🧭 My Journey to Completing the AWS Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03) Certification

Hey everyone 👋

In this blog, I want to share my experience of preparing for and clearing the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) certification. I’ll walk you through my reasons for pursuing it, the preparation strategy I followed, and some practical tips to help you succeed too.

👨‍💻 A Quick Intro: Who Am I?

I’m Ankit—a hands-on data scientist and ML product manager with over a decade of experience. I’ve worked across data engineering, machine learning, and AI/ML product leadership in global teams.

Over the years, I’ve realized the growing importance of cloud architecture in deploying scalable, efficient ML solutions. That’s what pulled me toward AWS. I’ve been using AWS in my work for a while now, but I wanted to deepen my understanding and structure my knowledge. This certification became a natural next step.

❓ Why Get AWS Certified?

Before you dive into any certification, ask yourself one important question:

“Will this certification help me grow in the direction I want?”

In my case, although I’m not a full-time cloud architect, I work closely with AWS for developing, deploying, and scaling ML models. So, gaining a formal and structured understanding of AWS made complete sense.

But here’s my honest advice:
Do NOT go for this certification just for the badge. Instead, ask yourself:

Do you see AWS being used in your current or upcoming projects?
Are you planning a career path that will involve cloud architecture or DevOps?
Are you exploring new skills and want to understand real-world applications?

If your answer to any of these is yes, then the AWS SAA-C03 is a great place to start.

🌐 Why This Certification Matters

While knowledge should be your main driver, the certificate does bring a few added benefits:

✅ Credibility within your team—you become the go-to person for cloud-related decisions.
✅ Visibility with senior stakeholders who now see you as cloud-savvy.
✅ Confidence in contributing to system design or architecture discussions.
✅ Most importantly, it re-ignites the learner mindset—and that’s invaluable.

🧪 My Preparation Strategy

Let me walk you through my 6-week plan.

⚠️ Important Note: I was already using AWS in my data science work, so I had some prior exposure to services like S3, EC2, Lambda, and SageMaker.

📅 Step 1: Book the Exam First

The best way to beat procrastination is to set a deadline. I booked the exam before starting my prep. That date created a sense of urgency and accountability. Highly recommended!

🎓 Step 2: Pick One Solid Course

I didn’t chase 5 different tutorials. I stuck to one course and studied it well:

🔗 AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03) by Stephane Maarek – Udemy

This course is well-structured, beginner-friendly, and covers all topics relevant to the latest version of the exam.

💡 Pro Tip:
Use incognito mode on Udemy, add the course to your cart, wait a few days—and you’ll likely get a deep discount.

🧠 Step 3: Practice, Practice, Practice

No matter how much theory you study, passing the exam requires test-taking skills.

So I used the following practice exams:

🔗 AWS Associate Practice Exams – Udemy

Practice exams helped me:

Get familiar with the exam format
Improve my speed and accuracy
Identify knowledge gaps and go back to weak topics

🛠 Final Thoughts & Tips

Stick to one main course—don’t get overwhelmed with too many resources
Book the exam upfront—it helps with commitment
Focus on concepts, not just memorizing services
Do multiple practice tests to build exam-day confidence
Keep learning even after the exam—certification is a milestone, not the end

✅ Would I Recommend It?

Absolutely—but only if you plan to apply cloud knowledge in real or upcoming projects. Otherwise, it’s just a trophy with no practical return.

For data professionals, product managers, and ML engineers—this certification builds a strong foundation in designing reliable, cost-optimized, and scalable systems on AWS.

If you’re planning your own AWS journey, feel free to reach out or drop your questions in the comments. I’m happy to help!

Thanks for reading—and good luck with your cloud journey! ☁️🚀

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