Sitting the AWS Solution Architect Associate SAA-C03 exam 60 times
Tags: aws, certification, beginners
Published: 2023-02-10 21:03:02

I first attempted AWS's Solution Architect Associate level exam in 2015.  It was perhaps the worst exam experience i've ever had, and i've had quite a few over a 30 year career in IT.

This was long before the conveniance of at-home testing. I had to drive to a test centre and I made a really common mistake, which was, I forgot to bring a passport.  I had a UK driving license which has my photo on it (and seems perfectly valid now), but the exam proctor refused to let me sit the exam until she had read through the full exam guidelines which took the best part of an hour. And although it didnt say that a driving license was valid, *it didnt say it was invalid......* so she let me sit it.

I was completely stressed before sitting down at that exam computer and by the time I got through 55 questions with another 10 to go I noticed that I had just 5 minutes left on the clock.  I'm amazed I finished and even more amazed that I passed.

I've gone through most of the AWS certification over the last 7 years working up toward both Professional levels exams back in 2017 and then letting them lapse before doing them all again in 2021.  The second attempt at SAA felt a LOT better than the first time.

I'm now the Cloud Academy Lead at Digital Futures and every three months take a cohort of 30 future cloud engineers through the AWS Cloud Practitioner and AWS Solution Architect Associate exam.  Its important that I understand what's in the exam so I can tailor the lessons to cover all the topics. We had a pretty awesome first-time passrate on the SAA-C02 exam of approx 85%.

At the end of August 2022 a new version of the exam came out -  SAA-C03. This was the first update since March 2020, when SAA-C02 replaced the original SAA-C01 exam which had been receiving rolling-updates since its launch in April 2013.

The official exam guide is the first place to go when understanding what to expect.  All exam guides follow the same format -

- General Information about the exam

- The exam domains to study with a breakdown of each domain

- Additional Services that *may* be included in the exam

If you compare the exam guides for SAA-C02 and SAA-C03 the first thing that will hit you is just how broad the new version of the exam is. SAA-C02 covers 39 services where SAA-C03 covers 131 services.  That is a HUGE difference and means that your revision for SAA-C03 needs to cover not only the standard cloud building blocks of Network, Security, Compute & Storage but ALSO AI/ML, Migration, Media,  Analytics... even Amazon Pinpoint gets a mention.

This changes your revision strategy and requries you have a good knowledge of those services. Of course, thats kinda impossible isnt it?  The Solution Architect Associate exam asks questions at a detailed level. A level where you could confidently talk about those services to a technical customer. 

So, how can you gain this detailed knowledge of 131 AWS Services and be able to retain that information successfully in order to pass this exam?.

You can't. 
 
There are just too many services now. My recommendation is you'll need a strategy which combines detailed learning of 40 services, basic knowledge of 60 services and a quick read-through to cover the remaining 31 services.

I'm in the enviable position of teaching the next generation of bright, curious, diverse Cloud Engineers and helping them take their first steps into this industry.  I get to see those future engineers take the AWS Solution Architect Associate exam and get feedback on the subjects that are covered. We've now put 60 students through the SAA certifcation since it changed to the new version (hence the title of the blog, wait... did you think I needed 60 times to pass the exam?)

I even took the exam myself early September 2022 after it was just updated. I needed to see if the new version of the exam was significantly different than the previous version.

The good news for those of you reading this post that have maybe been studying for this certification is that there is still a heavy focus on those 'building block' services such as networking, compute, storage & databases.

I've also heard feedback thats been quite interesting. About how new questions on newer services creep into the question bank over time. Its been curious to hear the first of my students talk about AWS Lake Formation or Amazon Pinpoint making an appearance. 
However, understanding what the service does and its use-case provides you with enough information to answer correctly in most cases.   There are still those Solution Architect phrases that steer you toward the correct answer, you know the ones... 'Most cost-effective', 'Least overhead', 'Most efficient'etc.

With 131 services mentioned in the exam guide but only 65 questions being asked its a safe bet to focus heavily on those building blocks and try to cover the rest by understanding their use-case.

We are fortunate to be an AWS Academy partner and they graciously give us content that we use to teach the subject. Although the content hasnt been refreshed for the new version of the exam, so we use the SAA-C02 material to dive deep on those building blocks and supplement that content with some Security, AI/ML & Data Analytics material.

We also supplement this training material with our own content and practice tests from both Whizlabs and Udemy. However, the best revision aid is actual hands-on experience. If you are using your own account then please remember to set a budget so that you dont incur costs. Use the free-tier that AWS give you to explore services. You may not even have to start any services, just look around their consoles, understand the questions that you are asked and why.

There are so many free resources available for you to use and an incredible community willing to answer your questions. Reach-out and ask them.

Good Luck, you can do this !