Small AWS CSA Associate exam preparation guide to help you get ready for the certification exam. Get confident with the list of test quizzes listed here.
Note: SAA-C01 is retiring now and being replaced with SAA-C02.
Recently I cleared the Amazon Web Services Certified Solutions Architect Associate-level exam and I was bombarded with many questions like How to prepare for the AWS CSA exam? Which book to refer to preparing AWS CSA certification? How to study for AWS CSA? Which online resources available for the certified solutions architect exam? So I thought of summing all this up in a small post which can be useful for AWS CSA aspirants.
Remember this post is compiled from my own experience and should not be taken as the final benchmark for taking the certification exams. This post is mainly aimed to help you gaining confidence in taking examination once you are through your syllabus and hands-on experience.
AWS has three streams where you can pursue your cloud career.
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect (Architecture context)
- AWS Certified Developer (Developer context)
- AWS Certified SysOps Administrator (Operations context)
All these three streams have an associate-level (primary or base) level certification. Later professional (higher level) certification is available for solution architect only. Developer and SysOps get merged into single AWS certified DevOps Engineer professional certification.
So, we are talking here about the Amazon Web Services Certified Solutions Architect Associate level exam! Obviously you should be well versed with AWS and requirements stated by Amazon on exam link. Let’s have some examination details :
AWS CSA Exam details :
- Total number of questions: 60-65
- Duration: 130 minutes
- Cost : $150
- Type: Multiple choice questions
- Can be retaken after 7 days of cooldown period if failed in the first attempt
- Syllabus: Download here.
- Pass criteria: 720/1000.
AWS CSA Study material :
- Instructor lead training is available. Search for such institutes in your area on Google.
- Online training is available on top websites
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate 2020 by A Cloud Guru
- AWS Solutions Architect – Associate Certification Preparation for AWS by Cloud Academy
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate Level by Linux Academy
- AWS CSA official guide here. Do not miss exam essentials and review questions at the end of each lesson.
- Free exam readiness training by AWS
Quick recap before exam :
I have compiled a series of quick reviews before taking the exam. Feel free to refer and suggest your addition/feedback.
- AWS CSA revision part I (EC2, S3, RDS)
- AWS CSA revision part II (VPC, Route53, IAM)
- AWS CloudFront, SNS, SQS revision before CSA exam
- AWS CSA revision part IV (SWF,Beanstalk, EMR, Cloudfomation)
- List of AWS services
Below is a list of AWS quiz which I gathered from the web which can help you to put your cloud knowledge to test and gain the confidence to get ready for the exam.
Free Quiz
- Amazon web services quiz! (15 questions)
- Amazon Redshift quiz (10 questions)
- The Cert School Quiz (30 questions)
- Flux7 Quiz (11 Questions)
- Techtarget AWS Security Quiz (10 questions)
- Sample questions by Amazon : (7 questions)
- Techtarget S3 quiz (10 questions)
- Techtarget Quiz for AWS IaaS (10 questions)
- AWS Arch app (Android | iOS) : Total 279 Questions
Premium (paid) Quiz
- Cloud academy: 241 Questions. Signup needed (first 7 days free access then paid account)
- Linux Academy: 117 Questions. Signup needed (first 7 days free access then paid account)
- A Cloud Guru: 294 Questions. Signup needed.
- AWS Training practice tests $20. It’s free if you are AWS certified. You can get a voucher from your certification benefits section on the AWS certification portal.
- Practice exam by tutorialsdojo
All the best !