Over the past few years, I’ve aspired to earn the AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification. Despite facing setbacks and procrastination, I finally committed to a three-week study plan that culminated in taking the exam. I’d like to share my study journey, highlighting the steps I took and my thoughts on each.

Me studying on my exercise bike

For context, I’ve spent several years working with AWS as a developer, occasionally serving as the architect for web application stacks. I’ve also worked with DigitalOcean and Azure for personal web applications. Before committing to my three-week study plan, I had engaged in sporadic bursts of exam preparation.

The learning resources I zeroed in on were:

I embarked on my study journey with ACG’s AWS Architecture Path, starting from scratch and progressing to the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) course, selectively skipping sections like ‘What is CLI?’, ‘Introduction to Python Scripting’, and a few supplementary videos. Despite debating whether to bypass the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C01) course, I decided to skim it for a comprehensive understanding of AWS services. Before the course, I scored 71% on a practice exam, which improved to 85% after reviewing unfamiliar sections.

ACG progress in course

Following this, I attempted my first ACG Solutions Architect Associate practice exam and scored a humble 51%. While I found the subsequent deep dive courses somewhat tedious, they were incredibly thorough. Armed with extensive knowledge of AWS services, I took another ACG practice exam, scoring 69%, and scored 59% on my first Jon Bonso practice exam.

My focus then shifted to the Solutions Architect Associate course, which was content-heavy and quite verbose in places. However, I later discovered that the course missed some crucial exam topics. Initially, I was actively engaged in the labs, but as I found them relatively simple, I began skipping them. After completing the course, I scored 80% on the ACG practice exam and 64% on Jon Bonso’s second practice exam.

Practice exam results

While my scores on the Jon Bonso exams were less than stellar, these exams have a reputation for being tougher than the actual exam, which gave me some hope. Nevertheless, I decided to boost my confidence by focusing on my weak areas, refining my understanding of certain services, and reviewing a cheat sheet.

Rather than revisiting the ACG course, I opted for Stephane Maarek’s course. This course covered several topics missed by the ACG course and was more exam-focused, making it particularly beneficial for my preparation. After completing this course, I attempted the official AWS practice exam but scored only 50%. However, a subsequent ACG practice exam yielded a promising 91%.

On the day of the exam, I felt fairly well-rested. I skipped my usual coffee but grabbed some sushi beforehand. I chose to take the exam in person and was surprised by how rigorous the security procedures were, including a supervised self pat-down. I flagged about half the questions to review later. While I normally finished practice exams (65 questions) in 40 minutes, the actual exam took me just over two hours. After the exam, I didn’t feel confident in my performance.. I assumed I had failed and was already planning my continued study strategy.

Later that night, while at dinner with a friend, I received an email announcing that I had passed! Two days later, a follow-up email revealed my full results—a score of 793/1,000. I was genuinely surprised yet extremely relieved that I wouldn’t need to retake the exam.

My Notion Kanban board for tracking my study practice

Looking back, I would still choose the same study resources but would skip the AWS Cloud Practitioner course and the FreeCodeCamp YouTube video. A more effective approach would have been to use that time reviewing Jon Bonso’s practice exams and understanding the reasoning behind incorrect answers.

Although the certification may not significantly alter my professional standing or employability, the process provided me with extensive knowledge about the AWS ecosystem, which I believe will be valuable in the future. Despite the enriching experience, I doubt I’ll be pursuing another certification anytime soon, at least not this year. I hope my journey provides useful insights for those preparing for the AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam.

Exam Results (in order of completion)

  1. A Cloud Guru Cloud Practitioner Exam 1 - 71%
  2. A Cloud Guru Cloud Practitioner Exam 2 - 85%
  3. A Cloud Guru Associate Architect Exam 1 - 51%
  4. A Cloud Guru Associate Architect Exam 2 - 69%
  5. Jon Bonso Associate Architect Exam 1 - 59%
  6. A Cloud Guru Associate Architect Exam 3 - 80%
  7. Jon Bonso Associate Architect Exam 2 - 64%
  8. A Cloud Guru Associate Architect Exam 4 - 91%
  9. AWS Official Practice Exam - 50%
  10. Official AWS Solutions Architect - Associate Exam - 79.30%