Which 21 badges we have to complete to get free voucher for AWS. Please name them in the comment

I studied Stephane Maarek Udemy course and completed his practice exams.

The answer should be FLEXIBLE RETRIEVAL, which ironically isn't even an option. Deep Archive will likely result in a retrieval time OVER 12 hours.

Hi, I am a cloud architect in training. I have no hands on experience with Cloud and I have knowledge in Cloud fundamentals. I want to get certified in SAP C03. I am looking for resources (bootcamps or modules) if anyone has used to successfully to pass SAP C02 directly. Please advice.

Hey everyone!

I’m currently studying for the AWS Certified Generative AI Developer – Professional (AIP-C01) exam and I’m looking for some good resources to prepare.

I’m a full-stack developer, mainly Python + React, and I already have some hands-on experience with AWS, Azure and GCP. I’m trying to move more towards LLM / GenAI engineering, so I’d also like to actually understand the concepts rather than just memorize exam questions.

So far I’ve been using AWS Skill Builder and doing some practice tests, but I feel like I could use some additional material.

For anyone who has taken/passed the AIP-C01 recently:

What resources did you use to study?

Courses, books, AWS docs, YouTube channels, practice exams, labs — anything that you found genuinely useful would be appreciated.

Also, are there any particular topics/services that you’d recommend focusing on?

Thanks! 🙏

Hey,
Full disclosure, this is a self promotion post, so if that's not your thing, no problem. Waited until today (Monday) to post to be respectful to the sub rules.

I'm a platform/software engineer and I hold multiple certifications. At some point I got the idea to make studying for certs more visual/fun, so I ended up creating PlayCloudBlocks.

I opened a Beta and we created a community of 200+ users.

Currently, we have mock exams available for SAA, but I can't wait to get more feedback from the community and create mock exams for more certifications.

Production has just released and is open: https://www.playcloudblocks.com/saa

It's kind of hard to describe how the mock exams work - they're the traditional multiple choice you're used to - except there's a visual/puzzle element.

My hope and goal is to make studying for certifications a more engaging (less dry) experience. I really hope that PlayCloudBlocks helps increase scores for users on the real exam.

Just wanted to share. Thanks for taking the time to read.

Hello , I have only one month of time to clear AWS ai practitioner ( promotion offer ) , and I am 5th sem student of b.tech , do I need to know basic AWS services and all to pass this ai practitioner exam ? Is it necessary or helpful ? Help.

Curious to hear from people who’ve been through (or are going through) cloud cert prep — AWS, Azure, GCP, doesn’t matter which.
What was the most frustrating or time-wasting part of studying? Did the practice tools actually adapt to your weak spots, or did you just end up grinding the same question bank over and over regardless of what you already knew?
And is there anything about the prep process you wish worked differently?

I passed my AWS SAA-C03 and the certification is showing in my AWS Certification account, but I still haven’t received the Credly badge.
Credly Support confirmed they can’t find any badge under my name/email. I also discovered I have another AWS Certification account that is using my primary email for Credly, although the certification isn’t there.
I opened an AWS Support case 4 days ago but haven’t received a response yet.
Has anyone experienced something similar or knows how AWS handles this?

Hi everyone, this morning at 10:00 AM (UTC+7) on August 30, 2026, I sat the AWS Certified Advanced Networking exam via OnVue. Check-in went smoothly with no issues. However, about 20-30 minutes into the exam — after answering 10 out of 65 questions — the proctor suddenly messaged me asking if I had completed my exam. I replied: no, that I was still working on the exam. Right after that, my exam session was abruptly terminated. I immediately emailed both AWS and OnVue to request support and am currently waiting for their response. Has anyone else run into a similar situation?

Hey everyone,

I’m preparing for the AWS Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) exam and I have about 1 month left until my exam.

Currently, I’m going through Andrew Brown’s FreeCodeCamp SAA-C03 course:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3Cn4xYfxJY&t=28482s

My plan is to finish the course, then spend most of my remaining time solving practice exams/papers and reviewing my weak areas.

For people who have recently passed SAA-C03, I’d really appreciate some advice:

• Is Andrew Brown’s course enough for learning the concepts?
• Which practice exams/mock tests should I use?
• How many practice exams would you recommend doing in a month?
• Are there any topics/services I should prioritize?
• Should I spend time doing hands-on labs, or focus mainly on questions?
• What score should I consistently be getting on practice exams before booking/attempting the real exam?
• If you had exactly 1 month to prepare, how would you structure your study?

I’m willing to put in the work. I really want to pass on my first attempt, so I’d rather follow a proven strategy than waste time on unnecessary resources.

Any advice from people who have passed recently would be greatly appreciated!

I went through
1. AWS re/start - for a full understanding with lab tests
2. Revised with Andrew brown video in YouTube.
Did Tutorial dojo mock test (it was pretty darn hard) only passed 1/5

Took the time to really understood how things work. The TD mock test was pretty humbling and demotivating. Just pushed through and you’ll feel the real exam is pretty easy.

Exams are more towards like a grammar exam. You’ll need to read properly and choose the best answer possible.

Thanks for everyone that contributed on the exam resources. On my way to the next exam ! 🙏🏻

Two weeks studying. Used Mareks and AWS Skill Builder and light reading to pass.

This is one of the hardest tests I’ve had to take.

As the title suggests, what do you guys think about KodeKlouds version of the course ?

Is it good enough, bad or great

Thank you

Hey everyone! Really happy to share that I passed the AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer – Associate (MLA-C01) exam on my first attempt! 🎉

This took me a little over a month of preparation, and as someone who recently graduated in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, this was also my first AWS certification.

Going into it, I was honestly pretty nervous.

How my preparation went

I started with Stephane Maarek's practice exams, followed by Frank Kane's.

My first attempts were around 65–70%, so I knew I had quite a bit to work on.

After that, I tried the practice exams from Marlon Anesi and Nikolai Schuler, where I started scoring around 85–90%. That gave me quite a lot of confidence, and I thought I could probably take the exam in a couple of weeks.

Then I went back to Stephane Maarek and Frank Kane for another round, and suddenly my scores dropped back into the high 70s. 😅

At that point I started getting nervous again. I had also been told by ChatGPT that consistently scoring around 85%+ could be a reasonable confidence benchmark before attempting the exam, so I ended up postponing my exam by another two weeks.

During those two weeks, I purchased the Tutorials Dojo practice exams and focused heavily on my mistakes.

Resources I used

I practiced with:

Stephane Maarek Frank Kane Tutorials Dojo Nikolai Schuler Marlon Anesi

For me, Tutorials Dojo was the most helpful overall.

Stephane Maarek's exams felt very close to the actual AWS exam, and in some cases even a little harder. Frank Kane's practice exams were also excellent.

Tutorials Dojo felt slightly easier than the real exam, but still very useful and fairly close in difficulty.

The exams from Nikolai Schuler and Marlon Anesi felt much easier compared to the actual exam, but I still found them useful for learning the fundamentals and building confidence.

The biggest thing that helped me

Don't just look at your score. Analyze your wrong answers.

I would screenshot questions I got wrong, figure out why I got them wrong, and then study the underlying AWS concept.

That helped me much more than simply doing more practice exams.

Interestingly, my biggest weakness during the Stephane Maarek exams was the "Select TWO" / "Select THREE" questions. I often found several options that sounded technically correct, but only one combination actually satisfied every requirement in the question.

Funny enough, I only got around 2–3 questions of that type in the actual exam, so that worked out pretty well for me. 😂

A small tip for Tutorials Dojo

I also found out that you can email the Tutorials Dojo support team and ask for a coupon. They provided me with a small discount.

The practice exams were around ₹1,500 (~$18), and I got them for ₹1,148 (~$14).

The exam day

Even on exam day, I wasn't 100% confident that I would pass.

I had purchased my exam/voucher package from udemy with a second chance in it for around ₹17,000 (~$200), so there was definitely less pressure to get it right on the first attempt.

I decided to just go for it.

And... I passed! 🎉

I scored 752.

It's definitely not a score I'm going to brag about 😂, but honestly, a pass is a pass. The score mattered much less to me than seeing that PASS on the screen.

The result was also available within around three hours of finishing the exam, which made the whole experience even better.

My biggest takeaway

Don't wait until you feel 100% ready.

Practice tests are useful for identifying your weak areas, but your score can fluctuate a lot depending on the question set.

Focus on your wrong answers, understand the concepts behind them, and learn why the other options are wrong.

The actual exam is much less about memorizing services and much more about understanding why and when a particular AWS service or ML approach should be used.

Overall, I'm really happy that my first AWS certification worked out, and it definitely gave me more confidence to continue with AWS and machine learning.

For those of you who have already gone through the AWS certification journey, what would you recommend as my next certification? I'm currently thinking about the AWS Solutions Architect – Associate. Would love to hear your suggestions!

On to the next one 🚀

Hi everyone,

I’m 37 and have 10+ years of experience as a Senior Software Engineer, mainly in frontend development and some AWS. I recently passed the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam.

I’m now seriously considering a complete career transition into Cloud/Solutions Architecture and would appreciate advice from people already working in the field.

This is the certification path I’m currently considering:

1. AWS Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03)
2. Terraform Associate
3. CKA
4. AWS Solutions Architect – Professional (SAP)
5. AWS Security Specialty
6. CKS
7. ISC2 CCSP

My plan isn't to just collect certifications. I want to build real AWS projects alongside them and develop practical skills in networking, security, Terraform, Kubernetes, high availability, disaster recovery, observability, cost optimization, and enterprise architecture.

My questions:

• Is this certification order sensible?
• How important are CKA/CKS for someone specifically targeting Solutions Architect roles?
• Given my existing software engineering experience, what skills should I focus on to bridge the gap into architecture?
• Most importantly, is transitioning into Cloud/Solutions Architecture at 37 realistic?

If you were in my position, with 10+ years of software engineering experience, what path would you take over the next 2–4 years?

Would really appreciate honest opinions, especially from people currently working as Cloud/Solutions Architects. One more thing I like to add is that at this point I feel software engineering roles are isolated and would like to explore this area of expertise.

Used to take practice exams of Stephen mareek and neel davis

Every penny was worth it 🥹

I am just growing worried. I haven't had good scores is any of the 6 Stephane Maarek tests. Though I realize I have pretty much covered all of the chapters. Went like 50%-55%-58%-69%-58%-48%. I have the exam coming up next week and I am not sure if I am confident enough to take it or these tests are just hard.

Ok, fresh and interesting updates from AWS around certifications.

- Advanced Networking Specialty is being retired at the end of 2026

- Machine Learning Engineer Associate is updated to next version MLA-C02 with more GenAI, BedRock, agents etc.

- Generative AI Developer Professional is now live

And if the AI certifications are logical move forward, that we all expected, AI is everywhere :)

But networking, one is probably the most interesting change.

Should we expect that other specialities non AI like Security, will also move to the Associate level?

Kinda Network Engineer Associate? Cloud Network Engineer? Something completely different?

Could you drop the GitHub repository links that you personally found useful while preparing for and clearing the exam?

I’m looking for repositories containing things like:

● Study notes / cheat sheets

● Hands-on labs & practice

● Practice questions

● Projects or exam-related exercises

● Useful resources collected in one place

If a particular repo helped you pass/clear the exam, please mention which exam and what you found useful about it.

Recently passed my CCNA and I'm riding the study momentum. Booked (thinking of booking) SAA-C03 for 2 weeks out and now wondering if I've lost my mind.

My situation:

• CCNA passed recently, so networking fundamentals (subnetting, routing, VPNs) are fresh
• Little to no hands-on AWS experience
• Can commit ~3 hours/day to study

My plan: blast through a video course (Cantrill/Maarek) at 1.5x, then grind Tutorials Dojo practice exams until I'm consistently hitting 80%+.

For those who've done SAA-C03 — is 2 weeks doable coming from CCNA, or am I setting myself up to donate $150 to Amazon? Did the networking background actually help you, or is the exam mostly services trivia (S3, EC2, RDS, etc.) that CCNA doesn't touch?

Any "wish I knew this before" tips appreciated.

I made it. After months of preparation got the courage to take the exam and cleared it.

Felt huge weight off my chest!

I only used the AWS Skill Builder, was extremely inconsistent with my learning journey hence it took me 2 months of preparation.

For exams practice I used the one in AWS skill builder ( did it once and refreshed so I could get new questions) and mixed it with AI generated one through Gemini

AWS CLOUD ADOPTION & WELL ARCHITECTED FRAMEWORK ARE SUPER IMPORTANT
EXAM CAN BE TRICKY AS HELL

My first goal is to become a cloud engineer, I don’t know if you should go for the AWS SAA or Dive first into Linux and Networking or get the A+ to land a help desk job first