Materials

• First of all, read exam blueprint.
• Pluralsight course: AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate.
• A cloud guru course: AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate 2018.
• Jayendra’s Blog.
• AWS Well-Architected Framework.
• AWS official documentation – read at least core concepts/how it works sections from all major services. For example: core components for DynamoDB.
• FAQ for all major services.
• Practice tests using for example Whizlabs or official AWS sample questions.

Practice!

• Sign up with AWS for the Free Tier account.
• Practice! This is the most important part – configure basic services, check options, create networks, etc. Play around with AWS CLI, make CloudFormation stack…
• You can also practice with Qwiklabs – there are some free AWS labs.
• Never store your credentials on GitHub, you will be surprised how quickly cryptocurrency mining instances will show up :).

Exam

• 65 questions, 130 minutes.
• Multiple choice, multiple answers questions.
• For me 130 minutes was just enough to answer all questions and review the uncertain ones. No much more time left though.
• Expect scenario type questions, where you have to choose best suited AWS service, option in the service or architecture.
• Exam is focused on core services but there are questions related to less common one, like Simple Workflow Service or OpsWorks.

Good luck!