My resource list to pass AWS Solution Architect Associate Exam with 89%

I passed the exam on June 1st. The scores are:

Overall Score: 89%

Topic Level Scoring:

1.0 Designing highly available, cost efficient, fault tolerant, scalable systems : 90%

2.0 Implementation/Deployment: 83%

3.0 Security: 90%

4.0 Troubleshooting: 80%

Here is the list of resources I used for preparing the exam.

1. https://www.udemy.com/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate/

• This class is good overview of all the exam topics. It’s cheap too. It costed me $15. They always have promotion, sometimes, it’s only $10.
• Their quizzes and practice exam are good.
• The instructor also created a training website himself. Acloud.guru. You can buy the course there too, but it costs a bit more, probably in the $20–30 range. But the nice thing is if you buy it from udemy then you can merge it to acloud.guru so you can access from both places. The acloud.guru version seems to include a couple of more set of quizzes.
• Read the forum from acloud.guru, especially this discussion:

https://acloud.guru/forums/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate/discussion/-KSDNs4nfg5ikp6yBN9l/exam_feedback

2. The official Study Guide.

• I bought it from https://www.amazon.com/Certified-Solutions-Architect-Official-Study/dp/1119138558/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496337795&sr=8-1&keywords=aws+certified+solutions+architect+official+study+guide
• It’s good in the sense that it gives you more in-depth information. To be honest, all the info in the book should be in aws faq and developer guide website. Using the book is just to save me some time.
• Plus, the book also gives you quizzes and online practice tests.

3. http://www.whizlabs.com/aws-solutions-architect-associate/

• They provide 7 practice exams which costs $15.
• I think it’s very helpful for me. I got 88% on the last 3 practice exams, and my score for the real one is 89%.

4. https://cloudacademy.com/

• They have very good quizzes too. You can use their free trial.

5. http://jayendrapatil.com/aws-certified-developer-associate-exam-learning-path/

• Very good blog.
• It has free quizzes.
• The quizzes there will be good exercises for the hard / real scenario questions in the exam.

6. Do labs

• Use amazon free tier
• Or https://qwiklab.com/

As you can see I used a lot of materials, probably a bit over-prepared. But to me, it’s better over than not enough.

Feel free to send any questions related to the exam to me anytime.

Cheers!