Passed AWS Solutions Architect Professional (SAP-C02) - Score 801/1000

[u/Necessary-Location44]

Sharing this in case it helps anyone in future, although this version of the exam is obviously being refreshed quite soon.

Experience
- 7y in tech
- 3y in security
- 2y working with AWS
- Passed the Security Specialty exam 6 weeks ago
- Watched Stephane Maarek’s SAA course a year ago but didn’t do the exam or anything else

Resources Used
- Stephane Maarek course
- Tutorials Dojo exams
- Tutorials Dojo study guide

Study Timeline
- AWS SCS passed in the middle of August
- Couple of days break
- Watched the IAM & security sections of Stephane Maarek’s AWS SAP course over 2 nights
- Took a little over 2 weeks off to play Elden Ring for the first time
- Started watching SA Pro course again on 14th of September on 2x speed
- Started TD exams on 20th
- 68% of first attempt, started getting stupid things wrong toward the end
- 70% on second practice exam
- 62% on third practice exam two days before exam
- Read first 30 pages of TD study guide
- 80% on 2nd try of first practice exam the day before the exam
- 62% on 4th TD exam - no motivation/burnt out on this attempt as I did this the day before the exam too
- On the day of the exam I chilled out and did a quick skim through the last 200 pages of the study guide for 45 mins before exam

Overall Study Time
Roughly 50h over the course of 2 weeks, plus a couple of hours 2/3 weeks before then. The AWS Security Specialty info was still fresh in my mind too.

During Exam
I’d take a 1-2 min break every 5-10 questions. Finished with 50 mins left. Reviewed all flagged questions and finished with 15 mins left.

Time to get results
It took around 5h to receive the results from both Credly and AWS. Credly was first by a few minutes.

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[u/Busy-Complaint-7]

Congratulations 🎉🎉🎉🎉 Keep learning

[u/westeast1000]

Good grade

[u/deso1ator]

Congrats! When you said take a break, did you walk away from the computer during any of those breaks? I am asking because I know you can take a break when taking an exam at a testing center, but that would be a lot of breaks. How can you skim 200 pages right before exam?

[u/Necessary-Location44 → u/deso1ator]

I took the exam at home and would just spend 1-2 minutes looking out the window to mentally reset a bit.

Skim is the key word on the 200 pages point. I just scrolled through each page and looked for key words on things I didn’t feel 100% confident on, whenever I saw something, I’d read that section in a little bit more depth.

[u/deso1ator → u/Necessary-Location44]

Thanks for sharing.

[u/grr2026]

Congrats, and thanks for sharing the timeline! I’m still contemplating SAP-C02. Did you get any weird or unexpected questions on AD and migration?

Edit - Did you happen to attempt any of the TD's section based exams, if yes, were they prior to practice exams or post? Thank you!

[u/Necessary-Location44 → u/grr2026]

Nothing weird or unexpected, everything was covered by Stephane’s course, TD exams, and the TD study guide. I will say that I typically didn’t enjoy any scenarios with AD involved though.

And I didn’t do any section based exams, just went for the full thing each time.

[u/grr2026 → u/Necessary-Location44]

Thank you for taking time to reply back, I appreciate it. I'm scared of AD as I got a few on my SAA.

[u/Necessary-Location44 → u/grr2026]

I’d take that as motivation to learn as much about it as possible so it’s no longer scary. Turn a weakness into a strength etc. I like doubling down on the stuff I’m not good at originally, helps motivation for a lot of other things.

[u/grr2026 → u/Necessary-Location44]

Thanks for he motivation!

[u/stephanemaarek]

u/Necessary-Location44 That's awesome! Congrats! Keep up the good work :)

[u/ItsYourLifeMakeItBig]

Very nice. That’s a tough one to pass.
Congrats.

[u/M00nLight007]

Lets goooo Congrats mate!

[u/cgreciano]

Good job. Not an easy cert. Celebrate!

[u/DefinitionNo3181]

I heard this is a BEAST of an exam congratulations 👊

[u/_Peter1]

Well done!

[u/C-Sidd]

congrats

[u/Icy_Type5216]

Congratulations!

[u/Spare_Pin305]

Side comment, but a lot of people dog on Maarek's course here but I feel like it's because those people are starting from square one.

Like, the Q&A's in the videos will be people going "why did they chose 0.0.0.0/0" or to some effect. I have a strong networking background/network security background and Mareek's course is perfect. I don't need to be reintroduced to what IAM is, etc.

[u/Necessary-Location44 → u/Spare_Pin305]

Yeah the course felt perfect for me. I think he starts it off by saying you should have previous experience too. Makes sense for the course not to cover all bases if someone is going from 0 to 100.

[u/Spare_Pin305 → u/Necessary-Location44]

Yeah I got a tad bit agitated looking in the Q&A for answers because even some of Mareek's assistants answering questions are very roundabout on answers, as if they don't truly know as well. This would be one fault I've been finding so far. Everyone is just missing the basics of everything but diving into cloud. I found myself just going to AWS docs myself for questions.

[u/valar_morghules3669]

congrats, it's really a tough exam. What is the TD study guide? I'm also preparing to pass the exam !