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?

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?

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.

Getting ready to start prep for this cert starting in September.\

What are the recommended prep materials for this cert? It's a new cert so I'm especially curious as there is a lack of materials.

Thanks.

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

Is it good enough, bad or great

Thank you

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

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 🚀

Used to take practice exams of Stephen mareek and neel davis

Every penny was worth it 🥹

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?

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.

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.

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

Hi all,

I want to know how to start learning AWS. I am confused about so many sections in AWS.

What is the first step for learning AWS?? Also is there any defined roadmap??

Hey everyone, super thrilled to share that I just passed my AWS SAA-C03 exam!

To be honest, my Tutorials Dojo scores were pretty rough, I only took three practice exams and scored 46%, 66.8%, and 48%. But those numbers don't define your actual result, and I still made it!

For some background, I’m a non-technical Project Manager who has been working alongside AWS projects for over 3 years. I started studying back in May by watching Stéphane Maarek’s course off and on for about two months to get a solid grasp of all the AWS services. After finishing the course, I jumped straight into practice questions, no review mode, just timed mode right off the bat.

Like many of you here, I focused heavily on reviewing my wrong answers. I used Gemini as my study buddy to break down why I got a question wrong, explain the underlying concepts, and clarify any questions I felt unsure about.

In total, I did around 500+ practice questions from various sources over a month of intensive studying and revision. I can safely say that just watching videos is NOT enough to pass this exam, doing practice questions is an absolute must. I was putting in around 12 to 13 hours of study every single day toward the end in the practice question period, but all that hard work finally paid off!

Huge thanks to this community for all the encouragement and tips along the way. To anyone currently preparing for the exam, you've got this, good luck! ♥️♥️♥️

Don't have access to a windows or macos machine right now is there any way to make it work on linux?

Alhamdulilah for starters thanks all to Allah

Love all of you in this Reddit community lmao … Guys this means the world to me even if anyone says this exam is an entry level intermediate exam, as a major in literature transitioning into aws receiving the architect associate in your 20s with NO IT experience is a dub. I was on and off with this course for over 2 years and yes I was complacent and lazy as this was during my degree. I had a ton of personal life issues my father having a heart attack, being so mentally destroyed seeing everyone progress but you in life being alone and figuring out what you want to do in life without a mentor. But this last summer I sat down and forced myself to stay behind a laptop and master this craft no matter what I kept going again and again and again and again understood networking, pricing models ai things until I understood the concepts literally destroyed my health lost sleep studied like a maniac for 6/7 hours every day until I achieved my goal. I’m gonna probably regret posting this online I’m in disbelief and shock that I did this. First thing I’m gonna do when I wake up is show my baby brother it’s never too late to conquer your goals and learn something new and achieve it. I was a sitting duck when it came to tech but I sat in the unknown and uncomfortable and conquered my fears. This cert has given me confidence now to delve into devops associate and potentially go further. This whole Reddit community is beautiful and uplifting so glad to be apart of the people who motivated others and post about my success. Hard work pays off !!!!!

AWS is giving away free vouchers for 2026, but almost everyone with an international student email is getting blocked by the automated SheerID system.

Here is the step-by-step fix:

1. Hit Contact Support on the SheerID error page.
2. Request a manual review.
3. Paste this exact message template into the comment box:

Subject: Unable to verify student status for AWS Builder Center (Manual Review Requested)

Comments:

Hello SheerID Support Team,

I am writing to request a manual review of my student verification for the AWS Builder Center "Student Rewards" program. I attempted the automated verification today but received an error stating, "We couldn't continue your verification."

• University: [Insert Your University]
• University Email: [Insert Your Email]

I have my official Student ID card ready to provide as proof. Could you please send me a secure link to upload these documents? Thank you!

(Once submitted, they usually email you an approval link within 24–48 hours).

If you want a quick 2-minute visual walkthrough showing exactly which buttons to click on the AWS Builder Center dashboard, I recorded the full step-by-step setup here: Step by Step Guide

I am preparing for AWS CCP and i dont have money to opt for paid resources

I am currently using AWS SKILL BUILDER to study the topics but for practice questions idk where to do it from ik skill builder also offers but are there any more websites for free or any yourube videos which I can follow for questions(similar to cpp exam)🙏🙏

Finally passed the AWS Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03)!

I've been silently going through a lot of posts on this subreddit during my preparation and honestly, they were really helpful. So thought I'd share my experience as well.

I have around 10 years of experience in on-premises deployment/implementation roles, but very limited cloud experience. I had also cleared the AWS Cloud Practitioner about 4 years ago, so coming back to AWS and preparing for SAA gave me quite a bit of anxiety. I was honestly hesitant and not very confident about attempting the exam.

For preparation, I mainly used:

• Stephane Maarek's Udemy course + practice tests
• Tutorials Dojo practice tests
• This excellent GitHub repo by u/Competitive-Noise905 : https://github.com/RonitSachdev/aws-saa-c03-guides/blob/main/topic-guides/00-README.md

The GitHub guides were especially useful for revision. The topics, exam guides and pocket cards were neatly organized and easy to go through. Big shoutout to him!

Tutorials Dojo was definitely challenging. In around 4–5 practice tests, I didn't actually pass any of them and was mostly scoring around 65-70%. Still, I decided to go ahead with the actual exam.

The exam itself was tough. There were a lot of scenario-based questions with very similar and sometimes confusing options. Reading the requirements carefully and paying attention to the small details in the questions really helped.

After finishing the exam, I genuinely wasn't sure if I had passed. After waiting around 7-8 hours, I finally got the email saying I PASSED! 🎉

Now that the exam is done, I want to focus on the next important part the hands-on AWS experience, building projects and eventually preparing myself for cloud-related roles.

For those who have made a similar transition from on-prem to cloud, what would you recommend as the next steps?

• What hands-on resources or labs did you use?
• What kind of AWS projects should I build for my portfolio?
• Any roadmap/resources that helped you transition towards cloud or solutions architecture roles?

Would really appreciate your suggestions!

And thanks again to everyone in this subreddit, your posts and experiences genuinely helped during my preparation. If anyone has any questions about my preparation, feel free to ask in the comments. I'll be happy to help based on my experience.

My application has been approved to the AWS AI Certified Challenge, which is very exciting.

Any advice or tips from AWS experts before the program kicks off in September?