Memo of AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C00)

Takahiro Iwasa

Mar 19, 2017

3 min read

AWS Certification

I have successfully passed AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C00) exam. I will be sharing some tips on how to obtain this certification.

aws.amazon.com

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate Certification

Earn your AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate Certification. We provide exam guides, sample test questions, and training resources. Learn more!

I had been using basic AWS services such as EC2, RDS, DynamoDB, S3, SNS and so on in my daily work before taking the exam.

As my company’s AWS partner status was about to expire, I created a study plan to pass with minimal effort.

Amazon Web Services 実践入門 (Japanese)

I skipped to read topics related to AWS CLI because it seemed not to be covered by the exam.

合格対策 AWS認定ソリューションアーキテクト －アソシエイト (Japanese)

I used this as a reference material.

To assess my knowledge by topic, I took the AWS official practice test.

Total score: 80%

Topic level score:
1.0 Designing highly available, cost efficient, fault tolerant, scalable systems: 91%
2.0 Implementation/Deployment: 100%
3.0 Data Security: 75%
4.0 Troubleshooting: 0%

I began the preparation on March 6th and passed the exam on March 19th. Total preparation time was about 250 minutes (4 hours and 10 minutes).

Total score: 66%

Topic level score:
1.0 Designing highly available, cost efficient, fault tolerant, scalable systems: 60%
2.0 Implementation/Deployment: 66%
3.0 Data Security: 90%
4.0 Troubleshooting: 50%

The passing score may vary depending on the correct answer rates of the exam. According to the following websites, it seems that around 65% is required to pass.

• Tips for Passing Amazon’s New AWS Certified Solutions Architect Exam
• AWS Solutions Architect Certification Associate Level Exam: Are You Ready?
• HOW TO BECOME AN AWS CERTIFIED SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT

Total cost was 23,306 yen.

There were topics not covered by the learning materials. If you are not familiar with the topics, you may struggle to answer them. However, exam takers would pass successfully if they can answer basic questions.