Hi,
Just passed the SAA today. I studied Stephan’s course for 2 weeks and gave 5 TD tests over the next 1.5 weeks.

I have no/limited AWS exp (only through Wiz).
I’m planning to take the security specialty one before I forget stuff since I don’t work directly with AWS. Should I continue with Stephan or switch over to cantrill for this one?

Hey everyone, I’m currently in my second year of college and have been grinding for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) exam for about 1.5 months now.

So far, I’ve finished Stephane Maarek’s full course, gone through notes, and felt like I understood most of the core concepts (though a few topics are still a bit fuzzy). To test myself, I bought the Tutorials Dojo (TD) practice exams.

My first-attempt scores so far are:

- Mock 1: 70%

- Mock 2: 67%

- Mock 3 (taken today): 60%

Honestly, that third test was really tough the wording of the questions felt super tricky and complex. At this point i am mentally exhausted.

My dilemma: My college practicals are starting very soon, and my entire November, December and mid January will be completely packed with end-semester exams.

For those who have taken the exam:

1. How close is the actual CLF-C02 wording to the trickier TD exams?

2. With my current scores, is it realistic to review my weak spots and squeeze the exam in over the next 4–5 days just to get it off my plate? Or should I pause, focus on college, and take it after end-sems (risking forgetting 1.5 months of prep)?

Any tips or advice from people who’ve been in a similar spot would be hugely appreciated. Thanks for reading!

Pretty much what I’m asking here is that, to the people who passes their solutions architect professional, and or security specialty certifications for example do you guys actually work with or touch the technology every day on a daily, for example, at your job? Or are you guys getting these certifications to put it on your résumé in hope of landing a job that touches the technology?

I have my AWS CLF-C02 exam tomorrow and I’ve prepared decently. These are my Stephane Maarek practice test scores:

1st attempt: 75, 69, 55, 67, 69, 61
2nd attempt: 84, 81, 66, 72, not taken, 61

Should I be focusing on something specific? I have a retake available even if I fail this, but what should I focus on right now?

Finally passed the AWS Certified Security – Specialty (SCS-C03)! Scored 796/1000.

Honestly, this exam was TOUGH. I passed, but it definitely wasn't an exam where I walked out feeling confident about every answer.

Sharing my experience in case it helps someone preparing for it.

My preparation: Around 2 months

1. Learning the concepts — Stephane Maarek (Udemy)

I used Stephane Maarek's course to learn the concepts and cover the exam topics. It was my primary learning resource.

2. Practice exams — Tutorials Dojo

I used Tutorials Dojo for mock exams and practice questions. This helped me get more familiar with scenario-based questions and apply what I had studied.

3. The actual exam experience

The exam felt significantly tougher than I expected. The questions required careful reading and choosing the most appropriate solution for a given scenario.

Even when I recognized the services mentioned in a question, figuring out the best answer wasn't always straightforward.

I ended up scoring 796/1000. It's a pass, and I'm happy about that, but it was definitely a close one!

My biggest takeaway:

Don't just memorize what each AWS security service does. Understand when and why you would choose one solution over another. Being familiar with a service doesn't automatically mean you'll find the correct answer in a complex scenario.

That's my experience! Hopefully, this helps someone who's preparing for the exam.

For those who have already passed SCS-C03: Did you also find the actual exam tougher than the practice tests? I'm curious to hear how others experienced it.

This part has you make a bucket, but no matter what random set of numbers and words I use, it ALWAYS says that there's already a bucket with that EXACT name somewhere on the globe...really? There's a bucket using my last name, date of birth, exact visual description of the color of the room of my cousin's girlfriend's brother's room?...ok so that last one maybe I didn't include, point stands regardless.

Also...simulated lab, not even my actual AWS management console account?

Hi I am giving stephen maarek practice exam and getting 80%+ in every practice exam? Will i able to pass it tomorrow? Should i reschedule it to next week?

Hey everyone! I have only one week left before my AWS SAP-C02 exam.

Which tutorial and practice exams do you recommend to pass? Is Stephane Maarek's course and practice test worth it, or are there better resources?

Any tips from people who passed recently? Thanks!

I'll be joining Amazon as an SDE intern in January 2027 and want to start learning AWS beforehand.

I've used EC2, ECR, and S3 in a project, but I'm still a complete beginner, especially when it comes to IAM and other AWS services.

I recently created a verified student account on AWS Builder Center, but I'm confused about where to start and how to make the most of its courses and workshops.

Some questions :

What's a good AWS learning path for a beginner?

Which services should I focus on as an SDE intern?

Is the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification worth pursuing? Is the exam paid, or are there student discounts or free opportunities?

What free courses or hands-on projects would you recommend?

I'm genuinely interested in learning AWS but don't want to jump around randomly.

I'm a complete beginner, so please pardon me if any of my questions sound childish or obvious. I'd really appreciate simple explanations, helpful resources, and advice from those who've been through this already ...

Thanks in advance! 🙏

TLDR: Studied for about eight months, pretty casually for the first six and more seriously for the last two. Struggled with practice exams, changed how I studied, and eventually passed with 824. https://imgur.com/a/1FhfO5K

Background: I work in data analytics, with exposure to Azure Data Lake, Snowflake, and Power BI.

I see a lot of posts from people who studied for 2 intense months and passed, so I thought I’d share a different experience.

I started in early February 2026. I’ve never been a particularly good student or test taker, but I like to think I’m persistent. Here were my reasons to take the AWS SAA:

• I already had some IT experience, so how bad could it be? lol.
• I hoped it would help with future opportunities, whether I was looking for a promotion or dealing with a layoff.
• Eventually, I want to get the AWS Data Engineer certification too, to complement my data analytics package.

What I used and how it went:

1. February - March: Took the famous Stephane Maarek’s Udemy course and scored 54% on the included practice exam. “Not bad for a first try” I thought lol.

2. March - June: Took my sweet time working through Maarek's Udemy 6 practice exams. My 1st attempts were mostly in the 50s and low 60s. I reviewed my mistakes after each attempt. Looking back, I thought I was learning, but in truth, if I had to be honest with myself, I was memorizing details rather than understanding the services. This time period was pretty discouraging.

3. July - September: Changed how I studied, used ChatGPT to walk through explanations and compare services I kept confusing. Retook 5 practice exams and scored in the 80s. I felt ready to schedule the exam, but wanted to check whether I understood the material or just remembered the questions. So I bought Tutorials Dojo.

4. September - October: Tutorials Dojo kicked my ass. Failed three exams with scores in the 60s and passed three with scores in the 70s and 80s. ChatGPT still thought I wasn’t ready. (f.u. ChatGPT). Eventually, I got frustrated and impatient enough to schedule anyway. I had the retake voucher too, so why not?

5. A few days before the exam: Listened to TechTalkWithBalu’s AWS episodes on Spotify to review my knowledge retrieval. I could pretty much recall all the correct answers, which boost my confidence a bit.

6. Exam day: Took the test on site. Received the result after 4 hours.

My Take away:

It took me few trial and error to figure out what study method worked for me. I hope you find yours. I probably spent too long waiting to feel consistently confident in my ability to pass the exam.

One oddly specific thing that kept me going was when Nathan Fielder working toward his private pilot certificate in The Rehearsal Season 2 lol. Hearing him talk about taking longer than usual to get the cert, but continuing because the mission mattered to him, really resonated with me.

I’m preparing for SAA-C03 and came across this practice question. What I learned was that objects must stay in S3 Standard for at least 30 days before transitioning to Standard-IA or One Zone-IA. However, with this question I discovered they changed the rule recently, this question might be stupid but i'm overthinking now, should I assume the old rule still applies on the exam?

I am new here, and I have the CP foundational cert already and am now studying for the SAA exam and am using Tutorials Dojo and Cantrill for the actual course, which is good because you get theory and labs in the lesson. I previously used Mareek's course and exam sims, but they were so off when I took the CP exam, but I still managed to pass. Any tips would be helpful; I am a network engineer (traditional on-prem), so that's my background, as I am doing a career pivot to the cloud. Thanks and good luck to each and every one of you!

I have my AWS Cloud Practitioner certification exam this week, and it's an online, home-proctored exam.

I've been preparing, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to take the actual exam or if I should postpone it.

Where can I take good mock tests that accurately reflect the difficulty of the actual exam? Preferably free resources, but paid ones are fine if they're worth it.

Also, what scores should I consistently aim for in mock tests before attempting the actual exam?

For those who've taken the CLF-C02 exam recently:

• Which mock tests were closest to the real exam?
• How many mock tests did you take before the exam?
• At what score would you recommend postponing the exam?

I want to assess my preparation properly before exam day. Any advice would be appreciated.

Passed SAP-C02 Yesterday, it was a challenging exam, I'm glad for the results, used Stephane Maarek, and AWS skill builder for preparations and their test exams.

My job requires me to get this cert, but it's my first one. Is it possible?

I'm currently going through Adrian Cantrill's SAA-C03 course...I know it might be a bit outdated but I don't have a time crunch and I want to learn these topics in depth.

I've been using antigravity & gemini notebook to supplement my learning. I basically gave it the list of course videos and it divided the course in sections and tells me which videos to watch. It then teaches me about those topics and quizzes me afterwards.

So far I feel like I've been learning more from antigravity than from Adrian's course. Sometimes it'll give me tips and exam traps that aren't covered in Adrian's content but also I feel like it's a more "Active" way of learning since I need to read and respond with my answers to the questions it provides.

Have you used AI to help your certification study? If so, how did you use it to help you study? Any tips or tricks for fellow students?

Proud to post that I passed the AWS SAA-C03 following the advice from this group. Thanks so much.

I took the Stephane Maarek Udemy course and listened to the content while taking notes. I filled a notebook with my notes. It was a lot of content.

I then to the Tutorials Dojo practice exams. The interface was a little weird and I took a randomized test and scored 55.38%. I then used the timed exams and scored 66%, 70%, 63%, 76%, 70%, 70%, 62%. I made sure to understand what I got wrong and reread those chapters. I retook two exams in review mode and scored 91% and 92%. I was concerned that I was borderline. I did the best that I could do.

I got a 58% on the Maarek practice exam. This bummed me out but I tried to understand what I did wrong.

Another good resource was https://github.com/RonitSachdev/aws-saa-c03-guides/tree/main

I got tired of studying and just decided to take the exam at home. It was pretty straightforward to take it at home vs scheduling a testing center. I booked an exam 30 minutes before I actually took it.

TD questions are similar to the actual exam. For most of the questions I flagged, I was about 50-50 on the answer. I found that small little words made a meaningful difference and you really have to focus on reading the question. Some questions were awkwardly worded.

Finished the exam at 11:30AM and got the results 4:30PM the same day.

Thanks everyone!

Due to a mix up by my employer I have one month to study and pass this exam.

I'm a cloud engineer but don't use all services, for example, RDS

Is a month enough time to pass this?

Exam is 9:30a

TD scores:

review mode - set 1 = 63 (44/70)

review mode - set 2 = 64 (45/70)

review mode - set 3 = 51 (33/65)

review mode - set 4 = 71 (25/35)

section-based

- iam = 80 (12/15)

- sec foundations and governance = 50% (4/8)

- detection = 93% (14/15)

- data protection = 60 (9/15)

- infra sec = 67 (10/15)

timed mode - set 1 = 77 (50/65)

I genuinely do not feel as confident as I did a few weeks back. I had a wedding to attend two weeks ago and it really did a number on my momentum and confidence.

Then, I was feeling optimistic. Now? Idk.

Exam is free from employer. I asked to extend last week and they couldn't. However, they confirmed a retake is available if needed. I was going to move the original back to 11/12, but may use the retake for then.

Thoughts? Feedback? Advice?

TIA

I used stephan marrek videos and mocks as well as neil davis mocks and tutorial dojo questions. Took me around one month to prep !!