We will share our process that you can mimick to crack this valuable AWS certification exam on the first attempt.

There is no doubt that AWS certification is highly precious and opens the door for a lot of opportunities, not just for system admins but also for developers and DevOps Engineers.

Even though there is no substitute for knowledge and experience there are a lot of tangible and intangible benefits of AWS certifications, mainly AWS Certified Solution Architect Associate.

Your certification is useless if you don’t know how to work in the AWS cloud console, but if know that and still struggling to find a job then AWS certification can help you.

First thing, it gives you recognition. It allows you to put AWS in your resume and LinkedIn and also get you a lot of chances as recruiters and companies prefer certified professionals over a non-certified if skill set matches.

But, the most crucial benefit of an AWS certification or any other certification is the knowledge it gives you. You will really learn a lot while preparing for certification and with practicle examples and in-depth.

Once you start preparing for AWS certification, you obviously begin reading more about it, doing more hands-on labs, and start solving more practice questions, all these activities will provide a lot of knowledge and experience.

We have been helping a lot of our students with their AWS certification journey, and now that they have successfully passed, we have a blueprint to share with you.

This is a tried and tested blueprint created by us. It’s pretty much a three-step formula where first - you need to choose an excellent course, second - do a lot of hands-on labs and lastly - solve as many practice questions as possible. If you follow these three steps honestly, then you have very good chance to score 800+ on your AWS solution architect exam and pass it in the first attempt.

How to Prepare for AWS Certified Solution Architect Associate Exam

This blueprint will help you to get success in not just AWS certification but also in any IT certification, all you need to do is pick the right resources for each section. This article will help you choose the best online tutors for the AWS Certified Solution Architect Associate exam and choose the best book and Mock tests, and that’s where this article will help you.

In this article, we will share our resources, which will help you to pass the AWS Certified Solution Architect Associate exam with flying colors.

1. Join an Online course

The best way to kick start your AWS certification preparation is to join a quality course which will guide you end to end. While there are many courses on Udemy and skillshare, they lack a personal touch. They are like one sided monologues. Your doubts don't get cleared and even if you follow them step by step, you don't get the same results.

This is where we come into picture

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Though, if you are looking for a book that still provides some value, then I suggest you go through the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Official Study Guide by Joe Baron, Hisham Baz, Tim Bixler, Biff Gaut, Kevin E. Kelly, Sean Senior, and John Stamper. The problem with books is that Amazon keeps changing AWS certification as well as AWS services and console itself frequently. That means any book will quickly become outdated with respect to consoles, functions, and services. This is the biggest issue for using any book for AWS certification.

This book was written for older AWS solution architect certification, but it also covers some of the fundamentals of AWS, which many online courses don’t cover. 

Btw, if you are looking for a more up-to-date book to prepare for AWS Certified Solution Arhicted Associate, then you can also check AWS Certified Solutions Architect Study Guide: Associate SAA-C01 Exam 2nd Edition by Ben Piper and David Clinton. The book also includes 2 Practice exams and 100 electronic flashcards for easy revision.

Another book, which I recommend is a classical book on AWS that takes a different approach for explaining AWS services. The book is called Good part of AWS. The book is written by 

 who has worked in AWS and has first-hand experience with AWS services.

Unlike any other reference book, It doesn’t cover all of AWS or all its quirks. Instead, it will help you realize which AWS features you’d be foolish not to use. Features for which you almost never need to consider alternatives. Features that have passed the test of time by being at the backbone of most things on the internet.

Here is the link to learn more about this book — The Good part of AWS

3. Solve Practice Tests

Also known as practice tests or exam simulators, this is the single biggest thing that can be the difference in just passing the exam or scoring well.

Mock tests have several benefits like:

1. They train you to solve problems in a limited amount of time, which is really important. I know many people who have just got 5 to 10 questions wrong because of time pressure.

2. Practice tests also help you to consolidate and solidify your learning because when you answer the question, your mind works. It recalls and analyzes concepts to answer the question, which helps you to remember the idea longer and also understand it better.

3. Mock tests also help you to find out your preparation level. If you went for the Whizlabs test and found that you can only score 50%, then you not ready for the exam, and you need more study and practice. Similarly, they also help you to pinpoint your weak areas, I mean, where you need more focus.

Now that you know Mock tests are essential, here are some of my recommended practice tests for AWS Solution Architect Associate exams

3.1 Udemy AWS Practice Tests

Along with online courses, Udemy also has some practice tests sold as online courses that you can use for preparing for the AWS solution architect exam. Out of many AWS SAA-C01 and AWS SAA-C02 Practice tests on Udemy, I recommend these two, both are the most up-to-date tests:

3.1.1 Practice Exams | AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate (325 questions)
This Udemy course is an excellent collection of high-quality practice questions written from scratch with detailed explanations for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Exam. You can use them to prepare for your SAA-C02 exam.

These practice exams have been co-authored by 

 and Abhishek Singh who bring their collective experience of passing 18 AWS Certifications to the table.

3.1.2 Jon Bonson’s AWS Solution Architect Practice tests (390 questions)

This course contains 6 practice tests of 65 questions each, goo for your final preparation.

3.1.3 A Cloud Guru’s AWS architect Mock tests (195 questions)

This is another excellent mock test on Udemy for the AWS solution architect associate exam. It’s from Cloud guru’s and contains 3 practice tests, each with 65 questions. It’s slightly tricky than previous ones but worth doing.

3.2 David Mayer’s AWS Dumps (987 questions)

This is another big list of AWS practice questions if you like to really go for those 900+ scores. This mock test has got 987 questions and 20 exam tests, which make it the mother of all AWS practice papers. You don’t need anything else after doing it.

3.3 WhizLabs (620 questions)

Includes 6 full-length mock exams and 620 unique questions for AWS Solution architect associate exam practice. It has both full tests as well as topic wise tests to improve your weak areas. On top of that explanation for every question is provided, which further helps in your learning.

4. Work on Hands-on AWS Labs

Practice inside the AWS console is very important if you aspire to work as a Solution Architect for AWS Cloud. In general, I advise students to join a course that also has practice labs and also opens an AWS free tier account.

Online labs provide hands-on practice with AWS in a live environment. Unlike a simulation or demo, labs help you master popular AWS services and real-world scenarios using step-by-step instructions and the actual AWS Console — scenarios like spinning up a virtual machine or database, saving files in the cloud, and more.

Since you only remember if you do the stuff, these AWS practical sessions will help you to understand and memorize the services which you are reading like EC2, S3, DynamoDB, IAM, and others.

QwikLABS offers 19 free introductory AWS labs, which generally take less than 30 minutes to finish.

How to Get Started

1. Go to qwikLABS.com
2. First time? Create an account. Otherwise, log in.
3. Pick a free introductory lab and click Enroll

You can sign up for a free AWS account here.

5. Read AWS White Papers

If you are someone who is not happy with 800+ core and want to go for a 900+ score, then I also suggest you read White Papers and Case studies provided by AWS. These are some of the most in-depth and practical content you will get anywhere on the internet.

If you want to go one step more, you can also read AWS documentation as it provides the most up-to-date information, which is undoubtedly an essential factor given AWS is still evolving, and there are hundreds of updates to catch up.

Alternatively, you can also signup for AWS weekly on ACloudGuru, which is a great way to keep up-to-date with new AWS changes. Here is the link to read AWS whitepapers

5 Tips to Pass AWS Certifications in First Attempt

Now that you are familiar with the process of preparing for AWS Solution Architect Certification, it's time to see some tips which can help you to pass this prestigious exam on your very first attempt. This means not only saving you time and money but also disappointment.

1. Passing marks for the AWS Certified Solution architect exam varies daily. It could be 60% or 72% or even more, but you should always prepare for 75% to pass the exam on the very first attempt.
2. How much time do you need to prepare for the AWS Solution Architect Associate exam? Well, preparation time mostly depends on experience level. If you have some AWS experience under your belt, then 2–3 weeks of preparation is enough, but if you are a complete beginner to AWS, then 4 to 6 weeks is a reasonable time.
3. Hands-on lab exercises are a must if you don’t want to become a paper certified AWS developer or solution architect. All the things you will learn and earn via certification also need a backup of hands-on experience. It’s even more critical for people who are not actively working in AWS as part of their day job. In short, get a free AWS account open and try to break things and learned how to fix them.
4. Join the courses which are most up-to-date and also include lab exercises for the reason I have mentioned above. Since AWS is still evolving and there is a new feature coming up daily, it’s essential to choose the course which is not most up-to-date, not just in terms of the certification syllabus and curriculum but also with AWS feature and how to do things in the best and latest way in AWS.
5. Solve as many practice questions as possible. This is, by far, the most important tip from me. Since you are going to appear for an exam, where you need to solve questions in a limited time, you got to do practice to be able to read, understand, and solve those problems quickly. I know many people how have got 1o to 15 questions wrong just because of time pressure. Mock tests and practice questions also help to solidify your knowledge and highlight gaps in your learning. For example, you can use them to find your strong and weak areas and then cover them better before the real exam.

That’s all about how to pass the AWS solution architect associate level exam. AWS Certifications, particularly the solution architect, are significant. This not only gives you approval from the AWS but also prepares you for your interviews and further work.

AWS Solution architect is also the most high-paying professionals with annual salaries ranging from $120,000 to $130,000, and as more and more companies are moving towards the cloud, there is a lot of opportunity for cloud developers and architects.