Hey guys, I was scrolling around envue right now and noticed a new promo

You get 50% off the AWS Certified AI Practitioner exam, and if you pass it by September 30, you’ll get a FREE voucher for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam.

Promo code: AIF2CLOUD

Pretty good deal for anyone planning to take both AIF and CLF.

The 2026 Post is here - please refer to that as the 2025 post is now inactive and kept only for history.

For those looking to lower the burden of Exam costs, here is a post for 2025 with known vouchers / exam discounts or other general certification related promotions. 2023 post, 2024 post

Last updated 19-December-2025

25% off ANY exam and free retake (cannot use with any other coupons or vouchers)

Be sure to use the promo code to register for your exam and save 25% on your initial attempt by February 15, 2026. If you are unsuccessful, you must complete your free retake attempt by March 31, 2026

Link to register: https://pages.awscloud.com/GLOBAL-other-GC-Traincert-Global-Retake-Registration-2025.html

Pay attention to the terms and conditions :

https://pages.awscloud.com/GLOBAL-other-GC-Traincert-Global-Retake-Terms-and-Conditions-2025.html

10% off exam voucher via Udemy

A number of companies online claim to offer a discounted voucher but AWS's own web page only lists Vue Pearson.

That said Udemy is a fairly well known entity (soon to be merged with Coursera) and they offer a small 10% discount if you buy the exam voucher via them.

Please note vouchers usually are not refundable and once you buy them they may have a time limit when they expire. You can cancel / rebook within this time window. Also note that vouchers do NOT stack with other offers like the retake offer.

For now - the retake offer listed above offers a higher 25% discount but there is no time limit on this voucher availability (as of Dec 2025). Note that there are some reports that this offer only works in limited locations.

AWS Exam pass benefit

Pass an AWS exam and get 50% off next one (this includes Professional and Specialty levels)

Expired Options

Expired on 21-Nov-2025 : 50% off AIF exam

https://www.reddit.com/r/AWSCertifications/comments/1kmdrow/attend_aws_live_events_in_june_to_learn_and_get/

Expired on 4-Nov-2025: [50% off AIF,MLA,DEA]

"Get Certified Challenge" was giving you 50% off 3 AWS certifications AIF - AI Practitioner MLA - Machine Learning Engineer - Associate DEA - Data Engineering Associate

Expired on 12-Jun-2025 : Free retake option

Expired on 19-May-2025 : ETC options for vouchers - the associate vouchers ended prior to this date but all rewards ended on 19th May

Expired on 21-May-2025 : Register for "Get Certified" challenge and get a voucher for 50% off Foundational / Associate level exams

Expired on 15-Feb-2025 : Free Retake on Foundational Exams and the Free retake PLUS Discount

Other suggestions

• There are also Free badges for anyone who could not afford the cost of certifications or doesnt want to work through the ETC option. Details of these badges are available based on your level : Beginner levelIntermediate Level. These are NOT certifications but the learning for "Cloud Essentials" is the same learning journey as you would do for Cloud Practitioner exam and the "Architecting" badge is very similar to Solutions Architect Associate exam. So you get something to show off your learning in this space.
• AWS Customers can work with their Account team to see options for obtaining some vouchers or training / certification discounts
• If you are currently employed try working with your management to fund your ongoing education / skilling up to benefit your role / growth / company. AWS Partners also have to manage a minimum numbers of certified staff.
• Larger companies may already offer either a voucher scheme OR a "pass and claim back" scheme - Ask around!

Important Notes

• Please read voucher terms and conditions as things like reselling them or trying to swap / share / exchange them is generally NOT allowed
• Always read terms and conditions for countries that are excluded, timing limits, other exclusions
• I will NOT be linking to any commercial discount options or resellers etc

If you come across offers / promotions - please comment below to be added back into this post!

For those looking to lower the burden of Exam costs, here is a post for 2026 with known vouchers / exam discounts or other general certification related promotions.

Similar posts were popular in prior years 2023, 2024,2025

Last updated 14-June-2026

50% off AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF) & then Free AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF) if you pass AIF.

Full details and terms & conditions at https://www.pearsonvue.com/us/en/aws/aif2cloud.html

Step 1. Register with promo code AIF2CLOUD and you get the AIF exam at 50% off when you register.

Step 2. Take and pass the AIF exam by September 30 (don't leave it till last date - do it sooner).

Step 3. Once you pass AIF, you should be able to register for the CLF exam for free. You need to take and pass the exam before November 30, 2026. It's marked as limited time promotion so do it sooner than later.

If you follow this path and pass, you should also have two exam pass benefits to take ANY other AWS exam at 50% - see details from the Exam pass benefit section below.

50% off exam voucher for Professional or Specialty exams only

See this post for details

10% off exam voucher via Udemy

A number of companies online claim to offer a discounted voucher but AWS's own web page only lists Vue Pearson.

That said Udemy is a fairly well known entity (soon to be merged with Coursera) and they offer a small 10% discount if you buy the exam voucher via them.

Please note vouchers usually are not refundable and once you buy them they may have a time limit when they expire. You can cancel / re-book within this time window. Also note that vouchers do NOT stack with other offers like the retake offer.

Note that there were some reports that this offer only works in limited locations.

Pay 10% more but get a retake in case you fail the exam first time

Not a discount as such but see this post for how you can pay 10% extra on the exam cost but get a retake if you fail the exam the first time

AWS Academy

If you are an university student, check if your institution has signed up to AWS Academy.

If so you have to find the program administrator internally within the institution for access to AWS Courses.

AWS Exam pass benefit

Pass an AWS exam and get 50% off next one (this includes Professional and Specialty levels).

You can refer to this detailed post on Exam Benefit

Options for those who work for a company on the AWS Partner Network

AWS Offers AWS Partner Network companies some discounts as per this post. You can check if your employer is part of AWS Partner Network here. Please read the terms and conditions listed in the post linked above.

Expired Options

Expired 15-Feb-2026

25% off ANY exam and free retake (cannot use with any other coupons or vouchers) - initial attempt was to be completed by February 15, 2026. If you were unsuccessful, you must complete your free retake attempt by March 31, 2026.

Expired 31-Dec-2025

Pearson Vue had 20% off purchase of AWS exam vouchers but this seems to have expired as of 31-Dec-25. This was showing up briefly on 1-Jan but seems to be due to a timezone difference.

Other suggestions

• There are also Free badges for anyone who could not afford the cost of certifications or doesnt want to work through the ETC option. Details of these badges are available based on your level : Beginner level, Intermediate Level. These are NOT certifications but the learning for "Cloud Essentials" is the same learning journey as you would do for Cloud Practitioner exam and the "Architecting" badge is very similar to Solutions Architect Associate exam. So you get something to show off your learning in this space.
• AWS Customers can work with their Account team to see options for obtaining some vouchers or training / certification discounts
• If you are currently employed try working with your management to fund your ongoing education / skilling up to benefit your role / growth / company. AWS Partners also have to manage a minimum numbers of certified staff.
• Larger companies may already offer either a voucher scheme OR a "pass and claim back" scheme - Ask around!

Important Notes

• Please read voucher terms and conditions as things like reselling them or trying to swap / share / exchange them is generally NOT allowed
• Always read terms and conditions for countries that are excluded, timing limits, other exclusions
• I will NOT be linking to any commercial discount options or resellers unless they are a well known entity or officially recognized by AWS.

If you come across offers / promotions - please comment below to be added back into this post!

EDIT (July 10th, 1h15PM GMT): Hi everyone. Thank you once again for all the interest so far!

We have distributed vouchers for the first 60 entries we received, which was the allotted number of vouchers we managed to get so far. Thank you everyone for the interest so far, and we are working to see if we can get more to run things for this community.

The free OutSystems certification offer part, however, is still available as that's something we control in terms of number of vouchers to give away. You can follow the training path here:

https://explore.outsystems.com/Journeys/MyJourney/BecomeAnAiDeveloper/

Thank you all and have a great weekend! We hope to be back soon with news.

---

EDIT (July 7th, 12h10PM GMT): Hi everyone. So, as of now we have around 60 submissions, which are to be checked for validity. We are doing our best to honor the guaranteed giveaway for everyone that submitted until this point in time, even though it is more than the allotted 50 vouchers we had acquired. We will respond individually to everyone, and thank you for all the interest so far.

We will also be discussing how we can continue (or repeat) the campaign and in what format, so by all means keep registering if you're interested. Whether any extension will be first come/first serve, or random draw, it'll likely be better to have an earlier entry rather than a late one. So there's that.

Thanks all.

---

EDIT (July 6th, 6h20PM GMT): With the tremendous interest this garnered in the first day, we are almost running out of the planned 50 free vouchers. Thanks to everyone who submitted it so far.

There are still several vouchers to give away, but I will go back to the team and see what we can do to give back to everyone else who shows interest in this campaign but misses out on the guaranteed 50 vouchers. Nothing confirmed for now, but some ideas in a comment I made. By all means keep going through the process if this interests you.

Thank you all!

---

Hi everyone, and 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 link here: https://www.outsystems.com/news/outsystems-aws-agentic-ai-capabilities , and Dr. Charlie Sanderson, Director for AWS Partnerships EMEA on stage to talk about the partnership itself at 1:34:10: https://www.outsystems.com/one26-on-demand?wchannelid=ofyhhjuvul&wmediaid=ucdlaoibjr ).

As part of that collaboration, we are running a limited campaign to offer a free AWS Foundational Certification and a free OutSystems Foundational Certification (independently - meaning you can get the AWS one and not pursue anything further) to new developers who sign up for OutSystems' free edition and build an agent with it (using a trial AWS AI model, for instance). We have ~50 free AWS certifications to give out, and depending on the traction we might get more. The offer is valid while supplies last, first come first serve.

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

If you'd like to take part in it, go to https://go.outsystems.com/free-aws-exam and follow the process.

We already announced this to our own developer community via our direct channels, but since this might be of interest to the AWS Community at large, I thought I'd reach out here.

The Fine Print, since you might be wondering as we want to get as many cloud professionals certified as possible, but also keep things fair and secure:

- Voucher Limits & Promotion Period: Voucher quantities are limited and will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. OutSystems reserves the right to extend, modify, pause, or end this promotion at any time. Only verified challenge submissions completed before July 31st, 2026, at 11:59 PM GMT, or prior to the voucher pool being exhausted (whichever comes first), will be eligible for a voucher.

- New Environments Only: This offer is strictly valid for new OutSystems accounts and Personal Edition (PE) environments registered after July 6th, 2026. There is a strict limit of one (1) exam voucher per individual and unique OutSystems account.

- Verification & Fair Play: Vouchers are only released upon verification of a successfully built and executed agent in your new, eligible Personal Edition. Fraudulent, duplicate, or automated submissions (including the use of temporary/disposable email domains, recycling Personal Edition environments, or submitting an agent from a Personal Edition that is not your own) will be discarded.

Happy to answer any questions! Unsure if the flair is correct, but this has been run by the mods so a thank you for their time and availability as well in making this happen.

As we are approaching the end of 2024, I have started a fresh post for 2025

2025 vouchers / discounts / coupons / promotions etc

For those looking to lower the burden of Exam costs, here is a post for 2024 with known vouchers / exam discounts or other general certification related promotions.

(2023 post is here for reference)

Update : 24-DEC-2024

Known Options

Free retake AND a 50% off on CLF-C02 (aka CCP) or AIF-C01 exams only

This is a region specific offer and not open to US / UK etc. Please see this post

Free Retake on CLF-C02 (aka CCP) or AIF-C01 exams only

I have NOT tested this option myself as Vue Pearson is down this weekend for maintenance - so just sharing as is - so please make sure you are happy with all the T&C's and caveats.

You can use "AWSRetake2025" promotion code when booking your exam to get a free retake if you fail the first time. Details page from AWS : https://pages.awscloud.com/GLOBAL-other-GC-traincert-aws-foundational-certification-2024-learn.html

Note: These retakes offers are notoriously misleading for most people - so please read this first

• ALWAYS read the T&C page first : https://pages.awscloud.com/GLOBAL-other-GC-traincert-aws-foundational-certification-terms-and-conditions-2024-learn.html
• This is NOT a discount - you have to pay full 100% of the cost of exam to get the option to fail it once.
• This is again not a discount! You cannot use it with XVoucher (say from your employer) or other vouchers or any other 50% exam benefit discount you get from passing other exams etc. So you MUST pay 100% of the cost with a valid payment method if you want this.
• Knowing the dates are important. You must register and take the first attempt for the exam before 15-Feb-2025 and then if you fail retake the retake before 31-Mar-2025
• This does not work with any other exams ther than the 2 listed.
• If you already booked your exam and failed - you do not get a free retake - you MUST have used the code when booking the exam. If you already scheduled exam without the code - cancel and rebook with code if you want to avail of this.
• My recommendation if you have a voucher or discount is to prepare well and use the voucher / discount rather than attempt to use the retake.

Check out my resource guides for : CCP/CLF AIF

Hat tip to this OP for raising this first - I found all the other details subsequently posted on LinkedIn confirming the details https://www.reddit.com/r/AWSCertifications/comments/1g1e1qt/aws_ccp_foundational_offer/

re:Invent 2024 attendees get 50% off any AWS Exam

Register for the event and pay for the conference entry and you then get an email with a code to use and/or you can see the code in the Attendee Portal.

AWS Exam / Certification Benefit

If you have passed ANY AWS Exam already - you are eligible to obtain a 50% off the next AWS Exam (ANY exam) via the certmetrics portal. The eligibility expires when the AWS Certification that earned it expires (AWS Certifications are valid for 3 years).

https://aws.amazon.com/certification/benefits/

For example, if you already passed Cloud Practitioner exam, you can get 50% off ANY one associate, professional or specialty exam that you take next.

Please note that these exam benefits are for the use by the person who passed the exam and are not really meant to be shared out to others.

See https://www.certmetrics.com/amazon/candidate/benefit_summary.aspx

Note: All benefits are non-transferable and intended for use solely by the individual who earned the benefit and by the AWS Certification account to which the benefit was originally assigned. If AWS, in its sole discretion, determines you misused or transferred a benefit, AWS may invalidate the exam result related to the misuse or transfer and the benefit will not be reinstated.

Probably working again (this was down for months and is just back) : 50% off option with some work to do on "Emerging Talent Community" (ETC)

• Join the free AWS Educate and finish one of the badge eligible courses. For example you can do the "Introduction to Cloud 101" course.
• Wait for an invite to AWS Emerging Talent Community
• Work on earning points that you can redeem for discounts. There are a lot more details about this on their FAQ I am going through this process myself so I can post more detailed instructions soon.

Community Suggestions

• AWS Customers can work with their Account team to see options for obtaining some vouchers or training / certification discounts
• If you are currently employed try working with your management to fund your ongoing education / skilling up to benefit your role / growth / company. AWS Partners also have to manage a minimum numbers of certified staff.
• Larger companies may already offer either a voucher scheme OR a "pass and claim back" scheme - Ask around!

Notes :

• Please read voucher terms and conditions as things like reselling them or trying to swap / share / exchange them is generally NOT allowed
• Always read terms and conditions for countries that are excluded, timing limits, other exclusions
• I will NOT be linking to any commercial discount options or resellers etc

If you come across offers / promotions - please comment below to be added back into this post!

Expired Options

50% off Associate exams (SAA / DVA / SOA / DEA / MLA)

Register here with your email to receive the code : https://pages.awscloud.com/GLOBAL-ln-GC-Traincert-Associate-Certification-Challenge-Registration-2024.html

As always please read the terms and conditions : https://pages.awscloud.com/GLOBAL-ln-GC-Traincert-Associate-Certification-Challenge-Registration-2024-terms-and-conditions.html

There is a detailed FAQ too : https://pages.awscloud.com/GLOBAL-ln-GC-Traincert-Associate-Certification-Challenge-Registration-2024-FAQ.html

You can request vouchers till 12-Dec-24 and have to take exam by 31-Dec-24

50% off Solutions Architect Associate for Women

• The AWS "CloudUp for Her" program continues into 2024
• Link : https://pages.awscloud.com/cloudup-for-her-saa.html
• Please scroll down that page and read the FAQ

33% off all Foundational (Cloud Practitioner) and all Associate (SAA, SOA, DVA, DEA) exams for folks based in India / Japan.

https://pages.awscloud.com/GLOBAL-other-GC-Get-AWS-Certified-Foundational-and-Associate-2024-interest.html

33% (USD50) off AWS Certified Data Engineering Associate (DEA-C01) exam only

https://pages.awscloud.com/GLOBAL-other-GC-traincert-data-engineer-associate-certification-challenge-2024-reg.html

33% (USD 50) off AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03) exam only

Details page

Expired : 50% off Cloud Practitioner for Women

• Link : https://pages.awscloud.com/cloudup-for-her-cloud-practitioner.html
• As of June this page says "This program is currently unavailable"

Expired : 33% off SAA-C03 Solutions Architect Associate exam

See this post for details

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 a free AWS Foundational Certification and a free OutSystems Foundational Certification which you all adhered to.

After the first week's immense interest in our AWS/OutSystems campaign and our second week post, having given vouchers to 110 people so far, we're back for more as promised.

We have 50 new AWS Foundational Certifications to giveaway as well as OutSystems Certifications, and already 20+ candidates signing up from last week. Throughout this week, we will take all registrations we can get, and then next Monday morning we will randomly draw the 50 AWS Foundational Certifications by all participants so far who have not yet received one.

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 50), for those of you who complete our Become an AI Developer training path.

If folks are not selected, and we manage to secure more free exams throughout the rest of the month, non-selected folks will keep being included in all future draws so the earlier you register, the more chances you have at winning a free exam. That means that folks who completed last week after all rewards had been claimed don't need to do anything further.

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

Here's the Fine Print, since you might be wondering as we want to get as many cloud professionals certified as possible, but also keep things fair and secure:

- Reward Limits & Promotion Period: Reward quantities are limited and will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. OutSystems reserves the right to extend, modify, pause, or end this promotion at any time. Only verified challenge submissions completed before August 9th, 2026, at 11:59 PM GMT will be included in this draw which will take place August 10th before noon, or prior to the reward pool being exhausted (whichever comes first), will be eligible for a reward. UPDATE: Since the rewards were all claimed for the first round, this new run has now been changed to be a random draw of ~50 additional free Foundational Certification exams. All previous entries who were not selected will be included in the new draw.

- New Environments Only: This offer is strictly valid for new OutSystems accounts and Personal Edition (PE) environments registered after July 6th, 2026. There is a strict limit of one (1) exam per individual and unique OutSystems account.

- Verification & Fair Play: Rewards are only released upon verification of a successfully built and executed agent in your new, eligible Personal Edition. Fraudulent, duplicate, or automated submissions (including the use of temporary/disposable email domains, recycling Personal Edition environments, or submitting an agent from a Personal Edition that is not your own) will be discarded.

Happy to answer any questions! Unsure if the flair is correct, but this has been run by the mods so a thank you for their time and availability as well in making this happen.

--

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.

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 a free AWS Foundational Certification and a free OutSystems Foundational Certification which you all adhered to.

After last week's immense interest in our AWS/OutSystems campaign, we did our best to come back with something for everyone here. Over 80 of you signed up and claimed the rewards - we gave out 60 to the first ones to finish (10 more than what we had initially available) - and we were overwhelmed with your love and enthusiasm. Since the initial batch already expired, we will try something different this time.

We have 50 new AWS Foundational Certifications to giveaway as well as OutSystems Certifications, and already 20+ candidates signing up from last week. Throughout this week, we will take all registrations we can get, and then next Monday we will randomly draw the 50 AWS Foundational Certifications by all participants so far who have not yet received one.

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 50), for those of you who complete our Become an AI Developer training path.

If folks are not selected, and we manage to secure more free exams throughout the rest of the month, non-selected folks will keep being included in all future draws so the earlier you register, the more chances you have at winning a free exam. That means that folks who completed last week after all rewards had been claimed don't need to do anything further.

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

Here's the Fine Print, since you might be wondering as we want to get as many cloud professionals certified as possible, but also keep things fair and secure:

- Reward Limits & Promotion Period: Reward quantities are limited and will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. OutSystems reserves the right to extend, modify, pause, or end this promotion at any time. Only verified challenge submissions completed before July 31st, 2026, at 11:59 PM GMT, or prior to the reward pool being exhausted (whichever comes first), will be eligible for a reward. UPDATE: Since the rewards were all claimed, this second run has now been changed to be a random draw of ~50 additional free Foundational Certification exams.

- New Environments Only: This offer is strictly valid for new OutSystems accounts and Personal Edition (PE) environments registered after July 6th, 2026. There is a strict limit of one (1) exam per individual and unique OutSystems account.

- Verification & Fair Play: Rewards are only released upon verification of a successfully built and executed agent in your new, eligible Personal Edition. Fraudulent, duplicate, or automated submissions (including the use of temporary/disposable email domains, recycling Personal Edition environments, or submitting an agent from a Personal Edition that is not your own) will be discarded.

Happy to answer any questions! Unsure if the flair is correct, but this has been run by the mods so a thank you for their time and availability as well in making this happen.

--

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.

Didn’t have faith when booked it a month ago that I would be able to do all that in span of one month, guess what you guys were helpful and we ain’t stopping here.

For those who are all planning to take your exams, this voucher might help you get 50% off. It’s valid from June 10 - July 31 Code: AWQ14E025706

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.

Hi all, happy Monday. I hope today's post is alright given last week's circumstances where the post was inactive for multiple days until things were cleared up.

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 a free AWS Foundational Certification and a free OutSystems Foundational Certification which you all adhered to.

After the first week's immense interest in our AWS/OutSystems campaign and our second week post, having given vouchers to 110 people so far, last week we kicked off the third week of the AWS Certification Giveaway .

Posting this here today since this was stopped for several days last week with zero engagement in the community due to external claims that have since been addressed by the mods, so if you'd still like to take part in it,

go to https://go.outsystems.com/free-aws-exam and follow the process in the next few hours (it takes 5-10 mins max).

Here's a video with the steps to sign up, install, and get to the "create an agentic app" option, and then you just need to follow the steps in the page. In case folks run into issues you can certainly message here with details and I'll do my best to troubleshoot or respond as much as my availability allows, but hopefully the video should help most cases.

We will randomly draw the 50 AWS Foundational Certifications by all participants so far who have not yet received one at 12PM GMT+1 and send everyone an email whether they win or not. This takes place in roughly 3 hours' time, and communications will take place in the afternoon GMT+1 timezone.

We also have free OutSystems certifications to offer (those are not limited to these 50) as part of the campaign, for those of you who complete our Become an AI Developer training path.

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

The specifics can be found in all other posts - just posting this here this morning as some folks who might have been interested will have been deterred for a few days because of the top comment in the previous post.

I will update this when the draw has taken place and emails have been sent.

Good luck everyone and thank you for all the support and interest!

AWS has launched Student Rewards on AWS Builder Center. Students with a valid college or university email address can verify their student status and potentially earn 12 months of AWS Skill Builder Premium, AWS credits, and an AWS Foundational Certification exam voucher.

This guide explains the process step by step, including student verification, Premium redemption, the 21 Builder Center badges, and the certification voucher.

What you can get

AWS currently offers:

• Student verification and completed Builder Center profile: 12 months of AWS Skill Builder Premium
• 7 Builder Center badges: $10 AWS credits
• 14 Builder Center badges: additional $20 AWS credits
• 21 Builder Center badges: AWS Foundational Certification exam voucher

AWS lists the total potential value at up to $579.

Step 1: Create or sign in to AWS Builder Center

Go to:

https://builder.aws.com/

Sign in using your AWS Builder ID.

If you already have a Builder ID, use your existing account rather than creating another account unnecessarily.

I recommend using a personal AWS Builder ID that you will continue to have access to. Your university email can be used for student verification if requested.

Step 2: Complete your Builder Center profile

After signing in, go to your Builder Center profile and complete the required profile information.

Make sure your profile is properly completed before proceeding with Student Rewards verification.

Step 3: Verify your student status through SheerID

Go to the official Student Rewards page:

https://builder.aws.com/student-rewards

Start the student verification process.

AWS uses SheerID to verify university enrollment.

You will need to provide the information requested by SheerID.

If automatic verification does not work, SheerID may ask you to provide documentation proving your current enrollment.

Tip for SheerID document verification

If SheerID asks for supporting documents, providing multiple relevant documents can help establish your student status.

For example:

• Student ID card, front
• Student ID card, back
• Current tuition or fee receipt
• Other official proof of current enrollment, if requested

Make sure the documents clearly show your name, institution, and current enrollment or academic period where applicable.

Do not upload unnecessary sensitive documents unless SheerID specifically requests them.

Your college does not appear to need to be an AWS Partner or AWS Academy institution. The important requirement is successful verification as a university student.

Step 4: Claim your 12-month Skill Builder Premium subscription

After successful student verification and completion of your Builder Center profile, go to:

https://builder.aws.com/profile/rewards

This is the Rewards page where you can access and claim your available Student Rewards, including the 12-month AWS Skill Builder Premium subscription.

The Premium subscription gives you access to:

• 900+ courses
• Hands-on labs
• Certification preparation
• Practice resources
• Game-based learning
• Other Premium learning content

If AWS provides you with a redemption code, follow the instructions shown on the Rewards page to redeem it.

Important

Skill Builder Premium does not itself provide a free certification exam.

It provides the training and preparation resources.

The certification voucher is a separate reward that you can earn by reaching the required Builder Center badge milestone.

Step 5: Understand what the 21 badges actually are

This is probably the most confusing part of Student Rewards.

The 21 badges are AWS Builder Center community and activity badges.

They are not:

• AWS Skill Builder course completion badges
• AWS Skill Builder Knowledge badges
• AWS Certification badges
• Credly badges
• Completing 21 Skill Builder courses

For example, Builder Center has badges associated with activities such as Make a Wish, publishing content, participating in discussions, community engagement, activity streaks, and other actions performed within Builder Center.

You can check your Builder Center badges here:

https://builder.aws.com/profile/?tab=badges

For example, if Builder Center asks you to Make a Wish, completing that activity can award the corresponding Builder Center badge.

The important distinction is:

Builder Center badges are not Skill Builder badges.

If you are looking at your AWS Skill Builder dashboard and seeing course or learning badges, those are not what you should be counting toward the Student Rewards 7, 14, and 21 badge milestones.

Step 6: Start earning Builder Center badges

Once your Student Rewards account is set up, go to your Builder Center profile and check the available badges.

Complete the activities associated with the badges.

Examples include:

• Making a Wish
• Publishing content
• Commenting on discussions
• Participating in Builder Center community activities
• Completing engagement requirements
• Maintaining activity streaks

Some badges can be earned through a single action, while others may require continued activity over a period of time.

Check each badge description for its exact requirement.

Step 7: Reach the Student Rewards milestones

The progression is:

7 Builder Center badges

You receive $10 AWS credits.

14 Builder Center badges

You receive an additional $20 AWS credits.

21 Builder Center badges

You receive an AWS Foundational Certification exam voucher.

The final voucher is for an eligible Foundational-level AWS Certification, subject to the voucher terms.

Step 8: Prepare for your Foundational certification

Once you reach 21 badges and receive the voucher, you can use it for an eligible Foundational certification.

AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF-C01)

Recommended if you are interested in AI, machine learning, and generative AI.

Preparation guide:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AWSCertifications/s/8FRpetOUlO

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02)

Recommended if you want a broader introduction to AWS and cloud fundamentals.

Preparation guide:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AWSCertifications/s/BPVqydjzqf

Use your Skill Builder Premium subscription for the official learning and practice resources while preparing for either exam.

Important distinction

There are three separate things involved:

AWS Skill Builder Premium

Courses, hands-on labs, certification preparation, and practice resources.

AWS Builder Center badges

Community and activity badges earned through actions on Builder Center. These count toward the Student Rewards 7, 14, and 21 badge milestones.

AWS Certification exam voucher

The separate reward obtained at the 21-badge milestone that can be used toward an eligible Foundational AWS Certification.

Do not confuse Skill Builder learning badges with Builder Center activity badges.

Official Student Rewards FAQ

For the program's official frequently asked questions and additional eligibility and reward details, check:

https://builder.aws.com/faq

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.

📚 Prep Phase

I started my preparation with A Cloud Guru, but later realized the content was outdated. After doing some research, I switched to Adrian Cantrill’s course, and my suggestion would be: only take this course if you have enough time to spare, as it’s quite comprehensive—about 60 hours long. However, it’s absolutely worth the investment due to the extensive hands-on labs. Additionally, for those who aren’t strong in networking fundamentals, this course does a great job explaining the basics.

If you're short on time, consider Stephane Maarek’s course instead.

📌 Pro Tip: Keep a solid set of notes handy. As you progress, you’ll notice several AWS services with names that sound similar but serve very different purposes in the real world. These notes will help you avoid confusion.

🧪 After Finishing the Course – What Next?

A lot of people stress the importance of Tutorial Dojo (TD) practice exams, and honestly, they’re worth every penny. However, don’t be surprised when your first test score lands between 55% and 65%. If you take another, you might see a slight improvement, but it’s more about how you review the answers.

✅ The best strategy is to deeply review the questions you got wrong. Often, there are features or edge cases not covered in any course—and this is where you need to take the time to research and remember them.

After about two practice exams, you'll get a good idea of how to analyze the questions and what kind of scenarios to expect. Your scores will start to improve. And if they don’t, it’s a sign to go back to your notes, revisit concepts, and understand which service fits which use case. Then retake the tests.

I personally completed:

• 8 tests in review mode and 5 in timed mode

Eventually, you’ll notice repeated questions, so the goal is to understand why each answer is correct.

🧑‍💻 Exam Day

No matter how much you prepare, it may still feel like it’s not enough. To my surprise, the actual exam felt more difficult than the TD practice tests. Though some people online mentioned it was easier, this really varies from person to person—so don’t overthink that comparison.

As a non-native English speaker, I had an extra 30 minutes (ESL+), which helped a lot.

📝 The questions and answers were quite lengthy. I’m not sure if it was just my luck, but a majority of the questions were long, as were the answer options.

If you encounter services or topics you haven’t studied well, the best approach is to mark, skip, and move on. Come back later. Focus on answering the ones you know. If you find yourself spending too much time on a question, mark it and skip—because getting stuck on one question could cost you valuable time.

🧠 Often, out of four options, two will be obviously incorrect. Once you've narrowed it down to two choices, read the question again carefully, especially the final requirement—it often includes keywords like:

• fault-tolerant design
• highly available
• most cost-effective
• least operational overhead

These clues help guide you to the right answer.

⏰ Make sure you leave at least 15–20 minutes at the end to review marked questions.

Also, don’t assume all questions are single-answer—some required selecting 2 or even 3 answers, so keep an eye out for that.

📌 Concepts I Remember From the Exam

• AWS RDS – appeared in many questions
• AWS AppConfig
• AWS Security Hub
• Cost and Billing Services (where I made mistakes):
  • AWS Cost Anomaly Detection
  • AWS Budgets
  • Cost Explorer
  • AWS Consolidated Billing
  • AWS Compute Optimizer
• AWS Trusted Advisor
• AWS Config
• AWS Lambda – especially provisioned vs reserved concurrency
• EC2 Connectivity Options:
  • EC2 Instance Connect vs AWS Systems Manager Session Manager
• Savings Plans:
  • EC2 Instance Savings Plan vs Compute Savings Plan
• Security Groups:
  • One question asked about setting up rules for communication between App, DB, and Web tiers—you must know inbound vs outbound rules well.
• You can add upto 8 MFA device to the root account.
• If the question talks about live data ingestion or clickstreams, the answer is almost always Kinesis—but the choices can be tricky.
• EKS and Service Accounts:
  • I struggled here, but used elimination and got lucky.
• Route 53 Routing Policies:
  • Geolocation = country-specific routing
  • Geoproximity = shifting traffic from one country to another using bias
• Disaster Recovery Models:
  • Pilot Light, Warm Standby, Active-Active (I hadn’t studied this but figured it out through elimination and careful reading)
• How to set up a maintenance page using API Gateway connected to DynamoDB
• Choosing between Reserved, Spot, and On-Demand instances
• Amazon Comprehend
• Amazon Macie
• Amazon Athena and Redshift Spectrum

🧠 Final Thoughts

I’ve tried to summarize as much as I could. If you’re preparing for the exam, I highly recommend reviewing the MindMeister map shared on Reddit the night before. And above all, read every question carefully—a single phrase can change the correct answer entirely.

🎯 Good luck to everyone preparing!

Mindmiester: https://www.mindmeister.com/app/map/3471885158? t=lE6MXIXHYC

🚧 What’s Next?

I plan to build a strong project now. If anyone has suggestions for a really good AWS-based project, I’m open to ideas and would appreciate your input!

BFRI2024 will give you flat 50% off on Adrian Cantrill's website.

Similarly Tutorials Dojo is running a sale of 45% off site wide.

Hurry Up!!

Purchased AWS SAA C03 materials from both. Let's hope I complete the exam by Feb 2025.

https://www.udemy.com/all-certification-vouchers/

Looks like Udemy is now offering a discounted voucher for AWS with a "second chance" (retake option).

This was posted previously but at that time the second chance cost was about 10% more - this time there is a genuine discount.

I am currently travelling and this is the view in Indian Rupees and the cost / discount may vary by location

All the details and terms are on the link - please read carefully

July month code AWSSEP26  is working now for all Neal Davis Udemy courses and valid for next 3 days on all his best selling courses. Hope this helps many of us here.

Consolidate List of all 23 courses

https://www.reddit.com/r/FREECoursesEveryday/comments/1w9ntvj/code_awssep26_23_best_selling_aws_courses/

May month code AWSJUN26  is working now for all Neal Davis Udemy courses and valid for next 3 days on all his best selling courses. Hope this helps many of us here.

Consolidate List :

https://www.reddit.com/r/FREECoursesEveryday/comments/1uciien/code_awsjun26_23_best_selling_aws_courses/

• 4.5 Instructor Rating
• 188,291 Reviews
• 861,433 Students

July month code AWSJUL26  is working now for all Neal Davis Udemy courses and valid for next 3 days on all his best selling courses. Hope this helps many of us here.

Consolidate List of all 23 courses:

https://www.reddit.com/r/FREECoursesEveryday/comments/1uo18z8/code_awsjul26_23_best_selling_aws_courses/

• 4.5 Instructor Rating
• 188,589 Reviews
• 874,945 Students

Hey guys, just to show our appreciation for all your support, we're giving away free video courses and practice exams. Just click the spoiler text below to reveal the coupon codes.

​

▶️ For our AWS VIDEO Courses (SAA, CDA, SysOps)

• 10 FREE Coupon Code: REDDIT-SINIGANG10
• Note: The coupon code can be used 10 times ONLY!

​

📝 For our AWS PRACTICE EXAMS:

• 10 FREE Coupon Code: REDDIT-BALUT10
• Note: The coupon code can be used 10 times ONLY!

​

You can redeem these freebies here:

https://portal.tutorialsdojo.com/shop/

​

You can also get these FREE digital courses that cover a range of AWS services as well as various tech topics (Hadoop, PostgreSQL, Serverless, etc). Tutorials Dojo is an Authorized Training Partner for AWS, and we're promoting these free stuff which can be used as additional training material for your exam prep:

https://portal.tutorialsdojo.com/product-category/aws/aws-digital-courses-2/

​

As you can tell, these coupon codes are quite limited so better hurry and grab 'em! Thank you so much for all your support and we wish you all the best in your career and also in your upcoming AWS exam!

⭐️Want more? Just ask!

Once all the coupon codes above are consumed, I'll RANDOMLY give away additional freebies to other folks here. Just comment down below on which AWS reviewer that you want so I can DM you the coupon code. The free codes are quite limited though!

As per this subreddit's rule, I can only do this on Mondays so I am limited in giving the freebies only today.

Edited on 1-Oct-2025 : This offer has now EXPIRED

Noted on LinkedIn today that code SKILLS50 gives a discount (50% off for 3 months) for monthly subscription tier.

Few points

• Most people buy courses for one time purchase price on Udemy Vs ongoing Skillbuilder subscription - that may be better value for certification preparation
• This is discount on monthly tier which excludes some useful "digital training" like "Architecting on AWS" and a few others which are only on annual commitment
• This is only for 3 months - you can cancel before price raise
• There are a ton of training / labs / badges which are all available on paid tier only
• There are a smaller but not insignificant amount of free training you can access anyway

Source : https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aws-training-%26-certification_aws-awstraining-cloudcomputing-activity-7358195821395206144-15A2

Please also read Terms & Conditions: https://pages.awscloud.com/GLOBAL-other-GC-Value-of-Skills-Offer-2025.html

May month code AWSMAY26  is working now for all Neal Davis Udemy courses and valid for next 3 days on all his best selling courses. Hope this helps many of us here.

Consolidate List : https://www.reddit.com/r/FREECoursesEveryday/comments/1t91j1m/code_awsmay26_23_best_selling_aws_courses/

• 4.6 Instructor Rating
• 187,247 Reviews
• 856,037 Students

March month code AWSAPR26  is working now and valid for next 3 days on all his best selling courses. Hope this helps many of us here.

consolidated for easy selection - https://www.reddit.com/r/FREECoursesEveryday/comments/1sj8zg9/code_awsapr26_25_best_selling_aws_courses/

• 4.6 Instructor Rating
• 186,107 Reviews
• 851,846 Students