Just passed SAA-C03 | skipped CCP, here’s what helped me

Honestly still can’t believe I passed. I have an IT background, no degree yet, not working in tech either. Just always been curious about cloud and to expand my skills and knowledge. I finally decided to go for it.

I skipped the CCP and went straight for Solutions Architect Associate. Probably not the smartest move but I didn’t want to spend time on a cert I wasn’t aiming for. It was tough. A lot of concepts were completely new to me. I did some hands-on stuff with labs here and there, mostly free ones through my study.

Was also doubting between Azure and AWS at the start. Still am a bit. But AWS felt more accessible and the community just looked way more active

Here’s what I used to pass

• ⁠FetchExam. Honestly this helped me the most. Their scenario-based practice exams really made me think instead of just memorizing. Also used their flashcards, study crams, even some of the games which weirdly helped things stick

• YouTube videos from Neal Davis. Super useful for getting a feel for how services work together. Watched on 1.25x speed and took notes like crazy

My study style was all over the place. Toward the end I did practice exams almost daily. Wasn’t scoring great on all of them but every wrong answer was a learning point. Forced me to dive deeper into docs or rewatch stuff until it made sense

If you’re new to cloud and thinking of doing this, you can absolutely do it. Just don’t approach it like a memorization test. Focus on real use cases and understanding trade-offs. That’s what made it click for me

Not sure what’s next. Maybe Azure. Maybe SAA-Pro. Either way this gave me a lot of confidence

Appreciate all the posts and advice in this sub. They helped more than you know