Currently, the cost of an AWS Certification exam starts from 150 USD for associate-level exams and up to a whopping 300 USD for professional-level and specialty-type exams. For some, this amount is negligible but to many IT professionals around the world, this amount is relatively expensive. The official AWS Practice Exam ranges from 20 to 40 USD, which you can only take once (unless you shell out another $20 or $40 again in order to retake it).

On top of it, there are a lot of people who subscribe to online cloud learning providers which can range from $30 to $38 per month or $250 to $450 per year. Some folks even subscribe to two or more providers which can drive their total learning costs to over a thousand bucks! Hey, I could have bought a brand new iPhone 11 Pro Max or Pixel 4 XL with that amount of money! Don’t get me wrong, investing in these educational materials are also helpful especially if you are quite new with AWS. But just keep in mind that there are also a lot of resources out there that can give you more bang to your buck!

To help you pass your AWS exam without breaking the bank, here are the 5 top, high-quality resources that you can use for free:

1. Official AWS Certification Prep Page

Prepare for your AWS Certification Exam using the official exam guides, sample questions, and other exam preparation resources: https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certification-prep/

2. Official AWS Sample Exam Questions

Do you want to take a peek on how will the actual AWS exam will look like? Don’t look any further as you can simply check out the free sample exam questions from AWS. You can actually see this information under the “Exam guide and sample questions” tab in the Official AWS Certification Prep Page

Sample Exam Questions for AWS CSAA: https://d1.awsstatic.com/training-and-certification/docs/AWS_Certified_Solutions_Architect_Associate_Sample_Questions.pdf

3. Official AWS Exam Readiness Video Courses

Just like the previous one, the link to the official AWS Readiness video course can be seen in the Official AWS Certification Prep Page, so be sure you bookmark it now! Again, this course is absolutely free which can range from 90 minutes up to more than 7 hours of total video content. This is definitely a steal!

Just search for “Exam Readiness” in the official AWS Learning Library as shown below. Just register your account then afterward, you’ll immediately get access to the content, without having to use or store your credit card.

Here’s a direct link for your convenience.

4. Free AWS Cheat Sheets, Study Guides, and Practice Test Samplers from Tutorials Dojo

Reading those lengthy AWS FAQs and Whitepapers can be daunting and difficult. We at Tutorials Dojo prepared a collection of high-quality AWS Cheat Sheets which contains a summary of all relevant information for each individual AWS Service — for free!

You can also check out our Comparison of AWS Services section where we discuss the difference of two (or more) seemingly similar AWS services. Believe me, these free articles will help you in answering the tricky questions in the actual AWS exam which has at least two closely-related options

Then validate your knowledge by getting our free practice test samplers to see where you are at in terms of knowledge gaps.

5. Exam Feedback from LinkedIn, Reddit, and other online forum sites

Read the exam feedback of the folks who recently took the exam in Reddit, A Cloud Guru forum, LinkedIn and various blogs. This is quite helpful in order for you to get an insight and tips of the actual topics that your will encounter. Armed with this information, you will certainly be prepared for your exam without any surprises.

Just search for “Passed AWS” Linkedin or “Passed the AWS” in Google to view all of the blog posts of the people who recently passed their exam:

If you are a Reddit user, just join these groups below to view the exam feedback of your fellow Redditors:

AWSCertifications:  https://www.reddit.com/r/AWSCertifications/

BONUS!

1. FREE AWS Digital Courses

Check them out here.

2. Watch thousands of free videos from the AWS YouTube Channel.

AWS Re:Invent Videos: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=aws+reinvent

AWS Products and Services Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC1EA73D8914686E5

 3. You can also take the free AWS Labs in QwikLabs! Just filter the labs as shown below to view the list of labs that you can take at no cost.

Click here to see the direct link for your convenience.

4. Watch the AWS Certification Quiz Show on Twitch.tv

Here’s the link: https://www.twitch.tv/collections/aFU_9HNWuRWPKQ?filter=collections

That’s a wrap! I sincerely hope that this post can help you save some dough on preparing for your AWS Certification, so you can use your savings to buy your iPhone 11 Pro Max, Pixel 4 XL , Huawei P30 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus or whatever gadget (or other necessities) that you want to buy this coming Black Friday Shopping season!

Feel free to share this post as well to your friends and officemates, so they too can get AWS Certified (…with still enough money left to buy some goodies!)