I have cleared My AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate Exam within 5 weeks of preparation. I have done online course and watched YouTube videos related to this certification and also went through AWS FAQ's. So, I am sharing my experience of AWS SAA study guide/plan.

You can get certification details/syllabus from below link

Link: https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-solutions-architect-associate/

Step 1. Join Online Course's

Here are some of my highly recommended courses for anyone preparing for AWS solution architect associate certification in 2022.

1* Ultimate AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate 2022 -- Best tutorial
This is the ultimate course I recommend to anyone preparing for the AWS Solution architect associate level exam on Udemy. It’s created by Stephane Maarek.

Course Link: https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-saa-c02/

2* Whizlabs
This is another recommendation for video tutorials.

Course Link: https://www.whizlabs.com/aws-solutions-architect-associate/

3* YouTube tutorials
Everybody knows YouTube is free. You can learn anything from YouTube. So, I have found very useful SAA tutorials.

• Pythoholic YT

• VPC Master Class

• AWS User Group

Study Plan = Video's + Hands On (Follow along)

Note: Hands On is most important part. AWS Provided 1 Year free tier account. So, You can implement most of services without any charges. Instructor also tell you about which services are not free. Please be careful when you will implement any service. Delete all services after implementation.

Step 2. Read About AWS Whitepapers, FAQ's & Key Services

If you did not know anything about cloud. So, You can start from this step than back to step one.

1* AWS Well-Architected Framework
Link: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/framework/welcome.html

2* AWS Ramp-Up Guides (Browse by Role - Architect)
Link: https://aws.amazon.com/training/ramp-up-guides/

3* Read the Security Whitepaper and Shared Responsibility model.

4* Read FAQ's of some popular services like
S3, Database/RDS, Security & VPC, CloudFront, Route53, Encryption Keys, EFS, Policies, Migration, Storage Gateway, Pricing Model, SQS & SNS, Kinesis, ECS, EBS, ELB & Autoscaling, Lambda, IAM, Analytics (Athena, Redshift & EMR), FSX, Logging (Cloudwatch & cloudtrail)

EC2: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/faqs/
S3: https://aws.amazon.com/s3/faqs/
EBS: https://aws.amazon.com/ebs/faqs/
EFS: https://aws.amazon.com/efs/faq/
VPC: https://aws.amazon.com/vpc/faqs/
Route53: https://aws.amazon.com/route53/faqs/
RDS: https://aws.amazon.com/rds/faqs/
SQS: https://aws.amazon.com/sqs/faqs/
SNS: https://aws.amazon.com/sns/faqs/
Elastic Load Balancing: https://aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/faqs/
Auto Scaling: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/autoscaling/faqs/
Storage Gateway: https://aws.amazon.com/storagegateway/faqs/
CloudFront: https://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/faqs/
Direct connect: https://aws.amazon.com/directconnect/faqs/
Pricing: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/

Most important key services do not skip
S3, Database/RDS, Security & VPC, CloudFront, Route53, Encryption Keys, EFS, SQS & SNS, Kinesis, EBS, ELB & Autoscaling, Storage Gateway, Lambda, IAM

5* AWS FREE Exam readiness
These are AWS Official exam rediness digital training.

• https://explore.skillbuilder.aws/learn/course/external/view/elearning/125/exam-readiness-aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-digital
• https://www.aws.training/Details/Curriculum?id=20685&saa=sec&sec=prep

Step 3. Practice Makes A....... Everybody knows

1* AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Practice Exams -- Created by Jon Bonso
This Udemy course is an excellent collection of high-quality practice questions written from scratch with detailed explanations for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Exam. This is highly recommended.

Course Link: https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-amazon-practice-exams-saa-c02/

2* AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Practice Exams -- Created by Neal Davis
This another Udemy course is an excellent collection of high-quality practice test.

Course Link: https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-practice-tests-k/

3* Whizlabs
Includes 6 full-length mock exams and unique questions for AWS Solution architect associate exam practice. It has both full tests as well as topic wise tests to improve your weak areas. On top of that explanation for every question is provided, which further helps in your learning.

Course Link: https://www.whizlabs.com/aws-solutions-architect-associate/

All practice test has detailed explanation about correct/incorrect answer.

Note: After every pratice test review questions why your answer was wrong and why the correct one was correct. At least score 75-80% in practice test.

Step 3. Schedule An Exam
Once you enough confidence than schedule your exam or you can wait AWS provided 50% off coupon for exam. I am not sure when but last year I got 50% off coupon. You can schedule your exam using below link.

Link: https://www.aws.training/certification/?cta=saatopbanner

Some additional resources these are optional

• AWS Power Hour: Architecting
  https://pages.awscloud.com/traincert-twitch-power-hour-architecting.html

• The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for AWS Solutions Architect Exam
  https://medium.com/@neonforge/the-ultimate-cheatsheet-for-aws-solutions-architect-exam-saa-c02-part-1-ed56a8096392

• AWS Solutions Architect Associate Cheat Sheet
  https://faun.pub/aws-solutions-architect-associate-cheat-sheet-6991d2f6cb7d

• Linux Academy
  https://lucid.app/documents/embeddedchart/bd4fb4e7-336e-4c8b-972d-048616da9f96

Final Tip: One Day before exam, Watch Stephane Maarek important key services videos.

Video Courses + Hands On + AWS official tutorial + Practice Test = Best of luck :) & Congrats in Advance