My Roadmap to the AWS Solutions Architect Associate Exam

Last month, I became an AWS Certified Solutions Architect associate. In this article, I review my prep process and share resources I used to prepare for the exam.

Intro

I’ve been working with AWS since around 2017, so I knew a lot about many service offerings before taking the exam. However, the Solutions Architect exam has a lot of breadth, so many of the services covered weren’t familiar to me. This certification was also my first “cloud” certification, so there was a lot I had to prepare for.

The Beginning

I decided to take on this certification to identify areas for improvement, work on them, and be reassured by the exam results of my AWS skills in services that were either new to me or to which I did not have adequate exposure before. I prepared for it over nearly two months from the time I took the CKAD exam. The first step on my journey was to select the resources I’d use to prepare for the exam.

I’m a member of the Kubecraft community, and there was a post in the community about learning resources for AWS. One of the resources mentioned in the community was Adrian Cantrill’s courses, which was the primary resource I used. I also had access to the AWS Academy as a courtesy of the institution where I got my post-graduate degree in Cloud Computing, XP Education. Additionally, I purchased the mock exams from Tutorials Dojo and went through Stephane Maarek’s course on Udemy.

Insights from Learning Materials

Cantrill’s course was the most detailed, but I found it lacking in some areas. That’s why I consider the mock exams from Tutorials Dojo to be the best value for money. Those were super well thought out and detailed; actually, they were a bit harder than the actual exam, but they helped me identify areas where I had to go outside of Cantrill’s course to find additional information.

Stéphane Marek’s course is also very good and polished, but I wouldn’t recommend it to someone new to the Cloud and AWS. It is, however, fantastic for those looking for a quick run-through of all services and their capabilities. It is like a refresher for someone already working as a Cloud Architect, either in AWS or otherwise.

Some Tips and Tricks for the Exam

I’ve read from many sources that time is the most significant constraint during the exam. When I was taking the exam, though, I did not feel that way at all. The time is adequate if you’re adequately prepared. If you can go through one of Tutorials Dojo’s timed-mode mocks, you can go through the real exam with time to spare. 

My recommendation is not to focus on time. I did not follow any particular advice on how to approach the exam. I went through every question, start to finish, in order, and I had around 50 minutes left by the time I was done, giving me plenty of time to go back to some of the most difficult questions and reassess my initial answer.

Final Words

As with many things in life, preparation is key. Do NOT take this exam without going through the official exam guide, at the very least. Even with a lot of work exposure to AWS, I still found this exam to be rather challenging, so I’d urge you to do your due diligence and review some mock exams to gauge your readiness level. After all, this is quite an expensive exam, and you must pay in full for a retake!

Now that we’ve cleared up the warnings, I’ll finish up by saying that it was worth it! Certifications are a great way to identify a learning path and validate your skills. However, without guidance, this can be very challenging, although not impossible, of course.