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Passing AWS SAP in 1 Month: A Guide for IPA NW/DB Specialist Holders with No AWS Work Experience
Introduction
This is a report on how I passed the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional (SAP) exam in about one month. I am in my third year after graduation, have already obtained the IPA Network Specialist (NW) and Database Specialist (DB) certifications, and have almost no practical AWS experience.
Key features of this experience report include:
- Because of my foundational knowledge from IPA certifications, understanding AWS services and concepts was smooth.
- I reached a 68% accuracy rate on Udemy practice exams after just one pass through the textbook.
- However, memorizing specific, minor AWS specifications is necessary.
I hope this serves as useful material for those who hold senior IPA certifications and are wondering whether to attempt the SAP exam.
Intended Audience
- Those who hold senior certifications like the IPA NW or DB Specialist.
- Those with little to no practical AWS experience, or only superficial exposure.
- Those considering taking the AWS SAP exam but unsure how to gauge its difficulty.
Conclusion
I purchased the textbook on December 14th and passed the exam on January 10th. The study period was approximately one month[1].
The most important point is this:
Upon completing one pass through the textbook, my accuracy rate for the first attempt at the Udemy practice exam was 68%.
Afterward, I repeated the process of reading the textbook and working through the Udemy practice exams, using ChatGPT as a sounding board to organize areas where I was unsure. Just before the actual exam, I scored 70% on my second attempt at the Udemy exams and 70% (7/10) on the official practice exam, and I successfully passed.
For holders of IPA NW/DB Specialist certifications, AWS SAP can be passed in a short period through a structure of: "One pass through the textbook + IPA foundations to reach near-passing level, followed by closing the gaps with Udemy exercises."
Author Profile
| Item | Status |
|---|---|
| Career | 3rd year after graduation (IT industry) |
| IPA | Applied Information Technology Engineer → NW Specialist → DB Specialist |
| AWS Certifications | SAA, MLS certified |
| Practical AWS Experience | Almost none |
| AWS Hands-on Experience | SAA tutorials, personal development (amateur level using Amplify, S3, EC2, ECS) |
Although I have almost no practical AWS experience, I took the exam with the foundational knowledge of networks and databases cultivated through my IPA studies.
Related Articles
I have also written about my experiences passing the DB and NW Specialist exams, which I have listed here:
What kind of exam is AWS SAP?
In writing this article, I reflected on the content of the practice questions.
I categorized the 150 practice questions from the Udemy practice exams[2] based on my results. Please note that this is my own personal organization (categorized with the help of Generative AI) and not an official classification.
Accuracy Rate by Category
I classified the 150 questions into four groups based on the "type of skill/knowledge mainly required to answer correctly," and the following table shows the error rate using the total number of questions in each category as the denominator.
In summary, while there are questions that can be handled with IPA foundational knowledge, AWS-specific knowledge requires countermeasures.
| Category (Required Skills/Knowledge) | Number of Questions | Incorrect Answers | Error Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| A: Knowledge of AWS-specific specifications | 122 | 43 | 35% |
| B: Reading constraint keywords in the prompt | 12 | 3 | 25% |
| C: Narrowing down choices (elimination method) | 5 | 0 | 0% |
| D: Basic architectural judgment | 11 | 0 | 0% |
To elaborate:
- Error rate for A (AWS-specific knowledge) is 35%: 43 mistakes out of 122 questions. Filling the gaps in this area was the focus of my additional study.
- Error rate for B (Constraint reading) is 25%: 3 mistakes out of 12 questions; not perfect. AWS SAP questions are long, and one must be careful not to overlook requirements.
- Error rate for C (Elimination) and D (Arch basics) is 0%: Although the sample sizes are small at 5 and 11 questions respectively, I believe the experience from IPA certifications is strongly leveraged for questions requiring these skills.
Another perspective is "measures against long-duration and long-text exams." AWS SAP is a grueling exam with 75 questions in 180 minutes, and each question is quite long. However, IPA exams are also long with long texts, so that experience was directly applicable. I did not take a full-length mock exam, but I did time myself for just 10 questions to confirm my pacing, which was sufficient for the actual test.
Additional Learning Required (3 Layers)
I mentioned that "additional study is necessary even for IPA holders," and this study can be divided into the following three layers.
Layer 1: Memorizing AWS service names and primary uses
At a minimum, you need to know the names of major AWS services and "what they are for."
Example:
- DataSync = Data transfer service between on-premises and AWS
- Transit Gateway = Connects multiple VPCs in a hub-and-spoke topology
- Storage Gateway = Gateway for using AWS storage from on-premises
This can be covered by the textbook in addition to the foundation from SAA.
Here, your pre-existing IPA knowledge is useful. When reading the textbook, understanding the "technologies used behind the scenes" of each service makes understanding faster. As an aside, I realized, "Is Route 53 named that way because the DNS port is 53?"
Layer 2: Detailed specifications and constraints for each service
This layer requires memorization of fine-grained specifications that cannot be solved just by knowing the service name and its primary use.
Example:
- Difference in granularity between Storage Gateway's File Gateway and Volume Gateway (NFS/SMB vs iSCSI, whether the destination is S3 or EBS snapshots)
- AWS DMS not supporting some Oracle-specific features
- Disabling cross-zone load balancing in NLB reduces inter-AZ data transfer costs
I filled these gaps by reading explanations of incorrect answers on Udemy and asking ChatGPT questions like "What is the difference between DataSync and Storage Gateway?" to organize the information.
Layer 3: AWS-specific services outside of NW/DB scope
Areas not covered by IPA, where NW/DB foundations cannot be directly applied. Specifically, these include:
- Organization Management: AWS Organizations, SCP, Control Tower, AWS Config
- IAM: IAM Identity Center, permission sets, AssumeRole and cross-account
- Migration: AWS MGN, AWS DMS, AWS DRS
- Edge systems: CloudFront, Global Accelerator, Lambda@Edge
- Messaging: Use cases for SNS, SES, Kinesis (Streams/Firehose), and SQS
In particular, organization management and IAM are not covered by IPA studies and felt frequent in exam questions, so caution is needed. Even within the NW area, I asked ChatGPT multiple questions about "VPC, ALB/NLB, Route 53," etc., indicating that AWS-specific NW specifications require separate study.
Even just one pass through the textbook gets you close to the passing level
This is just one individual's sample, so I cannot declare it universal, but if you hold an IPA certification, you will likely be in a similar situation.
After finishing the textbook, my accuracy rate on the first Udemy mock exam was 68%. I took the practice tests in "practice mode" (solving one question at a time) without timing myself.
At this point, my state was:
- Foundational knowledge from IPA NW/DB Specialist exams
- Finished reading the textbook and understood the names and primary uses of major AWS services
At this point, I had results close to the passing level. Of course, from this state, it was necessary to study Layer 2 (AWS-specific specifications) in particular. Nonetheless, compared to starting from scratch, IPA knowledge provides a significant advantage.
Learning Process
Here, I will introduce my learning process. While the optimal study method varies by person, I hope it serves as a reference.
Flow of Study
Textbook (Black Book)
↓
Udemy Practice Tests (multiple rounds)
↓
Test of strength with Official Practice Exam
↓
Actual Exam
* Throughout the process, use ChatGPT as a sounding board
Study Record
| Date | Content | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 12/14 | Purchased textbook and started reading | - |
| 12/30~1/5 | Udemy Practice Test No.1: Solved in exercise mode one question at a time | 68% |
| 1/5~1/10 | Udemy Practice Test No.2: Same exercise mode | 70% |
| 1/10 (AM) | Udemy Practice Test No.3: First 10 questions timed Test of strength with official mock questions |
Both 7/10 questions |
| 1/10 (PM) | Actual Exam | Passed (Score: 813) |
I started by reading the textbook. I made progress little by little on weekdays and holidays.
Next, I tackled the Udemy practice exams, mainly during the year-end and New Year holidays. My approach was to solve one question at a time in exercise mode, and whenever I didn't understand something, I asked ChatGPT to deepen my knowledge. The benefit of exercise mode is that you can dig deep into each question and it is easier to manage your time. In my case, I didn't solve them all in one day, but rather proceeded at about 10-20 questions per day.
Also, I did not take full-length timed mock exams, but I did time myself for just 10 questions to get a feel for the pacing of the actual exam. Focusing on the year-end and New Year period (around 1/1~1/5), the total study period was essentially about one month.
Materials Used
- Textbook: AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional Revised 2nd Edition
- Udemy Practice Tests: AWS Solution Architect Professional (AWS-SAP-C02) Practice Tests
- ChatGPT: Used as a sounding board when unknown terms appeared in question explanations. I used it like, "What is the difference between DataSync and Storage Gateway?" or "Which databases can DMS be used for?"
- Official Practice Exam: https://d1.awsstatic.com/ja_JP/training-and-certification/docs-sa-pro/AWS-Certified-Solutions-Architect-Professional_Sample-Questions.pdf
Summary
For an IPA NW/DB Specialist holder (with no practical experience), AWS SAP was an exam that could reach passing level in about one month.
What I observed as facts are the following three points:
- At the stage of 1 textbook pass + IPA foundations, I reached 68% on Udemy (close to the passing level).
- The error rate for questions requiring elimination or basic architecture judgment was 0%. The error rate for questions requiring AWS-specific knowledge was 35%.
- Study should focus on "memorizing fine-grained specifications" and "learning services outside the NW/DB scope (IAM/Organization/Migration)."
When aiming for a short-term pass, the simple strategy of getting a grasp of major service names and primary uses through one textbook pass, followed by solidifying fine-grained specifications through practice exams like Udemy, feels achievable.
I hope this serves as a reference for those who hold senior IPA certifications but are unsure of the difficulty level of SAP.
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As this included the year-end and New Year holidays, I believe I was able to dedicate more time than a typical one-month period. ↩︎
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AWS Solution Architect Professional (AWS-SAP-C02) Practice Tests
https://www.udemy.com/share/10bBe73@mRWNuR4S8UdEPQECqamdgGPXmcMVXErZdVjFGO1MkdzR80JMsEXBv747qaWjICf2QQ==/ ↩︎
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