AWS Solutions Architect study plan for the Associate exam
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate exam is about picking the right service for a scenario, and that only sticks with hands-on practice. This prompt has your todo.is agent plan your weeks by exam domain, pair each topic with a small lab you can build, and schedule practice exams with a tracker of the services that trip you up.
The prompt
- Make me an AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate study plan. My exam is on [EXAM DATE] and I can study [WEEKLY HOURS] hours a week. My AWS experience: [EXPERIENCE]. Use the current exam guide from the AWS site and plan by domain and weight. Pair each week with a small hands-on lab I can do on the Free Tier, with steps and a reminder to delete resources after. Schedule AWS Skill Builder practice questions and two full practice exams. Keep a tracker of services I get wrong. Give me an Excel plan and a PDF of key service comparisons, and message me each [STUDY DAYS] at 19:00 on Discord.
What to change
- [EXAM DATE]: E.g. "October 30".
- [WEEKLY HOURS]: E.g. "8".
- [EXPERIENCE]: E.g. "passed Cloud Practitioner, use EC2 and S3 at work" or "new to AWS".
- [STUDY DAYS]: E.g. "Monday, Wednesday and Saturday".
Example result
- AWS Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03): 8 weeks
- Exam: October 30 · 8 h a week · Has Cloud Practitioner, uses EC2 and S3
- Exam basics
- • 65 questions (some unscored), 130 minutes, multiple choice and multiple response
- • Scaled score 100 to 1,000, passing score 720
- • Domains: Design Secure Architectures (30%), Resilient (26%), High-Performing (24%), Cost-Optimized (20%). Confirm in the current exam guide.
- Week 1: IAM and security basics
- • Users, roles, policies, least privilege, cross-account roles, SCPs in AWS Organizations
- • Lab: create a role so an EC2 instance can read one S3 bucket without access keys
- Week 2: networking
- • VPC, subnets, route tables, NAT gateway, security groups vs network ACLs, VPC endpoints, Transit Gateway
- • Lab: build a VPC with a public and a private subnet
- Week 3: storage
- • S3 storage classes and lifecycle rules, EBS volume types, EFS vs FSx, S3 encryption options
- • Lab: a lifecycle rule that moves objects to a cheaper class after 30 days
- Week 4: compute and scaling
- • EC2 purchase options, Auto Scaling, ALB vs NLB, Lambda, ECS and Fargate
- Week 5: databases and caching
- • RDS Multi-AZ vs read replicas, Aurora, DynamoDB, ElastiCache
- • Lab: an RDS instance with a read replica (delete it the same day)
- Week 6: decoupling and resilience
- • SQS, SNS, EventBridge, Kinesis, Route 53 routing policies, backup and disaster recovery strategies
- • Practice exam 1
- Week 7: cost and performance
- • Savings Plans, Reserved Instances, Spot, CloudFront, Global Accelerator, Cost Explorer
- Week 8: review
- • Practice exam 2, then redo every question on your weak-service tracker
- Quick comparisons
- • Multi-AZ = availability (standby). Read replica = read scaling.
- • SQS = queue, one consumer pulls. SNS = push to many subscribers.
- • Security group = stateful, allow rules only. NACL = stateless, allow and deny.
How to do it with todo.is
- Fill in your exam date, hours and experience, then copy the prompt.
- Paste it into todo.is or send it to your agent on Discord, Slack or Telegram.
- You get an Excel plan with weekly labs and a PDF of service comparisons.
- Tell your agent which practice questions you missed. It adds the services to your tracker and to next week.
Tips for a better result
- Set a billing alarm before your first lab, and delete resources at the end of each session.
- Look for the key words in each scenario: "lowest cost", "least operational overhead", "highly available". They decide the answer.
- When two answers both work, the exam usually wants the managed or serverless option.
- Ask your agent to explain any service you confuse by drawing the difference as a short table.
AWS Solutions Architect study plan: FAQ
- How long does it take to prepare for AWS Solutions Architect Associate? With some AWS experience, 6 to 10 weeks at 6 to 10 hours a week is common. Starting from scratch, plan for longer.
- Do I need Cloud Practitioner first? No, it is not required. It helps if you are new to AWS.
- Will the labs cost money? Many fit in the AWS Free Tier, but some services charge. Set a billing alarm and delete resources after each lab.
- Can my agent run the labs for me? It writes the steps and can explain errors you paste, but you run the labs in your own AWS account.
JavaScript is required to use the todo.is app.