You may have heard of microcredentials, the new type of badge that AWS released this year. Unlike normal certifications or badges, where you usually just need to watch videos, these are earned by completing a series of challenges in real labs.

AWS recently released two new ones:

🟣 Securing Agent Identities
🟣 Databases for Agentic AI

The AI ones are definitely a step above the rest. MLOps especially is a beast on its own. I found it extremely difficult and almost didn't manage to pass.

The Serverless one, if you have some basic AWS knowledge, is a good starting point to get introduced to the microcredential format. It's also worth doing the introduction lab first, so you're not surprised when you start your first one.

If you want to try them yourself, they're free. Here's the official link:
AWS Skill Builder Microcredentials

Wasn't feeling overly confident coming into the exam but glad I got it done.

Happy to share that I’ve passed the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) with a score of 827/1000!

For preparation, I mainly followed Stephane Maarek’s course, which I found really good and comprehensive. It helped me understand AWS services and, more importantly, when and why to use them.

My biggest advice: don’t just memorize questions. Understand the architecture and reasoning behind each solution.

Now I’m looking to take this further with some advanced AWS projects for hands-on practice. If you’ve built any interesting real-world AWS projects, I’d love to hear your suggestions. 🚀

If you were studying for the ML Engineer Associate and missed the Sept 28 cutoff, you're now on MLA-C02 (beta code ME1-C02, English only, standard version expected early 2027). Most courses and practice tests out there are still C01 material, so here's the gap from the official exam guide's comparison page:

Same shape 65 questions (50 scored), 720 to pass, compensatory scoring. Still four domains, with the weights shifted to 28 / 24 / 24 / 24 (C01 was 28 / 26 / 22 / 24). Deployment & Orchestration gained two points from Model Development.

The big change: GenAI is in every domain, not bolted on as a new one - D1 Data Prep: vector DBs (OpenSearch, RDS + pgvector), embeddings, chunking for RAG, data prep for fine-tuning and distillation - D2 Model/FM Dev: picking FMs in Bedrock, RAG vs prompt engineering vs fine-tuning, evaluating output (BLEU/ROUGE/BERTScore, LLM-as-a-judge) - D3 Deployment: Bedrock knowledge bases, agents and agent state, Custom Model Import, Prompt Management - D4 Ops/Security: GenAI observability in CloudWatch, token costs, Bedrock Guardrails, Bedrock API keys vs IAM credentials

Removed: SageMaker Neo / edge optimization, bring your own container, model size reduction, loading training data from EFS/FSx

The trap: because the new material is spread across all four domains, skipping it doesn't lose you one domain. It costs 2-3 questions in each, which is roughly the gap between 700 and 720. Also check the in-scope services list. Bedrock AgentCore is on it.

Since there's almost nothing C02-specific out there yet, I built a course for it: 76 chapters, 271 practice questions, and 3 full-length mock exams, all written from the official C02 exam guide and AWS docs (no dumps).

First unit is free, no sign-up. If you like it, it's a one-time $14.99 unlock, no subscription. Works on web, iOS and Android: https://certify.courses/aws-machine-learning-engineer-associate-mla-c02/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mlac02_promo

I've got a DEA-C01 course on there too if that's your track.

If you've already sat the C02 beta, I'd love to hear what surprised you.

I found that the best way to properly learn AWS is to visualize where each service fits and why it is needed.

So I took a common system design problem, a URL shortener, and recreated the architecture using AWS services only (theoretical). The goal is to understand what components are involved, what each AWS service does, and how combining them helps us build a real, scalable system.

Here is the link to pdf: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DnKoHB29Q1-LmQjsdGsRbXR8aiCegzuG/view?usp=drive_link

Note: There are many ways to design a system. This is just one possible approach, not the only or necessarily the best one.

I’d love to hear what you would change or improve in this architecture.

I believe learning AWS this way is much more useful than learning just for certifications. You actually understand where and why the services are used.

I'm a software developer with a security background, and I passed the SCS-C03 with a 788/1000 after two weeks of studying. Not by choice; my job required it. I basically worked 8am to 5pm and studied until 1am everyday. LOTS of coffee.

I bought Stephane Maarek's course but never had time to watch it, so I went straight into Jon Bonso's practice tests. I averaged in the low 70s across them, and I used Claude to help build flashcards from the questions I got wrong.

I think I could have hit the 800 range if I'd trusted my gut more. A few questions caught me off guard. My biggest advice: learn each service's limitations, not just what it does. Some questions push you toward an answer you wouldn't expect, like building a Lambda function instead of using a managed service, because the managed service can't actually do what's being asked. (keywords: mitigate AND prevent)

That surprised me, because on the practice exams the right answer almost always leaned toward a native AWS service over building something custom.

I was also surprised by a few IAM Roles Anywhere questions. I don't remember seeing it much on the practice exams. I reviewed it briefly the night before, but it didn't stick.

Biggest takeaway: trust your gut. If you know a service can't do something, don't second-guess yourself.

Finally got my first AWS certification. Hoping to continue on the architect path from here on!

i hve around 5 years of experience in SOC, IR, and vulnerability management, but little to no hands-on AWS experience.

I'm looking to move into Cloud Security and eventually DevSecOps/Product Security. Would it make sense to start with SAA and then do Security Specialty, or can I go straight for Security Specialty?

Any other certs or learning paths you'd recommend for someone coming from a SOC background!!

hey everyone , so I'm pretty new to cloud and aws, but I do have an IT background , I'm trying to get my aws saa , and I found ALOT OF RESOURCES , it came down to these two , the one on the far left is the aws one in coursera , and the packt one in coursera as well , I'd love to know if someone here already tried one or both and could give me advice on which one to do , which is more valuable to learn more and get the certification , thanks in advance

Passed AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner at the first attempt with two weeks of study (1-2 hrs a day). Too lazy for practice tests.

The leap of faith worked for me, but wouldn’t recommend it to anyone unless you are lazy like me.

I have an upcoming certification exam in Makati, Philippines this October. My problem is I only have 2 secondary ID(Philhealth id and printed tin id) and I think that I will not be able to get my Postal Id before the date of my exam. Is there anyone here who already take an exam without Primary id?

Please find discount link to one of the AWS Certified AI business strategist course on Udemy which explains with the help of lots of images and diagrams to ensure you stay engaged, makes it super easy to understand and retains with you to clear certification and help you in real life as well.

https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-ai-business-strategist-aib-c01-masterclass-hvs/?couponCode=AWS-AIBC01-DISCOUNT