AWS EC2 & Compute Certification Guide

Primary Certification

AWS Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03)

Format: check current question count, time limit, passing score, and price on the official AWS Certification page before relying on these (needs verification — exam format and price change periodically; previously stated here as 65 questions, 130 minutes, 720/1000, $150 USD)

Related Certifications

•AWS SysOps Administrator Associate (SOA-C02)

•AWS DevOps Engineer Professional (DOP-C02)

Key Exam Topics

•Instance types (t/m/c/r/i/g families) and right-sizing

•Purchasing options: On-Demand, Spot, Reserved, Savings Plans

•Auto Scaling Groups: policies, lifecycle hooks, health checks

•AMI creation, Image Builder, cross-region copy

•Placement groups: Cluster, Spread, Partition — use cases

•EC2 networking: ENI, security groups, placement, EBS vs instance store

•Instance connect, SSM Session Manager (no SSH key needed)

Must-Know CLI Commands

bash

aws ec2 describe-instances --filters Name=instance-state-name,Values=running
aws ec2 start-instances --instance-ids i-xxx
aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-ids i-xxx
aws ec2 create-image --instance-id i-xxx --name "MyAMI"
aws ec2 describe-instance-types --filters Name=vcpu-info.default-vcpus,Values=4

Exam Tips

•Know T instance CPU credits — T3 Unlimited eliminates credit worry

•Spot: 2-minute interruption notice via instance metadata

•Reserved Instance: OS + instance family + region must match for discount

•Savings Plans: flexible (commit to $/hr compute spend, any family/region)

Study Plan

Week 1-2: Read official docs + overview/fundamentals sections in this platform

Week 3-4: Hands-on labs (AWS free tier / Azure sandbox / GCP free tier)

Week 5: Practice exams (TutorialsDojo, ExamTopics, Whizlabs)

Final days: Review weak areas + cheatsheet

Free Study Resources

•AWS: aws.amazon.com/training — free digital courses

•Azure: learn.microsoft.com — Microsoft Learn (free + sandbox labs)

•GCP: cloud.google.com/training — free courses + Qwiklabs credits

•TutorialsDojo: cheat sheets for all exams (best value paid resource)

Revision Notes

PRIMARY EXAM: AWS Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03)

TOP TOPICS:
  Instance types (t/m/c/r/i/g families) and right-sizing
  Purchasing options: On-Demand, Spot, Reserved, Savings Plans
  Auto Scaling Groups: policies, lifecycle hooks, health checks
  AMI creation, Image Builder, cross-region copy

EC2 — Certification