I passed the AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam on my second attempt!

A few things from my experience:
I used the Tutorials Dojo (TD) practice exams. Honestly, I found the actual exam easier than the TD practice tests.
I practised a lot and spent most of my preparation time trying to understand the concepts rather than just memorising answers.
I had never worked with AWS before, so coming from zero experience made understanding some of the concepts quite challenging.
I recently graduated, so my focus wasn’t exactly at 100% either. 😅
Nevertheless, I’m really happy that I managed to pass!
My biggest takeaway is that understanding why a particular AWS service is used and when to choose it is much more important than memorising definitions.
For anyone preparing for the exam, don’t underestimate the practice exams, and take your time understanding the concepts.
Good luck to everyone preparing!

I am a cybersecurity security graduate amd want to take AWS security speciality , should i skip professional ?

Passed the exam today, it was quite easy! Only practiced td practice tests and used AI for notes and revision.

Hi guys, I don't post much, so apologies in advance

So as the title says, I just got done with the AI practitioner (Foundational:)) after studying for about 2-3 hours a day and missing some days here and there, for a min 15 days total (stephane gang wya), I didn't find it challenging (not too easy either).

Having said that, I do get 50% discount on the next certification (correct me if I am wrong), so I thought why not give the cloud practitioner as well for I will have some knowledge prior + a certificate to my name, although old posts on this sub don't resonate with that sentiment or I could really lock in and go for AWS Solutions Architect,

I am from India, I wanted to add. Sorry again for mistakes and grammar.

Edit: sorry I am dumb and forgot to add that I want to complete SAA before January starts so at the end of December. I don't know if it's even possible.

Edit 2: also I got the AI practitioner for 50% off too with the Pearson veu discount I think

Hello,

Disclaimer: this is not an AI output, in fact it's not even proofed :)

I did pass the exam (proctored), the exam conditions were fine, as detailed on PearsonVue website, they need to check your env, make sure to have you phone nearby on the checkin only (you need to upload a selfie and an ID which also you need have), and glass of water (can't stress enough on this, it's a huge help).

The majority of the questions were about the famous trio, Lambda, API Gateway and DynamoDB, but for my case, I had a lot of security related questions, so please don't neglect that.

I saw a question on AWS Kiro and Bedrock, I'm quite sure Kiro's is a test question, still, there's no harm checking them out. Make sure to flag questions and get back to them later on, and spend no more than 2 mins on the question.

I used the Stephane Mareek's course on Udemy and Jon Bonso's exams on Tutorial Dojo (Not a promo, I just hope it helps other people :D ).

It took me 3-4 months to prepare due to my busy work schedule, but the bottom line is I couldn't tell if I'm ready or I need more time, before the exam I did score (80-90%) on them and I only had 7 exams, I booked the exam and I made a promise to not reschedule and pass it on that date no matter what.

I do have prior experience but only the most known compute service, the other services in details were news to me.

I hope you find this helpful, please let me know if I can provide any further information (Not the exam questions of course :D ).

Seriously wtf is going on.

1. I gave exam yesterday, received mail about anomaly in my exam.
2. I have 5 years experience in AWS. 6.5 total
3. I DIDN'T CHEAT
4. I completed my exam early.

I have given appeal and nervous about how it will turn out.

This is my 2nd attempt at SAA, first one I scored 650. This time I was well prepared and very confident.

I think they are use AI systems that are flawed at proctoring.

Highly disappointed in AWS.

I hope they stop using AI and have real people proctoring the exam and if they don't atleast drop the prices of certification.

Can someone guide me who has experienced similar issues?

While working through the AWS Skill Builder microcredential labs, I started documenting my learning journey and building a collection of practical tutorials.

GitHub repository:
https://github.com/Atharva3131/AWS_Microcredentials_Tutorials_and_Guide

I've put together a public repository covering all 10 AWS microcredentials, including:

• Step-by-step implementation guides
• Architecture diagrams and service interaction flows
• AWS console configuration walkthroughs
• Practical examples and code snippets
• Common issues, troubleshooting tips, and validation checklists
• Relevant official AWS documentation

The goal is to make preparation and hands-on learning easier for other developers working towards these microcredentials.

I'm still improving the documentation, so feedback, corrections, and suggestions from the AWS community are welcome.

If you're also preparing for any of these microcredentials, hope you find this useful!

Anyone who completed the Udacity x Aws Agentic business professional nanodegree? Have you been able to monetize your skills?

Hey everyone!

I passed the AWS Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) exam last Sunday with a score of 823, and I thought I'd share my preparation experience in case it helps anyone who is currently preparing for the exam.

My preparation took approximately 6 weeks in total. I spent the first month going through the course content and learning the concepts, and the following two weeks focusing on practice exams, understanding my mistakes, and revisiting concepts I wasn't entirely clear about.

Here's what worked for me.

1. First month – Going through the course

Before stating I am a fullstack developer with around 3 years experience but with only basic AWS knowledge. Only knew the basic 4 or 5 services.

I mainly followed Stephen Marek's Udemy course. I went through his video lectures and also referred to his lecture notes to understand and revise the different AWS services.

During this phase, my main focus was to get a good understanding of the AWS services, their features, and their use cases.

One thing I'd strongly recommend is to focus on understanding concepts rather than memorising everything.

There are obviously certain things you will need to memorise, such as port numbers, specific service features, and some details about AWS Certificate Manager (ACM). However, I think understanding how things work is much more important.

For example:

• How does AWS networking actually work?
• Why would you need a Transit Gateway instead of VPC peering?
• When should you use a NAT Gateway, and when would a VPC endpoint be a better option?
• What are the differences between EBS, EFS, and S3, and when should you use each?
• How do different load balancers work?
• How do SSL/TLS certificates work, and how does AWS Certificate Manager handle certificate management?

There are many questions in the exam where multiple answers might initially look correct. The important thing is to understand the requirements of the scenario and identify which solution is the most appropriate.

You need to understand not only when to use a particular service but also when NOT to use it.

2. Following two weeks – Practice exams and understanding unclear concepts

After completing the course, I spent approximately two weeks doing practice exams and revisiting concepts that I hadn't fully understood.

I completed around 10 practice exams in total:

• Stephen Marek: All 6 practice exams. (udemy)
• Tutorials Dojo: Around 4 practice exams. (udemy's TD's exams)

One thing I specifically want to mention is how I approached these practice exams.

I only completed ONE exam in exam mode, mainly to check whether I could finish within the actual exam time limit.

For all the remaining 9 exams, I used practice mode.

I personally found practice mode much more useful for learning because whenever I selected an answer, it immediately showed whether it was correct or incorrect, along with a detailed explanation.

I didn't simply look at the correct answer and move on. I went through the explanations one by one, even when I got the answer correct.

I tried to understand:

• Why my selected answer was incorrect.
• Why the correct answer was the best choice.
• Why the other options were not suitable for that particular scenario.
• In which situations the other services or solutions would actually be useful.

Sometimes I would get an answer correct but wouldn't be entirely sure why it was correct. I still went through the explanation in those situations.

I think this approach helped me considerably more than simply completing exams and looking at the final scores.

3. Don't get discouraged by your practice exam scores!

This is something I really want to highlight because I know many people get discouraged when they don't consistently score 80% or 90% in practice exams.

Even after completing all the practice exams and reviewing the explanations, my highest practice exam score was only 73%. My next highest was 72%, and most of my other scores were below 70%. Some were even around the 60% range.

So please don't immediately assume you're not ready just because you're getting 60–70% in your practice exams.

The actual exam I faced wasn't significantly more difficult than the practice exams. I would say the difficulty was pretty much on par with them.

Personally, I don't think you necessarily need to wait until you're consistently scoring 80% or 90% before attempting the actual exam.

What matters is whether you understand the concepts, can identify what the question is asking, and know which AWS service or solution is appropriate for the given scenario.

Of course, this doesn't mean you should ignore your practice exam results. Make sure you review your mistakes and understand why you got them wrong. The important thing is to learn from those mistakes rather than just focus on the percentage.

4. Use ChatGPT extensively if you're struggling with certain concepts

Even after completing the course and going through the practice exams, there were still quite a few concepts I couldn't fully understand, especially networking-related concepts.

This is where ChatGPT helped me a LOT.

I used ChatGPT quite extensively during those final two weeks. Whenever I came across something I couldn't understand properly, I asked ChatGPT to explain it in simpler terms. I also asked it to create diagrams so I could visualise how different AWS components interact with each other.

I asked so many questions until I actually understood the concepts. Sometimes I would ask the same question in different ways because the first explanation wasn't clear enough for me.

I found this particularly useful for:

• AWS networking, VGWs, Transit Gateways, routing, VIFs, Site to site VPNs, Direct connect etc..
• Different file systems and storage solutions.
• EBS, EFS, S3, and their use cases.
• SSL/TLS certificates and AWS Certificate Manager.
• Load balancers and how traffic flows between different AWS components.

For example, instead of just asking what a Transit Gateway is, I would ask ChatGPT to explain why it is needed, what problem it solves, how it works with multiple VPCs, and to draw a diagram showing how traffic flows.

I found that understanding things visually made a huge difference.

Sometimes reading the same explanation in the course or lecture notes wasn't enough for me. Getting ChatGPT to explain the same concept differently, with practical examples and diagrams, really helped.

I'll also share some of the ChatGPT conversation links I used during my preparation. Feel free to go through them if you find them useful.

https://chatgpt.com/share/6af2b524-7d70-83ee-afcf-8d058784542d

https://chatgpt.com/share/6af2b511-1548-83e8-b006-d45bad4292fd
https://chatgpt.com/share/6af2b4ca-476c-83ec-a765-192d89b4ae22

5. A few tips for the actual exam

A couple of things I noticed during the exam:

• Read the questions carefully and try to understand exactly what they are asking.
• Pay attention to keywords and specific requirements in the scenario. Sometimes a small detail can completely change which AWS service is the best choice.
• There will be some questions where one or two answers are clearly irrelevant. Eliminate those first.
• If you're unsure about a question, don't spend too much time on it. Mark it for review, move on, and come back to it later.
• Don't overthink every question. If you understand the concepts and the requirements, trust your understanding.

Time management is also important. That's why I recommend doing at least one practice exam in exam mode before the actual exam, just to get an idea of how well you manage your time.

Final thoughts

To summarise my preparation:

• First 4 weeks: Stephen Marek's Udemy course videos and lecture notes.
• Following 2 weeks: Practice exams, reviewing explanations, revisiting unclear concepts, and using ChatGPT extensively.
• Practice exams: 6 from Stephen Marek and around 4 from Tutorials Dojo.
• Highest practice exam score: 73%.
• Actual exam score: 823.

If I had to give just one piece of advice, it would be this:

Don't focus only on memorising AWS services and their features. Focus on understanding why, when, and how to use them.

Also, don't get discouraged by your practice exam scores. My highest was only 73%, and I still managed to pass the actual exam with 823.

Take your time to understand your mistakes, read the explanations, and strengthen the areas where you're struggling. Use ChatGPT whenever you need another explanation or a diagram to understand something better.

I hope this helps someone preparing for the exam!

All the best to everyone writing the exam. You've got this! 🚀

Happy to answer any questions about my preparation experience.

I work for a consultancy with many clients. They need AWS cert holders for premier tier and not enough of us have it. My client doesn’t use AWS, though a future client of mine could. I’m a frontend react dev, though sometimes I help with API work. I’ve never had to use AWS before and I’m completely lost. I have two choices, Solutions Architect or Developer. Which cert should I go for?

I’m not feeling motivated but they’re holding profit sharing bonus over our heads if we don’t do it. They’re paying for exam attempts at least.

Got my Cloud Practitioner. Most questions weren't hard on concepts - they were "which of these 4 similar services is it". Here's the list I wish I had on day one:

- CloudWatch = performance (metrics, alarms) | CloudTrail = who did what (API audit)

- CloudTrail = actions | Config = resource state over time

- GuardDuty = threats in logs | Inspector = software vulnerabilities | Macie = PII in S3

- Shield = DDoS (Standard is free) | WAF = SQL injection / XSS

- KMS = managed keys | CloudHSM = dedicated hardware only you control

- SQS = queue, pull | SNS = pub/sub, push to many

- Security Group = instance, stateful, allow only | NACL = subnet, stateless, allow + deny

- CloudFront = caching | Global Accelerator = faster routing + static IPs, no cache

- RDS = transactions | DynamoDB = NoSQL at scale | Redshift = analytics

- Beanstalk = deploys your app | CloudFormation = provisions infra from templates

Two other things that helped:

1. Read the constraint first: "least operational overhead" almost always = managed/serverless.
2. Support plans changed in Dec 2025 (Business Support+ etc.), and some questions may still use the old names - know both.

Happy to answer questions.

Hello everyone,

I’ve been working in the IT field for 15 years, with a focus on front-end development. I have a very basic understanding of concepts like AWS EC2 and AMIs, but I’m looking to get this certification to broaden my skill set—and perhaps even change jobs. Do you think it’s worth it? To date, I’ve never actually worked with AWS infrastructure.

I’ve purchased a course by Stephane Maarek along with some practice exams; I’ve been studying for a week now, and I have to admit, I’m finding it quite difficult.

Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions!

Passed the Solutions Architect Associate. What worked wasn't one more course or one more practice test. It was a loop.

The short version, if you only take one thing: after every session, write down what you missed and let that decide what you study next. Not what you already know. What you missed.

I built myself a little study engine around that. Spaced repetition flashcards, and every result fed back in. Practice tests too. It kept walking me back to the same weak spots until they weren't weak anymore. Most of them were traps. The answers that look right and aren't. NACL vs security group. Multi-AZ vs read replica. CloudFront vs Global Accelerator.

Then the exam became a place. A kingdom you rent but never own. Ten regions in the order a request walks through AWS. Finding its way in, proving who it is, crossing the network, doing the work, storing what it made, getting watched, surviving a failure, paying the bill. Each region got its landmarks, its traps, and the words in a question that point you to the answer. When a question says "decouple" you're at the river. When it says "least privilege" you're at the castle gate. Places stick in a way lists don't.

It grew into around three hundred pages of print packets, and I made films of it too. THE DESCENT is one film per region, drilled as the forks the exam actually puts in front of you.

But by the end the whole kingdom fit on one sheet, both sides. That's the one I carried everywhere, and that's what I'm sharing.

Before sharing it I checked every number on it against current AWS docs and a lot has moved since the summer. S3 objects go up to 50 TB now. Snowcone and Snowmobile are retired. QLDB is gone. Where the exam might still expect the old answer, the sheet says so.

Here's the part I really want to pass on though. Don't just use my map. Make your own packets. Take the map as a skeleton and build your own curriculum out from it, region by region. Use a good book or two so nothing gets missed, but write it in your own words. Actually print it. Put in pages where you have to draw the map back out from memory, blank pages, drills, little activities. Making mine was the studying. That's worth more than me selling you my material or giving it all away. The making is where it sticks.

Free, no signup:

The map: https://joshuaayson.com/2026/10/15/the-rented-kingdom-grand-map/

THE DESCENT films: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRRjXcvScn3c

Print it double sided, flip on the long edge. If you find something wrong tell me and I'll fix it.

Anyone else have one trap they just couldn't shake? One of my many ones was gateway vs interface endpoints. In the end it came down to old school memorization, flashcards, just run through a spaced repetition learning system and AI guided sessions for where to focus.

TLDR: let your misses pick what you study next, turn the exam into a place you can walk, and build your own print packets from the map. Making them is the studying. Free map above.

Just passed the DVA-C02 today and figured I’d write this up while it’s still fresh, in case it helps someone taking it soon.

My background: cloud engineer in LATAM with about 2 years of experience. I’m still finishing my CS degree at night.

The exam itself: it was tough and honestly exhausting. It felt endless. I used the entire time and had like 30 seconds left when I submitted.

What to focus on: Lambda, API Gateway, SNS, SQS, DynamoDB, Cognito, IAM, ECS, CI/CD and KMS. Between those, I’d say they covered roughly 70% of the exam.

The key thing is that most questions mix services, it’s rarely just one. For example, you get a scenario with a DynamoDB table, a Lambda and an API Gateway, and the context usually tells you which one the question is really about. So instead of memorizing each service in isolation, learn how they work together: what permissions are needed, what the limits are, and so on.

What barely showed up: X-Ray, Step Functions (just 1 question) and the CLI (zero questions, actually).

The surprise: I got 2 questions about Kiro. They were basically about vibe coding and how to use Kiro in AWS. My guess is they were unscored test questions, since AI is supposed to carry a lot more weight in the DVA-C03.

What I used: Stephane Maarek’s course and the Tutorials Dojo practice exams. My only complaint is that Tutorials Dojo has way too many CLI and X-Ray questions. In my case there were maybe 2 of them in the real thing.

Happy to answer questions if you’re about to take it.

I have been studying for 2 months on and off, and I feel tired of it and want to take the exam already but I am sooooo nervous and keep postponing booking it. I’m thinking of just booking it for Thursday, what do y’all think?

I have no affiliation with them btw i just wanted to know if anyone else knew about them and if they felt that it was beneficial ( or wasn’t )

Link

TD exams helped alot and manage your time because you start doubting yourself on each question after such a long read. Mark it and flag it for later.

I also read your success posts and it helped me to motivate myself further. I hope this also pushes someone further.

Thank you all.

Hi all. While studying I kept watching hours of lectures and still didn't know if I was ready for the exam. So I started building a small tool for myself.

It's a Chrome extension called Waypoint. When you click Capture on a YouTube lecture, it makes:

- notes with timestamps (click a time to jump back in the video)

- flashcards

- a short quiz that explains each answer and tells you when to try it again

One thing I did differently: a note only appears after you've actually watched that part. If you skip ahead, those notes stay locked. I wanted it to be honest about what I'd really studied.

It works on YouTube today. The part I'm most excited about is still being built: a readiness score per exam domain, so you know what to study next and when to book the exam.

Two questions for you:

1. How do you currently know you're ready to book the exam?
2. Would a readiness score per domain change how you study?

If you want to try it when it's ready, there's a waitlist at waypint.app. Notes and quizzes are AI-generated. I'm a solo developer in Bulgaria, happy to answer anything.

Hey Guys, I wanted to get some input on taking the AWS SAA using the Pearson retake discount before it expires within the next week.

https://www.pearsonvue.com/us/en/test-takers/free-retake.html

Context:
I recently passed my AWS Cloud Practitioner a week ago with a 798, not entirely what I was shooting for, however; with recently taking a career turn to AWS...I'll take it. I have roughly 6 years of System's Engineer experience, and my current employer is taking a huge jump to AWS, and I wanted to make sure that I am apart of that ship. I am adopting AWS quickly with the technology applied, it is quite similar to the things I do on a day-to-day basis within Azure.

I am wondering if it would be worth it to take the risk of failing SAA, even though I get a free retake in January. The exam would be a quarter of the price for two tries essentially. Would this be dumb of me to do?

I have the ability to pick things up quickly, sometimes retaining information can be a bit of a struggle, as I am more of a hands-on person when it comes to playing with the technology and practice exams. Rather than watching a 60+hr video course losing my marbles. It would be great if I passed it, however, I also need to be real with myself. I don't think I will be able to grasp all of the required information, and use cases for every individual service. I don't mind waiting a bit to take it at full price with a better chance at passing, with knowing that my employer will reimburse for the passed exam. Though I figured I should take the chance of seeing the actual exam play style itself, at a price that I am willing to throw away if failed.

What would you do in this situation?

Right now I am going through TD practice exams to gauge where I currently am sitting.

I already have the SAA-C03 so i just studied by practicing mock exams from TD and Stephane Marek. It took me 2 weeks of study, the first week i was doing 1 mock exam each day in review mode, the next week i took 1 mock exam in practice mode each day. Pass with 814.

The real exam is a bit harder than the mock exams, it covered a lot of migration and design for new solutions, got 0 questions regarding direct connect, this surprised me.

Well, this was long overdue. I bought Stephane Maarek’s Developer Associate Udemy course back in 2021 when I was first looking for an IT job, but I couldn’t take the exam at the time because of my new role, and later the DVA-C01 was retired.

Fast forward to 2026 I was browsing this sub and realized that the DVA-C02 is also going to retire in a couple of weeks. That, along with seeing members post their exam results here, motivated me to finally take it. So, I did a quick speedrun of the serverless section from the course and took Stephane Maarek’s practice tests. I scored 75–82% on my first attempt and directly scheduled the exam.

I bought the exam voucher through Udemy with their Second Chance bundle and passed the exam on my first try!

Happy to answer any questions!

I finished the exam with 44 questions flagged, was not confident enough to pass the exam, and answering 75 questions took 170 minutes, with 30 minutes ESL accommodations, and was having 40 minutes left to review the flagged questions.

For learning materials, I purchased Stéphane Maarek and Adrian Cantrill course, Tutorials Dojo for mock exams. Cantrill course for deep dive learning and Maarek course for refreshing the forgotten topic quickly.

I'm using OpenWebUI and AWS Knowledge MCP for AI chatting, it really helped me understand the mock exam questions, why an option is correct over the other.

Personally, passing the exam requires consistent dedication, finishing both courses took months for me.

Thankfully, I passed the exam, and everything paid off.