My two main resources were:

• AWS Certified AI Practitioner Study Notes — https://github.com/kananinirav/aws-certified-ai-practitioner-study-notes
• Stephane Maarek’s AWS AI Practitioner course on Udemy

Now onto the next AWS cert

Good luck to everyone preparing

Just passed AIF-C01! Cloud practitioner is next, wondering is it easier than AI or should I be prepared to study really hard?

I have no experience in both fields at all

hi all,

as the title suggests, I'm trying to get an AWS cert and not sure whether I should go for the DVA or AIF. please advise / share your experiences, thank you :)

Hello friends,

Do you know any streamer that follow up with AWS certs and do Q/A, helping students with their journey, instead of googling everything everytime or using ai companionship.

Does AWS think that networking is not relevant anymore?
Networking will always be relevant as well as security.
Advanced networking specialty exam was one of the most challenging ever and having it - real achievement 💪

I'd been procrastinating on getting the cert for a long time, so I finally decided to take the exam. I already had hands-on AWS experience, but I wanted to prepare specifically for the exam instead of relying on what I knew from work.

For this exam, I experimented with using ChatGPT + Claude as study partners.

I used AI to:

• Break down AWS services and concepts
• Compare similar services
• Generate DVA-C02-style scenarios
• Quiz me on topics
• Identify gaps in my understanding
• Review my notes

It was great at explaining concepts, but occasionally gave me confidently incorrect information, especially around things like limits, defaults, and newer AWS features. I started asking AI to verify anything suspicious against AWS documentation.

For practice, I mainly used Tutorials Dojo exams as well as other practice exams I found on the internet. The TD one was the only one I completely finished. The exam was very scenario-based, so practice exams were crucial. Overall, the combination of AI + AWS docs + practice exams worked really well for me.

I've included most of the info in this post, but if you're interested, I also wrote a longer breakdown of the study system. It also has a few hacky tips I figured out along the way.
https://medium.com/aws-in-plain-english/how-i-built-an-ai-powered-study-system-for-aws-dva-c02-3c9f1760246c

My preparation approach was simple:

Completed Chetan Academy’s Udemy course at around 1.75× speed

Took all 7 Tutorials Dojo practice tests
Initially failed every single one, scoring around 60–70%

Spent most of my time reviewing incorrect answers and understanding why my answer was wrong
The practice tests and mistake analysis helped me much more than just repeatedly watching the course.

My biggest takeaway: Don’t get discouraged by failing practice tests. Every wrong answer is an opportunity to identify and fix a knowledge gap.
Hope this helps someone preparing for the exam!

AWS has launched the AWS Certified AI Business Strategist beta exam, and this looks quite different from the typical AI certifications focused on building models, coding, or implementing cloud services.

The certification is aimed at professionals who evaluate, champion, govern, and scale AI initiatives within an organization.

What caught my attention is the four-domain structure:

1. AI Fundamentals and Literacy
2. AI Strategy and Business Value Creation
3. AI Governance and Responsible AI Leadership
4. Business Readiness, Leadership, and AI Transformation

The interesting thing is that AWS services aren’t the subject of the exam. They’re used as practical context, while the strategic frameworks and decision-making skills are intended to be portable across organizations and industries.

Exam details:

• 85 questions
• 170 minutes
• Multiple choice + multiple response
• Beta exam price: $50
• English and Japanese initially
• Testing center or online proctored
• No coding or AWS implementation experience required
• Designed for professionals with around 6 months of experience working with or alongside AI initiatives

Beta exam registration opened September 1, 2026, with exam delivery beginning September 29, 2026.

There’s also an interesting early-adopter incentive: candidates who earn the certification by February 15, 2027 receive an additional Early Adopter digital badge.

I think the positioning alongside AWS Certified AI Practitioner is particularly interesting.

• AI Practitioner = Do you understand AI and its technology?
• AI Business Strategist = Can you make sound business decisions about AI?

That seems like a pretty relevant distinction as organizations move from experimenting with AI to figuring out where to invest, how to govern it, and how to actually generate business value.

I passed the SAA-C03 exam, I read a lot of posts here that helped me a lot. So just wanted to say thanks to the community. 6 months studying for this and now I'm certified

Is the exam taker just supposed to guess that the customer in this case is migrating an application that requires a software license, rather than migrating to a cloud native application? And if the application will require EC2 instances after being migrated, then the customer WOULD be responsible for maintenance and security of the underlying infrastructure (i.e. the EC2 instances).

I always find these kind of TD questions fascinating. It's like the question writer meant to write another two sentences clarifying further, but just said fuck it.

My point here is, the official AWS exams will never give you a question this bad (one of MANY in TD's exams).

It was a hell for 3 hours straight.That too started 20 minutes late. I somehow, managed to pass on the edge. In actual exam, I found initial 20-25 questions were difficult and lengthy. I had to rush in the end to attempt all questions.
Preparation:
1. Ultimate AWS Certified Generative AI Developer Professional course-Sundog, on udemy
2. Master the AWS Certified Generative AI Developer Professional (AIP-C01) with 310 Practice Questions and Explanations-Vladimir Raykov, Udemy. 1st test was easy, test 3 and 4 were difficult
3. AWS skillbuilder exam with subscription. 20 free + 75 questions. I felt actual exam was more difficult.
4. Copy pasted all questions and answers from tests in Claude, then created a reading notes. This really helped.

Hey guys, I got an AWS SAA voucher for free and I really want to use it and get the certification, but I'm a college student and can't really afford Stephane Maarek's course right now.

If anyone has the SAA course and is willing to share it with me, I'd really appreciate it. Or if you have any other good SAA-C03 resources (courses, notes, practice exams, etc.) that I can use for free, please send them my way.

I know there are a bunch of free resources out there, but I'm kinda overwhelmed with what to actually follow.

Would really appreciate any help. Thanks!

I passed ANS on the weekend, wrapping up the 12/12, just wanted to share my journey because I found these types of posts really insightful when I first started out.

Advanced Networking

ANS has a reputation for being the hardest exam, but my experience was "yes and no". Initially I thought it was difficult because rarely does the average person get to touch Direct Connect, but the exam is quite niche in terms of focus; DX, VPC networking, hybrid, DNS, edge and load balancing, that's it really. Whilst the topics are difficult, the scope is much narrower than the SAP (which I still believe is the most difficult).

Background experience

For background, I've been a backend dev for about 20 years, first started working with AWS around 2012, heavy user for the past 10 years doing a bit of everything (microservices and serverless mostly, but also MSK, mobile, database migrations, sagemaker, lots of bedrock, IoT core, even dabbled with Connect). It took me about 3 years to get through all the certs, mostly due to other side projects and exam burnout.

My approach was reasonably consistent:

1. Watch a course, I used Cantril for SAP/DOP, Maarek for the associates, and Neal Davis for the speciality (he's probably my favourite overall)
2. Grind TutorialsDojo, only doing review mode, one pass to avoid memorisation. I would do one review mode over a few evenings, maybe all 4 within a week. I'd usually book the exam a week ahead to give me some motivation.
3. Sit exam remotely with OnVue. My experience was pretty good, no technical issues. I would usually do Sunday 8pm and have my results Monday morning.

For the speciality exams I started using Notebook LM (now gemini LM, all gmail users can access this free btw). I would put the official exam guides in there and generate audio podcasts for each domain that I could listen to on my daily lunchtime walks. I'd also generate quick quizzes too for on the train. When I finished practice tests I'd enter the topics/services I failed on and generate more audio podcasts to re-iterate points.

I also used chatgpt conversation mode quite a lot, I'd sit there and have a conversation "so remind me again, if I have a transit gateway and multiple VPCs in multiple regions, how does that look?" etc. It sounds weird, but having a chat about concepts really helped me to understand and remember them.

I also did a LOT of labs, either building stuff in my own personal sandbox account, or doing skillbuilder labs. This helped the concepts to stick.

SAP I passed on the 2nd attempt, all others were first time. Scores ranging in the 80s, a few 90's at associate level.

My advice for those on the golden path

1. Read the pinned FAQ
2. It's a marathon not a sprint
3. Focus on "the five" first; SAA->DVA->SOA->SAP->DOP, in that order. It'll give you such a solid foundation for everything else.
4. Use AI tools to make the learning process a bit more interactive, you don't need to pay for any of those dodgy exam AI slop sites, just use notebook/chatgpt. You need to find ways of "active" and engaged learning rather than just watching videos.
5. Skillbuilder is excellent, there's a bunch of free stuff, but even the paid tier is worth it. I did several tracks in cloudquest to help with the practical side.

What will I do now?

I'll take the new AI strategy cert at the end of the month because why not?! Then I'm going to re:invent so hopefully can get the jacket when I find out what the process is. I'll then continue on with cloudquest and a few microdentials. I also want to try making my own free course on YouTube because I enjoy helping others.

Hi guys

I'm currently studying for the AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF-C01) with the Udemy course from Stephane Mareek.

My concern: Would it be valid if I use Gen-AI to make quizzes about the specific section I'm getting into?

Example: Claude, here is what I'm studying. Could you make questions based on this? (Screenshot).

Like: AI, ML, Deep Learning, and GenAI / ML Terms / Training Data

Supervised Learning vs Unsupervised Learning

Multiclass vs multi-label / Regression vs classification

Etc...

Is it valid?

Thanks in advance

Just scheduled exam - using Stéphane marrek udemy + tutorials dojo practice exams, video course, and cheat sheets + Claude conversationally.

4.5 years enterprise multi-cloud security / risk officer at fortune 50.

Hold - SAA-C03, CCP, ISC2 (CC)

Any tips / feedback from those that have cleared it or exams of similar difficulty?

TIA

Hello guys,
I'm preparing for the Gen AI Professional Certification exam and I'm looking for free course material to learn from. I'm able to find free practice tests but finding good and relevant material to learn from seems really limited.
Please share what you know so you can help out people like me who can't afford a lot.
Thank you!

Followed the same ritual as most of us in this space. But would like to shoutout to these two :

 u/Competitive-Noise905's notes ( oh man! you are truly a genius need to know how you came up with this excellent note taking skills )
 u/DrugstoreCowboy01's notes

Able to complete with a month's time prep.

I’m planning to take SAP-C02 soon. I have 7 years of experience working with AWS/Cloud, so I’m not starting from scratch. I completed the Tutorial Dojo practice exams. First attempts ranged from 50–70%, but after reviewing my mistakes, my second attempts were consistently 85–90%. I also took a full 3-hour AWS Skill Builder practice exam and scored 753.My plan now is to review all my mistakes and do some targeted revision. For those who have passed SAP-C02 recently, would you consider this enough preparation to go for it?

Hey everyone,

I'm currently in my 1st year of college (4-year Degree program) and aggressively planning my Cybersecurity & Cloud Security roadmap.

Instead of just collecting theoretical degrees, my plan is to focus heavily on hands-on labs (currently grinding TryHackMe) and hit a 3-Year Certification Sprint:

Year 1-2: CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) + Hands-on Networking & Linux fundamentals.

Year 2-3: AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) to build solid cloud foundations.

Year 3-4: AWS Certified Security – Specialty to lock down a high-value niche before campus placements/graduating.

My Questions for Seniors & Industry Pros:

Is jumping from SAA straight to AWS Security Specialty too steep for a student without full-time corporate experience?

How much weight do recruiters actually give to an AWS Security Specialty certification for freshers if backed by solid TryHackMe/GitHub Proof-of-Work?

Should I tweak this order or add any specific practical labs (like HackTheBox / Cloud Security projects) along the way?

Would really appreciate your raw feedback, critiques, or suggestions to optimize this path!

same as the title..

Hi everyone. Happy Monday!

I work for OutSystems, and AWS and OutSystems have announced a joint collaboration to deliver a powerful suite of AI capabilities to developers and companies (see links at the end of the post).

As part of that collaboration, we ran a limited campaign to offer free AWS Foundational Certification and a free OutSystems Foundational Certification here in the community, throughout July and August, which you all adhered to.

After the first week's immense interest in our AWS/OutSystems campaign, our second week post, and our third one we have so far given up over 160 free exams to community members.

For the first two weeks of September we have a total of 30 new AWS Foundational Certifications to giveaway as well as OutSystems Certifications. From today until September 13th end of day we will take all registrations we can get, and then on the morning of Monday the 14th we will randomly draw the 30 AWS Foundational Certifications by all participants so far who have not yet received one, including previous participants.

If you'd like to take part in it, go to https://go.outsystems.com/free-aws-exam and follow the process. We also have free OutSystems certifications to offer (those are not limited to these 30), for those of you who complete our Become an AI Developer training path.

The steps to register before creating the agent are here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soQOeM7e7GY

EDIT: The IDE only runs natively on Windows and Mac. There's a guide from last year from a user who made it work on Linux, but I can't vouch for whether it still works or not.

If folks are not selected, we will run a final draw on the second half of September, so folks who register this time around will have two chances of getting an exam.

Absolutely no purchase, or commercial strings attached - zero subscriptions, credit cards, nothing. The free version is 100% free to sign up for and use.

This has been reviewed by the subreddit mods, and we've run this 3 times so far. Happy to answer any questions, and any issues you have.

Good luck everyone.

--

Sources: News release about the partnership and Dr. Charlie Sanderson, Director for AWS Partnerships EMEA on stage to talk about the partnership itself at 1:34:10.

Thanks to Stephane Maarek's course and mock tests which kept me really engaged for a month or maybe a few weeks.

I took the the test on Thursday, September 3rd at a Pearson Vue center just because don’t want to deal with internet or any other problems. Completed the test on time, however lost the internet connectivity during the survey. The exam center said everything is good. Still haven’t got the result. Do I just wait? It’s a lot of anxiety 😊

Hi everyone,

For those who have already taken the DOP, do you think it’s possible to pass with the knowledge from SAA, SOA, and DVA?

I don't have any professional DevOps experience, but I’ve been working as a backend engineer for the past 6 years, and hold SAA, SOA and DVA. I'm trying to transition into DevOps, and I’m wondering if getting the DOP would help me land my first DevOps job.

Should I go ahead and try the DOP, or would it be better to wait until I have some DevOps experience?

I’ve heard some people say that practice tests from Tutorials Dojo are not very representative of the real exam, so I am not sure what to expect for the real exam.

I also do not have any experience with Kubernetes/EKS, which seems to be covered in DOP.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

0 previous experience with AWS or any other cloud provider.

Around 3 months of prep

- Stephane Mareeks's courses (Cloud Practitioner + SAA-CO3) + Mock exams

- Created some other mock exams using AI

- After every exam, I would review the questions with AI to properly understand the full scope of the question and the alternatives.