speciality exams).
Content
These exams overlap in content, but the MLS targets more advanced candidates. However, the MLE Associate could include questions on new services (like Bedrock) as it has been released more recently.
Conclusion
Both the ML Engineer Associate and ML Specialty certifications are crucial in validating different skill sets within the AWS ecosystem. The MLE Associate is a great starting point for those looking to establish or transition into a career in machine learning operations on AWS, offering a pathway even for those with less ML experience. Meanwhile, the ML Specialty is ideal for experienced professionals aiming to validate their deep technical expertise in specialized areas of machine learning and deep learning.
Will the MLS be discontinued, renamed or replaced? I guess It might be replaced or just renamed in the future, as the Data Engineering Associate and the ML Associate exam would probably need a Professional cert to lead to on their cert path (Similar to the Developer and SysOps Associate leading to the DevOps Professional). But this is just my personal opinion. I don’t have any information on this (I'm just guessing). This is not a reason to avoid this exam. If AWS ever plans to do something with it, they will probably announce it. They have announced the removal of certain Speciality exams in the past, so the MLS could be next, but we don't know when that could happen (if it happens).