On 14th July 2022, I cleared the AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam. In this blog, I'll let you know about my journey with AWS and what helped me feel confident about attempting and clearing the exam in the first GO!

About the AWS Certified Solutions Architect(SAA - C02) exam

It's one of the 3 associate level exams that AWS offers to validate the Solution Architect level knowledge related to the services and offerings of AWS. It has 65 questions in total and we have in-total of 130 minutes to complete it. I took the exam from Pearson VUE at my home

How I prepared?

Being a working professional, plus being enrolled in PGP - Cloud Computing course from GreatLearning, I had to really really squeeze out time on the weekdays to prepare for this examination. On a weekdays, I used to spend close to 1 hour for learning and doing hands-on with AWS. I used to sit close to 10-12 hours on the weekends to cover the content. It's practically impossible to complete 27 hours worth of content in 1-shot and remember everything. I took an iterative approach where-in I learnt things, applied it, took notes and revised it before moving forward. NOTES will definitely help you a lot when you're coming back to the older topics for Revision!

Courses that helped me

Actual content by Stephane Maarek - Ultimate AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate 2022

Practice tests by Neal Davis - AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Practice Exams

Practice tests by Jon Bonso - AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Practice Exams

Review

I really liked the course. The topics Stephane covers are to the point & actually more than enough to clear the certification. The typical fashion in which he teaches is he covers the theoretical content first and then backs it up with hands on exercise. If we want to follow the hands on with him, we sure can. If there are any services that aren't covered in the free-tier, he lets us know in advance. I see his course helpful even after completing the certification, one can always come back and review/re-watch the content later and apply the learnings practically on your projects that one is working on! BIG THUMBS UP!

Practice tests

When I did my research on LinkedIn or reached out to people who already cleared this certification, they used to clearly say that take practice tests from Jon Bonso or Neal Davis. So, I took them. I took both of their practice tests and it helped me immensely. The questions in the actual exam were very much similar to what was being asked in those practise tests. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED AND MUST DO!

Practical tip

I'd recommend you scheduling the main examination only when you pass the practice tests repetitively with 80% or more. Once you do so, you can be rest assured that your preparations are good enough to take the actual exam.

Concluding points

The courses that I mentioned in the blog are good enough to make sure you pass the exam with flying colors. Now that the current AWS SAA C02 exam is retiring on August 30th, I'd recommend you to wait and take up the SAA C03 exam. These are seasoned instructors and they do update the content regularly so hold on. Take a course from Udemy. Go through it. Once done, go through the practice tests. Assess your weaknesses, work on it and make sure you're confident enough before you appear from the exam!

Happy Learning!