Follow This and You Can Pass: My AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional (SAP-C02) Exam Experience

I successfully passed the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional (SAP-C02) exam, so I’m sharing my experience.

Table of Contents

Exam Result

• Score: 777/1000 (passing score: 750)
• Exam date/time: Tuesday, September 30, 2025, from 14:00 (test center)
• Passing notification (email): Tuesday, September 30, 2025, 20:20

Prerequisite Knowledge

• Already passed SAA-C03, DVA-C02, SOA-C02, DAS-C01, SCS-C02, and DOP-C02

Study Method (Conclusion: CloudTech Only + Using ChatGPT as a Sounding Board)

My study period was 2 weeks. I went through the CloudTech question bank 3 times.

What I Did

My study method mainly involved using ChatGPT as a sounding board.

• I dug deep until I could explain “what the question is asking” and “why that answer is correct.”
• I repeatedly went through the loop of “explain the question I got wrong in my own words → have ChatGPT point out gaps in my understanding → restate the correct understanding in my own words.”

Saying things like, “So because of XX, that means YY, right?” and bouncing ideas off ChatGPT while putting them into my own words made them stick really well.

The Actual Exam

My impression was that almost none of the question types I had seen on CloudTech appeared on the exam (honestly, only around 10%). The tendencies were so different that at first I broke into a cold sweat, to the point where I wondered, “Did I sign up for the wrong exam?”

That said, the understanding I had built up so far (including from the AWS exams I had taken before) paid off, and I somehow managed by using the process of elimination.

The DOP exam I took last year had the same tendency, but for container-related questions, most of them were about Kubernetes (EKS).

Thoughts

CloudTech gave me the impression that it has relatively few Kubernetes questions (almost none), so I felt that self-study is essential here. Also, CloudTech may be somewhat outdated, so honestly, it may be hard to recommend to people starting their studies now.

If you use CloudTech to prepare for SAP, I felt that it is impossible to win by “hoping past questions appear again.”

Finally

If you are unsure how to study, go with this loop: build a foundation with a question bank → use ChatGPT to verbalize “why it works that way” and close the gaps Let’s do it!

p.s. Is CloudTech already outdated…? Even though I paid 49,800 yen for the one-time purchase plan…