The AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate has been around for years, but recently I've noticed it growing in populatiry. Even Forbes listed it as the second most in-demand IT cert, fetching its holders an average salary of $149,446 anually.

So yeah. It's definitely worth your time if you're the type who loves getting certs.

But knowing what to expect on the exam can be intimidating. And you want to pass on your first try. So here's what I did to prepare. It worked for me, and I hope it helps you.

A Cloud Guru

Many have cited acloud.guru as the best resource available for end-to-end training on how to use AWS as well as what to expect on the exam. This was true for me as well.

I started by signing up for the 30-day free trial and actually ended up watching almost all of their courses on AWS, certs and projects. But I canceled (because I'm cheap) and ended up purchasing their Solutions Architect course on udemy for $10.

This was my foundation for the whole process. I watched each video at least twice and took notes on every slide.

And do all the labs! I did the VPC labs 4 or 5 times until I could build a VPC from memory.

Amazon Certification Prep

Amazon offers a few resources, but it doesn't feel like much. I would download the exam guide and make sure the scope lines up with what I've learned so far.

Amazon also recommends whitepapers, but I didn't bother finishing any (I started the 5 pillars). These are dry and poorly written in my opinion.

They also have readiness training videos which are pretty good at complementing ACG's content. I thought the readiness videos did a good job of introducing the 5 pillars (domains of knowledge) in a way that ACG fails to do. It's not going to make or break you, but you will get questions that are tangential to this.

Finally, Amazon offers a $20 practice exam which is highly worth it. However, I would save this until finishing the other practice exams.

Bonso Practice Exams

Do these. All of them. I did them twice.

Jon Bonso's practice exams were $60, but well worth the price. These are timed exams that loosely simulate the real thing. Honestly, I found them to be much harder than the real thing and I had a very difficult time passing these. I also felt like the scope of his questions was outside of the actual exam. I encountered questions here that were never discussed on ACG (this wasn't true for my exam however).

The real value here is once you finish the test, you can go back and review the answers in great depth. This can be time-consuming, but it helps to fill gaps in your knowledge.

Once you're done with these, I'd recommend Amazon's practice exam because I think you'll find it much easier.

The Exam

Be sure to book the exam in advance, before you're prepared. This will motivate you to keep the pace up. If you need to, you can push the exam back... twice. I actually pushed it back twice because I was sick, but still ended up passing on the first try.

You can do this. It's tough, but it's fun as heck and rewarding.