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Ultimate AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate 2026 (Udemy.com)

Full Practice Exam | Learn Cloud Computing | Pass the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Certification SAA-C03!

4.7
297,485 reviews

Created by: Stephane Maarek

Last updated September 2026

Our take

Based on the ratings of 297,485 students, a sample of their written reviews and the syllabus, as the course stood in September 2026. No course pays to be reviewed.

This is exam prep for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate, SAA-C03, and it is the paid pick on our AWS page. Stephane Maarek walks through 27 hours across 397 lectures and 27 sections, from IAM and EC2 through VPC networking, with 29 quizzes and one full practice exam at the end. It assumes basic IT knowledge and no AWS experience, and the labs run on the free tier. The audience is people who want the certificate, not a general cloud tour, though the architecture discussion sections give it more real-world use than a pure cram course.

The reviews are lopsided in a good way: about two thirds of nearly 300,000 ratings are five stars, and most recent reviewers say they passed, several saying the course plus practice exams was all they needed. They praise the clear delivery and the way Maarek adds context beyond the slides. The complaints are real but smaller. One three-star review calls the content thin for its length, with too little on why overlapping services like DataSync, Transfer Family and File Gateway exist. One reviewer says the chapter quizzes don't always match the lectures, and another wanted more on EKS and Redshift after seeing them on the exam.

Value is strong for a paid course. It was updated in September 2026, so the console walkthroughs should be current, and the update log lists a refresh every year from 2019 to 2023. Plan on buying separate practice exams; the included one is a single test and reviewers lean on extra ones. If you want the Cloud Practitioner first, a CLF-C02 course sits beside this one on our AWS page. For the SAA-C03 itself, this is the one to take.

Best forAnyone who wants one structured path to the Solutions Architect Associate exam, starting from zero AWS experience.
Skip it ifYou want deep reasoning on why similar AWS services exist and when to pick each; reviewers say those comparisons stay shallow.

Pros

  • 27 hours across 397 lectures, ordered as a progression from IAM and EC2 to VPC rather than a service list
  • Refreshed in September 2026, with logged updates every year from 2019 to 2023, so console walkthroughs stay current
  • Recent reviewers report passing with this course plus practice exams, some with no other study
  • All 800+ slides come as a downloadable PDF, handy for revision in the last week before the exam

Cons

  • A three-star reviewer found it thin on why similar services exist and when to pick one over another
  • Only one full practice exam is included; several passing reviewers used extra tests
  • One reviewer says chapter quizzes don't line up well with the lecture content
This course alone was enough to pass the exam. Once I was getting 80% on the practice exams that was more than enough to pass.
Yasir, a student

Listed as All Levels, but it really starts at zero AWS; only basic IT knowledge is assumed, and the free tier covers the labs.

Featured in our guides: The 10 Best AWS Courses on Udemy in 2026 and The 10 Best IT Certification Courses on Udemy in 2026, One per Exam

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What you will learn

  • FULLY UPDATED FOR SAA-C03: Pass the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Certification
  • Full Practice Exam with Explanations included!
  • All 800+ slides available as downloadable PDF
  • Perform Real-World Solution Architecture on AWS
  • Learn the AWS Fundamentals (EC2, ELB, ASG, RDS, ElastiCache, S3)
  • Learn the Serverless Fundamentals (Lambda, DynamoDB, Cognito, API Gateway)
  • Analyze 10+ Solution Architectures (traditional & serverless)
  • Understand the Well Architected Framework, Disaster Recovery
  • Master all the differences of Databases on AWS
  • Secure your entire AWS Cloud using KMS, IAM Policies & SSM

Course content

27 sections · 397 lectures · 27 hours of video 29 quizzes, 1 practice test, 12 articles

  1. 1Introduction - AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate 2 free previews7 lectures · 15 min
  2. 2Code & Slides Download1 lecture
  3. 3Getting started with AWS 2 free previews3 lectures · 13 min
  4. 4IAM & AWS CLI 17 free previews20 lectures · 1 quiz · 57 min
  5. 5EC2 Fundamentals 13 free previews16 lectures · 1 quiz · 1.6 hours
  6. 6EC2 - Solutions Architect Associate Level 2 free previews9 lectures · 1 quiz · 34 min
  7. 7EC2 Instance Storage 1 free preview14 lectures · 1 quiz · 59 min
  8. 8High Availability and Scalability: ELB & ASG 3 free previews17 lectures · 1 quiz · 1.6 hours
  9. 9AWS Fundamentals: RDS + Aurora + ElastiCache 2 free previews14 lectures · 1 quiz · 1.2 hours
  10. 10Route 53 2 free previews20 lectures · 1 quiz · 1.4 hours

Who it is for

The instructor says it suits

  • Anyone wanting to acquire the knowledge to pass the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate SAA-C03 Certification
  • Solutions Architects who want to know how to leverage all AWS services for their solution architecture

What you need before you start

  • Know the basics of IT
  • No AWS Cloud experience is necessary, we'll use the AWS Free Tier
  • Windows / Linux / Mac OS X Machine

How it compares

Against the other 235 rated Udemy courses in AWS on CourseDuck:

  • Rating4.7 out of 5higher than 83% of them
  • Reviews297,485#1 of 236 by number of reviews
  • Length27.2 hourslonger than 90% of them
  • Last updatedSeptember 2026more recently than 85% of them

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Quality Score

Content Quality
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Video Quality
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Qualified Instructor
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Course Depth & Coverage
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Overall Score : 94 / 100

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Course Description

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AWS Awards Best Paid Course

Welcome! I'm here to help you prepare and PASS the NEWEST AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate SAA-C03 exam [Course FULLY updated]


** Updates List **

[May 2023 Update]: Over 20 videos have been refreshed/added to keep up with the AWS UI changes and exam changes

[September 2022 Update - SAA-C03]: Over 80 videos have been updated to reflect the NEW SAA-C03 exam

[April 2022 Update]: Over 30 videos have been refreshed/added to keep up with the AWS UI changes and exam changes

[October 2021 Update]: Over 100 videos have been refreshed/added to keep up with the AWS UI changes and exam changes

[April 2021 Update]: Over 100 videos have been refreshed/added to keep up with the AWS UI changes and exam changes

[Dec 2020 Update]: The S3 section has been entirely re-recorded to accommodate for the AWS UI changes

[May 2020 Update]: 20+ videos have been updated to keep up with AWS UI changes.

[February 2020 Update - SAA-C02]: The course has been updated for the NEW 2020 exam version. Overall, 80 videos have been added or updated, and the course is now 22 hours long. Happy learning!

[July 2019 Update]: Few lectures refreshed, including AWS Budgets and EC2 placement groups.


Beginners welcome: no need to know anything about AWS!

The AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate SAA-C03 certification is one of the most challenging exams. It's great at assessing how well you understand not just AWS, but making sure you are making the best architectural decisions based on situations, which makes this certification incredibly valuable to have and pass. Rest assured, I've passed it myself with a score of 982 out of 1000. Yes, you read that right, I only made one mistake! Next, I want to help YOU pass the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate certification with flying colors.

This is going to be a long journey, but passing the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate exam will be worth it!


This AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate course is different from the other ones you'll find on Udemy. Dare I say, better (but you'll judge!)

  • We will spend over three hours discussing solution architecture on AWS in depth. 

  • It covers in-depth all the new topics on the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate SAA-C02 exam

  • It's packed with practical knowledge on how to use AWS inside and out as a solutions architect

  • It teaches you how to prepare for the AWS exam AND how to prepare for the real world

  • It's a logical progression of topics, not a laundry list of random services

  • It's fast-paced and to the point

  • It has professional subtitles

  • All 800+ slides available as downloadable PDF


Concretely, here's what we'll learn to pass the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate exam:

  • The AWS Fundamentals: IAM, EC2, Load Balancing, Auto Scaling, EBS, EFS, Route 53, RDS, ElastiCache, S3, CloudFront

  • The AWS CLI: CLI setup, usage on EC2, best practices, SDK, advanced usage

  • In-Depth Database comparison: RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, ElastiCache, DocumentDB, Neptune, Keyspaces, QLDB, Timestream

  • Analytics services comparison: Athena, EMR, Redshift, OpenSearch, Lake Formation, Kinesis Data Analytics, MSK, QuickSight, Glue

  • Machine Learning services: Rekognition, Transcribe, Polly, Translate, Lex, Comprehend, SageMaker, Forecast, Kendra, Personalize, Textract.

  • Monitoring, Troubleshooting & Audit: CloudWatch, CloudTrail, EventBridge, Config

  • AWS Integration & Messaging: SQS, SNS, Kinesis Amazon MQ

  • AWS Serverless: AWS Lambda, DynamoDB, API Gateway, Step Functions

  • AWS Containers Services: ECS, ECR, EKS, App Runner

  • AWS Security best practices: KMS, SSM Parameter Store, Secrets Manager, IAM Policies, Cognito, Shield, WAF, Firewall Manager, SSO, Certificate Manager, GuardDuty, Inspector, Macie

  • VPC & Networking in depth

  • Disaster Recovery & Migrations: DMS, Aurora & RDS Migrations, AWS Backup, Application Migration Service, VMware Cloud on AWS

  • AWS Other Services Overview: CloudFormation, SES, Pinpoint, SSM Session Manager, Elastic Transcoder, Batch, AppFlow...

  • Tips to ROCK the exam


This AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate course is full of opportunities to apply your knowledge:

  • There are many hands-on lectures in every section

  • There are quizzes at the end of every section

  • There's an AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate practice exam at the end of the course

  • We'll be using the AWS Free Tier most of the time

  • I'll be showing you how to go beyond the AWS Free Tier (you know... the real world!)



Instructor

My name is Stéphane Maarek, I am passionate about Cloud Computing, and I will be your instructor in this course. I teach about AWS certifications, focusing on helping my students improve their professional proficiencies in AWS.

I have already taught 1,500,000+ students and gotten 500,000+ reviews throughout my career in designing and delivering these certifications and courses!

With AWS becoming the centerpiece of today's modern IT architectures, I've decided it's time for students to learn how to be an AWS Solutions Architect Associate properly. So, let’s kick start the course! You are in good hands!


This course also comes with:

  • Lifetime access to all future updates

  • A responsive instructor in the Q&A Section

  • Udemy Certificate of Completion Ready for Download

  • A 30 Day "No Questions Asked" Money Back Guarantee!

Join me in this course if you want to pass the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Certification SAA-C03 Exam and master the AWS platform!
Read More All Levels All Levels product length iconTime: 27.2h

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Instructor Details

Stephane Maarek

Stephane is a solutions architect, consultant and software developer that has a particular interest in all things related to Cloud & Big Data. He's also a many-times best seller instructor on Udemy for his courses in AWS and Apache Kafka.


[See FAQ below to see in which order you can take my courses]

Stéphane is recognized as an AWS Hero and is an AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional & AWS Certified DevOps Professional. He loves to teach people how to use the AWS properly, to get them ready for their AWS certifications, and most importantly for the real world.

He also loves Apache Kafka. He used on the Program Committee organizing the Kafka Summit in New York, London and San Francisco. He also was an active member of the Apache Kafka community, and has authored blogs on Medium and the guest blog for Confluent. He also has co-founded Conduktor, a prominent company in the Kafka ecosystem.


During his spare time, Stéphane composes piano music, that he publishes online under the artist name Makera ?


FAQ: In which order should you learn?...

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Reviews

4.7

297,485 ratings on Udemy

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By Fabian Padilla on 9/4/2026

I just wanted to say a big thank you for your amazing guidance and resources. They really helped me prepare and pass the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA‑C03) exam. Your clear teaching style and practical insights made the journey much easier, and I’m truly grateful for the impact you’ve had on my success.

By Ra'ees Benny on 8/28/2026

Passed the exam. Extremely good material. Remember to narrow it down to the last 2 options then filter out what is correct based on the question. Look for keywords in the question. Good through everything then you should be fine. Another good resource: https://portal.tutorialsdojo.com/courses/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-practice-exams/ Go back and forth with AI to nail down each service and the concepts. Practice solution diagrams and draw it out on hand and paper. Talk to yourself out loud. You can do it!!!

By Muthu Vedhachalam on 8/26/2026

These sessions gives good understanding and the explanation was very understandable. As Stephene always says, he gives more information than what is there is slide or am interested watch his videos then just going through materials. I have cleared AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate today and Thanks to Stephene for wonderful sessions. In my exam I got more questions on AWS EKS and Redshift, maybe you have add more details in your video which might give more knowledge

By Kamil 123 on 8/23/2026

A top-notch learning resource. With regards to what can be improved these are tiny things, like the wording and pronounciation is sometimes scruffy: I go through it 3 times and see that it's incomprehensible (throught the whole course it may have happen a couple of times, so still not an issue). Wordings like "so this is in this, but not in that, so that's it." Stating this, I cannot imagine finding a better learning resource in the whole Internet. Please teach as many topics in this quality as You can, Stefan.

By Scott McFarlane on 8/17/2026

Used this course along with Stephane and John Dojo practice tests which i treated like a full time job due to never touching AWS before. After 3 and half months I passed the SAA-C03 exam on the 13th of August 2026. The exam was harder in my eyes but the information provided by the combination I used was invaluable.

By Patrick Wilson on 8/17/2026

I think the course content delivery is a little fast, but that aside a great course. I used this with the SAA-C03 Test Pack to prepare and pass the AWS Solutions Architect - Associate exam. I will be using Stephane again for the Security specialty and in the event I deiced to go for Cloud Engineer Certification.

By Manshu Saxena on 7/6/2026

I passed the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate exam today, and this course was one of the biggest reasons behind my success. The content is comprehensive, easy to understand, and explains AWS concepts in a logical and structured way. The real strength of the course is that it focuses on building a strong understanding rather than rote memorization. If you complete it sincerely and reinforce your learning with practice tests, you'll be well prepared for the exam. Highly recommended, and thank you for creating such an excellent course!

By Brian Elsts on 6/30/2026

It took me a few tries, but I was able to pass my certification after using this course, as well as the additional practice exams that are on here. For myself, I probably spent too long on the course (doing just a little bit at a time over several months). So, I probably forgot a good bit before taking the exam (first try I probably only failed by 2 or 3 questions). It's not easy as you need to know the lowest cost, highest performance, or most secure, but it's doable (I never used AWS prior to this course). I recommend the course, he's easy to listen to, and tries to explain things where you easily understand.

By Indika Wannakuarachchi on 6/10/2026

I relied solely on this course to prepare for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate exam, and it proved to be more than sufficient. The content is well-structured, clear, and easy to follow, even for complex topics. It simplifies concepts in a way that makes learning efficient and enjoyable. Thanks to this course, I was able to understand the key AWS services and exam concepts quickly and confidently. I didn’t need to refer to any additional materials, which speaks to the completeness and quality of the training. Overall, this is an excellent course for anyone aiming to pass the SAA certification with confidence and minimal hassle. Highly recommended!

By Hamza Mahmood on 5/12/2026

Thanks Stephane! First, he helped me pass the Cloud Practitioner exam in less than a month with 967, then this course helped me pass the Solutions Architect - Associate exam with 911 WITHOUT ANY PRIOR AWS KNOWLEDGE OR EXPERIENCE. Amazing teacher, gives you just enough to pass the exam without leaving out important details.

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Ultimate AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate 2026
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  • Video Duration: icon 27.2h
  • Price: $129.99
  • Provider: icon Udemy
  • Updated: icon September 2026
  • Level: All Levels All Levels
  • Language: icon English
  • Certificate: icon Yes
  • Lectures:397 in 27 sections
  • Practice:29 quizzes, 1 practice test
  • Students:1.3 million
  • Subtitles:33 languages
  • Udemy badge:Bestseller
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