AWS is not something I use at work everyday. I still wanted to go for this exam just for the thrill of catching a big fish.
The preparation took me 3+ months. Back in 2023, I spent almost the same time for the Associate exam. The pro exam focuses more on cross account, multi region, centralized logging/security, hybrid connectivity, migrations, sharing resources and disaster recovery.
I primarily used the Udemy courses which I bought over last one year, during their sales period for 499 INR or below. I took Stephane Maarek’s course almost twice and the one from Neal Davis once (this course covers some hands-on). Additionally, I also did the practice exams from Stephane (2), Neal (2) and Tutorials Dojo (4).
After 4 full mock exams, I felt, I still needed to cover more service specific details/configurations. I went back to specific topics on each of the video courses and the reference links in the answer section of the mock exams. Rahul Wagh’s youtube channel was of great help to explore a lot of Services especially on VPC, Landing Zone, IAM/SSO, Global Accelerator, WAF, Route 53 etc. More practical short useful demos are available in Tiny Technical Tutorials channel.
Overall, I completed 8 mock exams + reviews before scheduling the final exam. The mock exams were verbose and their options were tough. Just reading the questions and options could make you tired. Completing the 75 questions within 3 hours was challenging until my 8th Mock exam. Keeping the focus was another challenge especially towards the end, last 15+ questions. I managed to pass just 1 out of the 8 mock exams and that was just barely above the 75% pass percentage.
I planned 25 questions per hour and to give myself a short break for a minute or so during the real exam. To my surprise, the real exam questions were straight to the point. Comprehending the question was easier. Thanks to AWS. They might have revisited and updated their question bank. You don’t have to be a speed reader anymore. Also, the options were little relaxed that you could easily eliminate the wrong ones with basic AWS knowledge. For example: lambdas cannot be used for a task that takes more than 15 mins, SQS FIFO queue’s DLQ cannot be a standard queue, EFS is not for windows etc.
I knew, for candidates whose native language is not English can request for additional 30 mintues. When I scheduled the exam, I failed to notice that option and just went with the 3 hours. I marked around 15+ questions for review, but in the end I did not get any time to review them.
Exam results came within 4 hours and I scored 802/1000 and it also renewed by Solution Architect Associate certification.
If you are planning for this exam, stick to Stephane’s course + Exam. They are a gold standard. I would also recommend Neal’s course. Give at least 4 full mock eams and review your answers. Consistency is a must if you are not working on AWS actively. Enjoy the journey.