How to pass the AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam on your 1st try

Scrumtuous Inc.

When I prepared for my AWS Cloud Practitioner certification, I didn’t just want to pass, but I wanted to make sure I walked into the exam room knowing exactly what to expect.

I wanted to walk into the AWS Practitioner exam with the same confidence I had when I passed the Scrum Master and Product Owner exams with near-perfect scores.

Over time, I’ve developed a repeatable strategy that I’ve now used to help me pass multiple IT certifications, including the AWS Cloud Practitioner exams. If you’re interested in passing the practitioner exam yourself, here’s a five step strategy that will help you do it:

Thoroughly read and cater your study based on the stated exam objectives
Do practice exams before you even begin your study
Take a course from a reputable trainer
Do some simple, hands-on projects
Spend the weekend before you sit the exam doing practice tests

Add on a sensible exam-day strategy, and you’ll greatly enhance your chances of passing your AWS certification exam on the first try.

Here’s how I tailored this strategy for the AWS Practitioner exam.

Chart showing cloud career titles and salaries

Step 1: Read the exam objectives

Before you dive into study materials, start with the official exam objects.

The exam objectives document tells you exactly what AWS intends to test you on. It lays out the domains, the weighting of each section, and which services are in scope.

Too many people skip this step, but I found it gave me clarity and direction. Without it, you risk wasting time on areas that won’t even be tested.

Step 2: Do practice exams before studying

This may sound counterintuitive, but I always recommend doing practice questions right at the start, even before studying.

Why?

Because it reveals how AWS frames its questions and highlights your blind spots.

You’ll quickly see which topics come up most often and where you need to focus. It also primes your brain.

Later, when you’re watching a video or reading notes, you’ll recognize concepts that appeared in those early practice exams, and they’ll stick much better.

Step 3: Take a course

Once you know your weak areas, commit to a structured course. AWS Skill Builder and AWS Academy both offer free foundational training, which is a great starting point.

If you want a deeper dive, platforms like Udemy have excellent paid courses that go step by step through the content.

Personally, I like pairing one free, online course or a YouTube playlist with one paid course so I can learn the official material and also get a different perspective.

Step 4: Do simple hands-on projects in the AWS console

Reading and watching videos only get you so far. To really understand AWS, you need to do. I recommend spinning up small, inexpensive projects in the AWS Management Console that connect directly to exam topics. For example:

Create an S3 bucket and configure it with versioning, lifecycle policies, and encryption.
Launch an EC2 instance, connect via SSH, and practice stopping, starting, and terminating it.
Deploy a simple website with AWS Amplify or S3 static website hosting.
Experiment with IAM roles and policies, such as giving a user read-only access to S3.
Set up a DynamoDB table and perform basic CRUD operations.

These small exercises not only make the services stick in your mind but also give you the kind of practical intuition AWS loves to test for.

It’ll heavily prepare you for prototypical questions like “Which service is best for this scenario with the least effort and cost?”

Step 5: Get serious about mock exams

When you feel like you’ve studied enough, it’s time to pressure test yourself. I dedicated entire days just to doing mock exams, reviewing answers, and then doing more.

You can buy practice exams from various providers, or if you’re on a budget, scour forums, blogs, and free resources online. The goal isn’t just to memorize answers but to practice reading AWS-style questions until the patterns become second nature.

Average salary, by AWS certification

Your exam-day strategy

By the time exam day comes around, you should feel ready. These strategies helped me stay sharp under pressure:

Read the questions carefully and pay close attention to keywords like “least effort,” “lowest cost,” or “most secure.”
Eliminate distractors quickly, since two of the options are usually wrong right away, leaving you with a narrower set to choose from.
Choose managed services when possible, because AWS almost always prefers the option that requires less setup and administration.
Make a first pass through the exam answering what you know, then review flagged questions in a second round.
Never leave a question unanswered, since even a guess gives you a chance to score points.
Keep track of time, aiming to finish the first pass with at least 20 minutes left so you can review thoroughly without rushing.
Use later questions as clues, because sometimes wording in a later scenario will jog your memory or clarify an earlier one.

By pacing myself with this strategy, I was able to make two full passes through the exam, catch mistakes I almost missed, and walk out with confidence.

There are always unforeseen variables that impact whether you will pass an exam or not, but I’ve found these steps greatly minimize risk and enhance your odds of passing your exam on the first try.

Hopefully you’ll be able to use this strategy to pass the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam on your first try, just like me.