Study Guides & Articles
In-depth articles that teach the architectural reasoning behind exam questions — not just what to pick, but why.
Exam guides(9)
SAA-C03 Exam Guide: Format, Cost, Scoring, and How to Prepare
Everything about the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) exam: 65 questions, 130 minutes, $150, the four domain weights, scoring, and a realistic prep strategy.
Read articleCLF-C02 Exam Guide: Format, Cost, Domains, and How to Prepare
Everything about the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) exam: 65 questions, 90 minutes, $100, the four domain weights, scoring, and a realistic prep strategy for beginners.
Read articleDVA-C02 Exam Guide: Format, Cost, Domains, and How to Prepare
Everything about the AWS Certified Developer – Associate (DVA-C02) exam: 65 questions, 130 minutes, $150, the four domain weights, scoring, and a developer-focused prep strategy.
Read articleAIF-C01 Exam Guide: Format, Cost, Domains, and How to Prepare
Everything about the AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF-C01) exam: 65 questions, 90 minutes, $100, the five domain weights, new question formats, and a prep strategy for AI fundamentals.
Read articleSOA-C03 Exam Guide: CloudOps Engineer — Format, Domains, and How to Prepare
Everything about the AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer – Associate (SOA-C03) exam — the renamed SysOps Administrator certification: 65 questions, 130 minutes, $150, the five domain weights, and a prep strategy.
Read articleSAP-C02 Exam Guide: Format, Cost, Domains, and How to Prepare
Everything about the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional (SAP-C02) exam: 75 questions, 180 minutes, $300, the four domain weights, and a strategy for AWS's hardest architecture exam.
Read articleDEA-C01 Exam Guide: Format, Cost, Domains, and How to Prepare
Everything about the AWS Certified Data Engineer – Associate (DEA-C01) exam: 65 questions, 130 minutes, $150, the four domain weights, and a data-engineering prep strategy.
Read articleSCS-C03 Exam Guide: Format, Cost, Domains, and How to Prepare
Everything about the AWS Certified Security – Specialty (SCS-C03) exam — the current version that replaced SCS-C02 in December 2025: 65 questions, 170 minutes, $300, the six domain weights, and a security-focused prep strategy.
Read articleANS-C01 Exam Guide: Format, Cost, Domains, and How to Prepare
Everything about the AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty (ANS-C01) exam: 65 questions, 170 minutes, $300, the four domain weights, and a networking prep strategy.
Read articleComparisons(17)
S3 vs EBS vs EFS: Picking the Right AWS Storage
Object, block, and file storage serve different jobs. Learn the decision criteria the SAA-C03 exam expects you to apply.
Read articleSecurity Groups vs Network ACLs: Stateless vs Stateful Firewalls
Two different layers of VPC security. Understand where each applies, the stateful/stateless distinction, and which one supports deny rules.
Read articleRDS vs Aurora vs DynamoDB: Choosing a Database on AWS
Relational engines, cloud-native Aurora, and serverless NoSQL — map workload characteristics to the right database.
Read articleEC2 vs Lambda vs Containers: Picking a Compute Model
Full-control VMs, event-driven functions, and managed containers each own a sweet spot. Learn the trade-offs for the exam.
Read articleALB vs NLB: Application vs Network Load Balancer
When to choose an Application Load Balancer over a Network Load Balancer — layer 7 routing, WAF integration, static IPs, and extreme performance.
Read articleSNS vs SQS vs EventBridge: Picking the Right Messaging Service
Queues, pub/sub topics, and event buses solve different decoupling problems — learn which one fits each scenario.
Read articleRDS Multi-AZ vs Read Replicas: Availability vs Read Scaling
The most-tested RDS distinction on the exam — synchronous standby for failover vs asynchronous copies for read offload.
Read articleGateway vs Interface VPC Endpoints: Private Access to AWS Services
Gateway endpoints are free and cover S3/DynamoDB; interface endpoints (PrivateLink) cover everything else. Here's when each applies.
Read articleEBS Snapshot vs AMI: Backup Building Blocks Compared
Snapshots back up a volume's data; AMIs capture the whole bootable instance configuration. Know which one a scenario needs.
Read articleS3 Standard-IA vs Intelligent-Tiering: Infrequent Access Done Right
Both cut storage cost for rarely-accessed data — but one is a fixed cheaper tier and the other adapts automatically. Here's how to choose.
Read articleKinesis vs Amazon MSK vs EventBridge: Picking the Right Event Platform
Streaming data, Kafka workloads, and event buses solve different problems. Learn when Kinesis, MSK, or EventBridge is the right answer — with decision shortcuts for exam scenarios.
Read articleSCP vs Permission Boundary: Two Guardrails That Look Alike but Aren't
Service Control Policies and permission boundaries both cap what IAM identities can do — but they apply at different layers, in different scopes, and fail differently. Here's how to tell them apart.
Read articleAWS WAF vs Network Firewall vs Shield: Three Layers of Network Defense
WAF filters application traffic, Network Firewall inspects network flows, Shield absorbs DDoS. Understand which service answers which threat — and how they layer together.
Read articleDirect Connect vs Site-to-Site VPN: Choosing Your Hybrid Link
Dedicated private circuit or encrypted tunnel over the internet? Compare latency, cost, setup time, encryption, and resilience — with the exam's decision cues for hybrid connectivity.
Read articleSecrets Manager vs Parameter Store: Where Should Each Value Live?
Both store strings securely — but rotation, cross-account sharing, cost, and integrations differ. Here's when Parameter Store is enough and when Secrets Manager earns its price.
Read articleSQS FIFO vs Standard Queues: Ordering, Dedup, and Throughput
Standard queues are fast and sloppy; FIFO queues are ordered and exactly-once but capped. Know the three guarantees, the throughput limits, and when each wins.
Read articleCloudWatch vs CloudTrail vs AWS Config: Monitoring, Auditing, and Change Tracking
The three most-confused AWS observability services: CloudWatch tells you how it's running, CloudTrail tells you who did what, and Config tells you what changed. Full breakdown.
Read articleDeep dives(5)
Amazon S3 Storage Classes Explained: Choosing the Right Tier
Compare S3 Standard, Intelligent-Tiering, Standard-IA, One Zone-IA, and the Glacier tiers — when each saves money and when it costs you more.
Read articleDisaster Recovery on AWS: RTO, RPO, and the Four Strategies
Backup & restore, pilot light, warm standby, multi-site — map recovery objectives to the right DR pattern.
Read articleDesigning Highly Available Architectures on AWS
Eliminate single points of failure across compute, database, and DNS layers — the patterns behind Domain 2's biggest weight.
Read articleEC2 Pricing Models Explained: On-Demand, Savings Plans, Reserved, Spot
Match purchasing options to workload stability — the most common cost-optimization scenario on the exam.
Read articleVPC Connectivity Patterns: NAT Gateways, Endpoints, and Peering
How private resources reach the internet, AWS APIs, and each other — and where cost hides.
Read articleCheat sheets(8)
SAA-C03 Cheat Sheet: AWS Service Selection Quick Reference
A condensed decision guide for the SAA-C03 exam — which AWS service to pick for storage, databases, compute, messaging, networking, and DR scenarios.
Read articleCLF-C02 Cheat Sheet: Cloud Practitioner Quick Reference
A condensed CLF-C02 review sheet: cloud concepts, shared responsibility, core services by category, billing tools, and support plans — the facts the exam repeats.
Read articleDVA-C02 Cheat Sheet: Developer Associate Quick Reference
A condensed DVA-C02 review sheet: Lambda limits and behaviors, DynamoDB gotchas, API Gateway features, SQS/SNS/EventBridge patterns, IAM must-knows, and CI/CD services.
Read articleSOA-C03 Cheat Sheet: CloudOps Engineer Associate Quick Reference
A condensed SOA-C03 review sheet: CloudWatch monitoring and remediation, backup/DR, deployment automation, security operations, and hybrid networking — the operational facts the exam repeats.
Read articleAIF-C01 Cheat Sheet: AI Practitioner Quick Reference
A condensed AIF-C01 review sheet: AI vs ML vs GenAI vocabulary, Bedrock capabilities, prompt engineering levers, responsible-AI guardrails, and AI security — the terms the exam repeats.
Read articleDEA-C01 Cheat Sheet: Data Engineer Associate Quick Reference
A condensed DEA-C01 review sheet: ingestion services, data stores, Glue/EMR transforms, orchestration, and data governance — the service distinctions the exam repeats.
Read articleSCS-C03 Cheat Sheet: Security Specialty Quick Reference
A condensed SCS-C03 review sheet: detection services, incident response, infrastructure security, IAM deep-dive, data protection, and governance — the control mappings the exam repeats.
Read articleANS-C01 Cheat Sheet: Advanced Networking Specialty Quick Reference
A condensed ANS-C01 review sheet: hybrid connectivity, Transit Gateway routing, DNS, load balancing, and network security — the architecture patterns the exam repeats.
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