How I passed the AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam
The AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification is one of the most sought after cloud certifications. It focuses on design of optimized solutions on the AWS cloud, taking into account costs, resiliency, performance and security.
I started studying for this certification back in 2021, then due to an increased workload at work, I had to put my certification study aside.
I came back to it in April 2025, studied for two months and passed the test in the beginning of June 2025
During the course of my study, I saw that many people have shared their study path and their tips in YouTube videos. So, I decided to share my path with some tips.
Study material
I used ACloudGuru AWS Certified SAA 2020 course, I purchased it a while back and used it when I returned to studying. I must say that this course, while very good in presentation, is outdated in content. It seems that ACloudGuru sold its content to Pluralsight and this course has not been updated the past few years. This meant that I had a significant number of AWS services to catch up on.
My suggestion is to download the AWS SAA exam guide from AWS:
Go over the services that you need to know for the exam and catch up on the ones that are not covered in your course. You can catch up by reading material from the AWS site or TutorialsDojo: https://tutorialsdojo.com/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-saa-c03/
I would also recommend watching some demos on YouTube I found this channel particularly helpful: https://www.youtube.com/@TinyTechnicalTutorials
Another options is to purchase the best selling course on Udemy for AWS SAA, by Stephane Maarek.
His course is highly recommended and also up to date.
I also used an AWS gpt on ChatGPT for studying and clarifying some services and their use cases.
Practice Exams
It is very important to take some practice exams before the actual exam, in order to prepare. You should get practice exams that reflect actual AWS exam questions, which are scenario based rather than pure technical.
The exam questions present you with a scenario of either an on-prem application that you need to migrate to the cloud, a hybrid cloud and on-prem scenario or a cloud application that you need to optimize for either cost, high availability, performance or security.
There are several good sources for practice exams, they are not free but don’t cost much.
I used the TutorialsDojo practice exams which I purchased on Udemy:
There are 6 practice tests in this bundle. You can take the tests in either exam mode, with a timer, or in practice mode, without a time limit, where you get the answer after each question. You get a detailed explanation for each question including the relevant links to the AWS documentation. It is important to go over these explanations for the questions that you got wrong. I found the TutorialsDojo practice exams to be harder than the real exam. So I think if you can consistently pass them, you should be able to pass the real exam.
I also used this free resource of practice exams from youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSsAff-bqyI&t=10118s&ab_channel=TechWithShapingpixel
Shapingpixel has hundreds of questions, which he goes over and give the answer and a short explanation after each question. The explanations are not as thorough as the TutorialsDojo explanations, but I found that his questions better represented the real exam questions.
There are also other practice exams you can purchase, Stephane Maarek has his own exam bundle and there are also exam bundled from WhizLabs and others.
Exam Tips
The exam has 65 questions, some of which have more than one answer. You should get 130 minutes for the exam, although I got 140, probably because I’m not a native english speaker. This means you have about 2 minutes for each question, you should be able to answer the questions than your know within 30 seconds or less. That should give you enough time for the questions that your need to think about or guess.
You can mark questions for review, then after you finish going over the 65 questions, you get a review screen with the questions that you haven’t answered and the ones you answered but marked for review. You need to go over these questions one by one, once you go over a question and answer it, it disappears from the review screen.
If you don’t know the answer and need to make an educated guess, remember the following:
Usually there are two very similar answers, one of them should be the correct one.
The answers always favor a solution that includes an AWS service, preferably a serverless one, rather than a custom solution.
Conclusion
While it is not easy to pass the exam on the first try, it is certainly possible if you put an effort into studying for the exam. I believe that 2-3 months of studying is a reasonable time, even if you are working a full time job.
Remember that even if you are an experienced architect or developer, you still need to study hard. You will have an advantage over a novice, but that will not guarantee your success.
Good Luck
