This article does not cover exact questions as per the agreement of the exam, just my preparation experience.
It’s about a year since I passed my Solution Architect Associate and about 9 months from my Security Specialty. It had been a busy year, and I’m fortunate to be given various opportunities to work on various AWS environments for client projects. I picked up a great deal of experience while working on enterprise AWS projects.
In my day to day work, I had quite a bit of in depth hands on with various AWS services, plus the added benefit of using AWS support. Side note, I sincerely believe that AWS support is a amazing albeit the price. They are probably the most polite and techincally helpful support ever. They never look down on you or talk rudely even if you ask novice questions, unlike some other services. (>.> looking at you Fortinet, cough cough)
Given that I spend most of my days with AWS, I thought I’m ready for the professional exam. I felt like the SAA exam and the SCS exam were very similar, and thought that probably I don’t need a lot of time to study. I gave myself about 2 weeks proper, although there were some on and off studying that went on for about a month. As per previous experience with AWS exams, I went on Tutorial Dojo and bought the AWS SAP-C02 exam practice papers. It comes with 5 mock papers and basically I failed everyone of them…LUCKILY, when it came to the actual exam, I passed on the first attempt. Point is, the TD papers are pretty hard but they are fantastic to discover what you don’t know quick. I would STRONGLY recommend them. Anyhow, here’s some clarification points for those of you who are still unsure how to approach SA Pro.
Should I take the Solutions Architect Pro?
I think it’s probably more worth it to take some other exam first, like the Solutions Architect Associate. It is cheaper at 150 USD. Make sure you pass that, then you will get a 50% discount to take the Solutions Architect Pro. Everytime you pass an exam, you get a 50% your next exam, so I’ve just been cycling through my discounts.
Also, the courses on Solutions Architect Associate, such as the Stephane Maarek on Udemy, are mostly applicable for SA Pro too. Their content is like 90% (I bought both courses because I didn’t know better…) overlap. So why not just take the easier one first. If you fail, it won’t be so painful. The SAA could give you a guage on whether you are ready for the Pro. In my modest opinion, I felt like I would not have passed the Pro exam without the hands on reinforcement from my job.
Do I need to buy a course?
As always, it depends. If you have already passed the SAA and you went through the SAA courses before, then it is definitely not advisable to do a course. Don’t waste your time. If it’s your first time taking the exam, then maybe, but still, if it’s your first time, are you really sure you want to take the 300 USD Pro exam? Why not try the 150 USD Associate first?
Mental Model when attempting mock papers
Treat the papers as a tool to fill in gaps for your AWS knowledge. For me, I made sure I took it like in exam setting, with no reference material. I prepared a notion page which I penned down any doubt I had. Note, its ANY doubt, not just restricted to what the question asks. For example, there was some questions on whether an application should use Aurora Global tables. This was my actual sequential thought process to create my notebook.
- What is Aurora Global? A low latency multi region DB
- How many regions can Aurora Gobal have? up to 5, but only 1 primary write, while the rest are read.
- Can RDS be multi region too? Yes, but they are not really meant to be used as Global DB. It’s more for backup or analytics job
- Aurora can auto failover but RDS cannot, you need to manually promote
- How many regions can DynamoDB Global Table have? Up to 10, and they are all read/write tables.
- And so on…
You get the idea — it’s never just about the question. When attempting the paper, I didn’t use any reference materials because it forces me to think critically, rather than just rely on ChatGPT. I wrote down all my doubts and, after completing the mock paper, I looked them up. I truly believe that tools like ChatGPT (or Gemini, Claude, or other LLMs, if you prefer) are game-changers for 10x-ing my study efficiency. Some of my friends also like using Notebook LM to turn their notes into a podcast and listen to them while traveling or exercising. That’s not my style, but hey, the tools are out there.
Going for the exam
For me, I booked the exam only 2 weeks in advance. It’s a good amount of buffer time and also a real motivator to get my procastinating ass up and do the mock papers. Given that I had to work, I only managed to study for like 40-ish hours on the weekends and at night. Each paper is 3 hours, but I had to spend another 3 hours after that to review and make my notes. I personally felt that booking the exam further in advance was not going to help much since the “stress induced outburst” of studying only last so long.
I hope my experience can help you a bit along your journey to AWS SAP. The exam questions, even format, might change as the years pass, but I think the most important thing is to understand how to study efficiently. Last but not least, best of luck :)
