r/AWSCertifications: rules, karma requirements and posting culture

Who posts here

Most posts are about the foundational and associate exams, written by students, career changers and developers with little cloud experience. Basic questions get answered, and AutoModerator points resource requests to the FAQ instead of removing them. Exam codes like SAA-C03 and CLF-C02 are used without explanation, so learn those first. Asking for a shortcut around the study material gets a blunt reply.

• Students and new graduates collecting a first cloud certificate for their CV.
• Working developers and engineers told by an employer to get certified, often studying around a full time job.
• Career changers trying to move into cloud or DevOps roles.
• A smaller group of experienced engineers working through the professional and specialty exams.
• Course and practice exam authors, who are known to the community and expected to stick to the Monday promotion rule.

Karma and account requirements

What it takes to get a post through in r/AWSCertifications.

What you can post

What happens to a new post

Where the most recent posts ended up. Sample size: 400.

• Stayed up78%
• Removed by Reddit's filters19%
• Removed by moderators2%
• Deleted by the author1%

Reddit counts a removal by the subreddit's own AutoModerator rules as a moderator removal, so that share is not all human. Held by AutoModerator means the post is waiting in the mod queue.

The rules, in the mods' words

1. 1

   DO NOT POST GENERAL AWS NEWS/QUESTIONS

   Use /r/AWS instead. There are multiple "AWS" subreddit types, /r/AWSCertifications is not the only one that exists. For example, there is /r/AWS, /r/AmazonWebServices, /r/AWSJobs, etc. Use your best judgment but again, do not post general AWS news/questions *here* in /r/AWSCertifications.

2. 2

   No spam

   Don't clickbait. This is not BuzzFeed or Mojo. "TEN GREAT WAYS TO BECOME A MASTER CLOUD ARCHITECT" doesn't help anyone.

3. 3

   Mondays only for promoted content

   This rule is specific in reducing blogspam so that the subreddit can be more focused on text-discussion. See next rule.

4. 4

   Encourage HIGH EFFORT text-based dialogue

   "Nice job on passing your AWS cert, check out my blog for more tips" takes away the dialogue focus from the subreddit. While this is not a hard rule, *put effort in* so it doesn't look like you're just shoehorning your content for clicks. This goes hand-in-hand with the rule on Redditquette, which is below.

5. 5

   Be civil and constructive

   You can disagree on opinions, sure, but *do not resort to personal attacks*. I get that we are passionate about our preferred instructors, but that doesn't justify name-calling. Or worse.

6. 6

   Follow standard redditquette

   If you need to be coached on how to use the internet, this subreddit probably isn't for you yet -- brush up on redditquette and come on back!

7. 7

   Report posts/comments you do not feel are appropriate

   As with any community, the culture and tone changes over time. Please bring posts/comments you do not feel are appropriate to the subreddit Moderation team by either using the "MESSAGE THE MODS" button or just by using the "report" button on a given post/comment.

8. 8

   Do not post illegal things!

   This includes dumps which are a violation of the AWS Certification Agreement as it is considered "unauthorized content disclosure." Violation of the rule will result in immediate permanent ban as well as reporting to Reddit for illegal activity under section 12 of the Reddit User Agreement.

These are the rules as archived in January 2025. Rules change. Check the sidebar before you post.

The culture

r/AWSCertifications is a study group with about 174,000 members. People come here in the weeks before an exam and come back once to say they passed. The whole place runs on that loop: someone posts a result, lists what they used, and the next wave of candidates copies the plan.

The dominant format is the pass report. It is usually an image of the score with a write up underneath: background, how long the prep took, which course, which practice exams, what the real exam leaned on. About 69% of posts are text and 23% are images, and nearly every popular post is an image of a result. The same handful of resources come up constantly: one Udemy instructor's courses, Tutorials Dojo practice exams and AWS Skill Builder. The AI Practitioner exam is now the most common exam flair.

The fault line is what a certificate is worth. One side stacks exams and posts every pass. The other says certs only tick a box on a job description and that built projects matter more. Speed run posts, passing in two or four days, get upvoted and also get comments doubting that anything was learned. Both views live here without much heat.

What lands

• A pass report with the score, your background, the timeline and the exact materials. The more specific the study plan, the better it does.
• Notes on a new or beta exam where little prep material exists yet, saying which topics showed up more than the practice tests suggested.
• Honest accounts of a near miss, a failed first attempt or a bad proctoring experience, with what you would change.
• Cross exam advice from someone holding several certs, such as the handful of services worth knowing cold for every exam.
• Free notes or a flashcard deck shared in the post itself, with a caveat about what they do not cover.

What gets removed or ignored

• Posts selling, offering or asking for exam vouchers. Almost every moderator removal in the sample was one of these.
• Comments doing the same thing. AutoModerator removes voucher requests and offers in comment threads too.
• Exam dumps or leaked questions. The rules promise a permanent ban and a report to Reddit, and mods step into threads to warn people who mention question banks of unclear origin.
• General AWS troubleshooting or news that has nothing to do with an exam.
• Clickbait listicles and blog links dropped outside the Monday window.

The unwritten rules

• Say which exam by its code and give your background. A study plan from a six year engineer means something different from one written by a first year student, and readers want to know which you are.
• Ask for course recommendations and AutoModerator will reply with a link to the FAQ. It fires on a lot of threads. Read the FAQ first and ask the thing it does not answer.
• Thank the community and name what you used. It is the local custom, and the course authors read the subreddit.
• Do not ask for cheat sheets or a way to skip the course. Regulars read it as looking for an easy way out, and a cheat sheet request can get mistaken for a dumps request.
• Comments are short, about 20 words, and almost never carry links. A link in a comment stands out.

Self-promotion

The rule is unusually clear: promoted content is for Mondays, during US hours, and the mods want effort, not a pass congratulation with a blog link bolted on. In practice, people who share their own notes or a write up after passing do well, including ones who link to their own site, as long as the Reddit post carries the full content and the link is extra. A mod comment in the sample also dismissed a resource because its author had not contacted the mods to get it onto the approved list, so if you make prep material, message the mods before you post it.

How people write here

Typical post length

112 words

Typical title length

9 words

Titles phrased as a question

16%

Typical comment length

20 words

Comments that include a link

1%

Posts that carry a flair

40%

The regulars

The accounts that showed up most in our sample. Worth reading before you post: they set the tone, and they are usually the first to reply.

Top keywords

The words and phrases that show up far more often here than in other communities, from recent posts in r/AWSCertifications.

• aws 251 posts
• exam 194 posts
• aws certified 79 posts
• practitioner 99 posts
• ai practitioner 56 posts
• cloud practitioner 58 posts
• passed 110 posts
• practice exams 45 posts
• exams 79 posts
• stephane 39 posts
• maarek 38 posts
• dojo 42 posts
• passed aws 37 posts
• certified ai 37 posts
• practitioner exam 34 posts
• solutions architect 46 posts
• practice 88 posts
• associate 67 posts
• saa 39 posts
• saa-c03 31 posts
• aif-c01 31 posts
• cloud 86 posts
• stephane maarek 29 posts
• architect associate 32 posts
• aws ai 28 posts
• certification 58 posts
• udemy 40 posts
• course 77 posts
• tutorials dojo 23 posts
• skill builder 23 posts
• aws certification 21 posts
• clf-c02 20 posts
• aws cloud 25 posts
• tutorial dojo 19 posts
• aws skill 19 posts
• study 54 posts
• preparing 39 posts
• udemy course 18 posts
• aws services 21 posts
• practitioner aif-c01 17 posts

Posts that did well

• The Score i never expected for my SAA409 upvotes · 154 comments · AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate
• Passed AWS AI Practitioner exam today250 upvotes · 42 comments · AWS Certified AI Practitioner
• Passed AIB - 10/13 on the Golden Path!206 upvotes · 39 comments
• Passed AWS Solutions Architect Professional (SAP-C02) - Score 801/1000164 upvotes · 23 comments · AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional
• [3/3] Cleared SAA-C03, AIF-C01, CLF-C02 all in 2 months, sharing my notes again (with a caveat this time)147 upvotes · 34 comments
• 2 for 2. Tips for all certs:137 upvotes · 5 comments
• Passed AWS SAA-C03 in just 4 days of intensive studying127 upvotes · 36 comments
• New AWS exam instead of Advanced Networking Specialty ?121 upvotes · 16 comments

Common questions