"With this cloud certification, I'm done studying!" - said no one ever


Why I did the certification

While I was able to put pieces of software together in a local environment (eg. postgres, mongo, redis), I wasn’t very confident (at all) in being able to do the same thing on the cloud.

Why you should do it too

“It’s essentially the definitive System Design interview prep!”

  • If you’ve never taken a cloud certificate before, the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate will equip you with the skills and knowledge to use AWS’s core cloud services!
  • If you’re a junior developer, this is probably the fastest way to learn cloud infrastructure 🚀
  • Alternative value proposition: With this certification, you’ll be more than well-prepared for the System Design interview. It’s that good!

*Note: Equivalent certificates from other cloud providers (eg. GCP, Azure) would be equally effective too 👍

Best way to prepare for it

1. Use a structured course

  • Trying to study for any certification using only the AWS Docs is a fool’s errand - There are simply too many products and too much details within the docs to do so effectively.
  • The more effective way is to leverage on a structured course, where instructors have outlined only the necessary areas required for a given certification.

Structured courses:

2. Do (many) prep tests

  • Don’t skimp on prep tests!
  • There are plenty of AWS prep tests available online, most of which are cost-effective too. (heck, you probably earn enough per hour to pay for each test after taking your lunch break lol 🙈)
  • Prep tests help to fill in the gaps on missing areas of knowledge, and also builds endurance for taking long tests.

Prep tests:

3. Use excellent peripheral resources

There’s a LOT of AWS materials online. Of the lot, here’s the resources that I found to be great prep resources:

My Stats

Here’s some stats about myself at the time of prepping for this certification, just to give some perspective on where I was before taking the certification:

Basic Stats

Area Notes
Educational Background BEng Computer Science degree
Professional Background ~3yrs SWE experience, limited cloud exposure, some node.js + docker + k8s
Total Prep Time 7th March 2020 - 21st May 2020 (~2-3mths)
Exam Taken 21st May 2020, SAA-002
Exam Score 787/1000

Practice Test Stats

See More
Test Try/Score % 1st 2nd 3rd
ACG Course 1 54 83 88
ACG Course 2 53 69 82
ACG Test 1 64 80 95
ACG Test 2 67 78 84
ACG Test 3 76 78 92
Jon Bonso 1 66 92 89
Jon Bonso 2 70 86 90
Jon Bonso 3 72 84 96
Jon Bonso 4 75 89 95
Jon Bonso 5 70 - -
Jon Bonso 6 72 - -
AWS CSAA Practice 65 - -

*Note: I took the AWS CSAA Practice only after doing all the other practice tests


Words of Encouragement & Parting Thoughts




Illustration by @swatercolor


  • It’s okay to not complete your exam prep as fast as others.
  • It’s okay to find the materials difficult.
  • It’s okay to spend more time doing prep tests to build confidence.

Some people just have spent more time with cloud infrastructure.

I, too, was demoralized when my colleague (a Backend Engineer) passed the exam with only 1 month of prep. Understandably, I took longer to prepare for the exam, since most of my experience was in the frontend space.

All the best, and may your efforts be fruitful 🍇 🙂