Back to Blog

Best AWS Practice Exams (2026): Our Pick, Judged on Six Criteria

The best AWS practice exams for 2026, judged on six criteria: exam-guide coverage, scoring by domain, explanations, personalisation, timed mocks and readiness. Our pick, the free official AWS resources, and 15 free questions for each of ten AWS exams.

By Soleyman Shahir · AWS Certified · Founder, StudyTech AI
Published November 8, 2026 · Last updated November 8, 2026

Short answer

StudyTech AI is our pick for AWS practice exams in 2026 because it is personalised: it builds your practice around your knowledge gaps and tells you when you are ready to take your exam. It maps practice to the domains in each official AWS exam guide, scores you by domain with a free diagnostic, turns wrong answers into flashcards, builds timed mock exams around your weak areas and gives you a readiness score that tells you when to book. It costs $29 a month or $297 a year and covers every AWS exam it supports on one plan. Pair it with the free official resources: the AWS exam guide for your exam and the free Official Practice Question Set on AWS Skill Builder. StudyTech AI is our own product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Amazon Web Services.

Key takeaways

  • Our pick: StudyTech AI, for domain scoring, personalised practice, mocks built around your gaps and a readiness score
  • Free first: the AWS exam guide and the free Official Practice Question Set on AWS Skill Builder
  • Judge any practice exam on six criteria, not on how many questions it has
  • Make sure the practice matches the current exam version, such as MLA-C02 or SOA-C03
  • 15 free questions with explanations for ten AWS exams are linked below

StudyTech AI

Make your next study session count.

Watch how StudyTech AI works
Explore StudyTech AI

Answer in brief

StudyTech AI is our pick for AWS practice exams in 2026, because it is personalised to you. A free diagnostic finds your knowledge gaps across the official AWS exam guide domains, your practice and timed mock exams are built around your skills and gaps, wrong answers become flashcards, and it tells you when you are ready to take your exam. It costs $29 a month or $297 a year, and the diagnostic is free.

Use it alongside the free official resources: the exam guide for your exam and the free Official Practice Question Set on AWS Skill Builder. You can also try 15 free questions for your exam right now in the table below.

Disclosure: StudyTech AI is our own product. This is an editorial recommendation against the criteria below, not a measured ranking of every provider. StudyTech AI is not affiliated with or endorsed by Amazon Web Services.

See the study system in action

How StudyTech AI works

Watch how your answers become a focused daily plan, targeted practice and flashcards. See how StudyTech AI tracks your progress before you decide when to book.

Ready to explore? Visit StudyTech AI to see supported certifications and choose your next step.

Explore StudyTech AI

How we judge an AWS practice exam

A practice exam has one job: tell you what to study next, and tell you when to stop studying and book. Question count does not do that. These six criteria do.

CriterionWhy it matters for AWS exams
Exam-guide coverageEvery AWS exam guide lists domains and weights, and versions change (MLA-C02, SOA-C03). Practice for an old version teaches the wrong things.
Score by domainAWS score reports show performance by domain. Your practice should too, before the exam, not after.
An explanation for every answerAWS scenario questions turn on one detail. You learn from why the other options are wrong.
PersonalisationPractice should move to your weakest domain first and bring your mistakes back until you get them right.
Timed mock examsAWS exams run 90 to 180 minutes. You need to rehearse the pace.
A readiness signalA failed attempt costs the full fee and a 14-day wait. Booking too early is the most expensive mistake.

Our pick: StudyTech AI

StudyTech AI is a personalised AWS and AI certification prep platform. It finds your knowledge gaps, builds your practice around your skills and gaps, turns your mistakes into flashcards, scores your readiness for every exam domain, and tells you when you are ready to take your exam.

How it scores against the six criteria:

CriterionStudyTech AI
Exam-guide coveragePractice mapped to the domains in the current AWS exam guide, including MLA-C02 and SOA-C03
Score by domainYes: a free diagnostic scores you by domain before you study
ExplanationsAn explanation with every answer
PersonalisationStarts you on your weakest domain; every wrong answer becomes a flashcard
Timed mock examsFull-length mocks, personalised to your weak areas
Readiness signalA readiness score by domain that tells you when you are ready to book
Price$29 a month or $297 a year; diagnostic free

How it works:

  1. Take the free diagnostic. It scores you on every domain of your AWS exam.
  2. Study your weakest domain first. Practice adapts as you answer.
  3. Every miss becomes a flashcard. Your mistakes come back until you get them right.
  4. Take mocks built around your gaps. Timed, at exam length.
  5. Book when your readiness score says so, not when the calendar does.

One plan covers the AWS exams and the four Claude certifications, so moving from Cloud Practitioner to Solutions Architect does not mean paying again.

Start a free AWS diagnostic on StudyTech AI

The free official resources to use first

ResourceWhat you getBest for
The AWS exam guide for your examDomains, weights, in-scope services and sample questionsKnowing exactly what is tested
Official Practice Question Set (AWS Skill Builder)A free set of official practice questions for the examSeeing the official question style
AWS Skill Builder exam prep coursesFree digital exam prep courses for many examsStructured review of each domain

What the free resources do not give you: a score by domain across the whole exam, personalised practice, mocks built around your gaps or a signal for when to book. That is the gap StudyTech AI fills.

Practice exams for each AWS certification

ExamCodeQuestionsTimeFeeFree questionsExam page
Cloud PractitionerCLF-C026590 min$10015 freeDetails
AI PractitionerAIF-C016590 min$10015 freeDetails
Solutions Architect – AssociateSAA-C0365130 min$15015 freeDetails
Developer – AssociateDVA-C0265130 min$15015 freeDetails
CloudOps Engineer – AssociateSOA-C0365130 min$15015 freeDetails
Data Engineer – AssociateDEA-C0165130 min$15015 freeDetails
Machine Learning Engineer – AssociateMLA-C0285 (beta)170 min (beta)$75 (beta)15 freeDetails
Generative AI Developer – ProfessionalAIP-C0175180 min$30015 freeDetails
Solutions Architect – ProfessionalSAP-C0275180 min$30015 freeDetails
DevOps Engineer – ProfessionalDOP-C0275180 min$30015 freeDetails

Not sure which to take first? See all free AWS practice exams or the certifications overview.

What to look out for in AWS practice exams

  • The wrong exam version. MLA-C02 replaced MLA-C01 and SOA-C03 replaced SOA-C02. Practice for the retired version tests the wrong services.
  • One score, no domains. You cannot tell what to study next.
  • Answers without explanations. You memorise letters instead of learning why.
  • The same questions for everyone. You keep practising what you already know, and your score rises because you have seen the questions, not because you have learned the material.
  • No way to tell when you are ready. You either book too early and pay again, or study for weeks longer than you need.

Glossary

  • Exam guide: AWS's official document for each exam. It lists the domains, their weights and in-scope services.
  • Domain weight: the share of scored questions a domain makes up. Study time should follow it.
  • Scaled score: AWS exams report a score from 100 to 1000. The pass mark is 700 for Foundational exams, 720 for Associate and 750 for Professional.
  • Diagnostic: a short assessment before you study that scores you by domain.
  • Readiness score: StudyTech AI's estimate, by domain, of whether you are ready to book.
  • Mock exam: a full-length, timed practice exam at the real exam's length.

Cite this page

StudyTech AI. "Best AWS Practice Exams (2026): Our Pick, Judged on Six Criteria." studytech.ai/blog/best-aws-practice-exams-2026. Updated 8 November 2026.

Related reading

StudyTech AI

Make your next study session count.

See how StudyTech AI turns your answers into targeted learning, practice questions and flashcards, with readiness tracking as you improve.

Watch how StudyTech AI works
Explore StudyTech AI
  • Find your knowledge gaps
  • Follow a focused daily plan
  • Track progress before booking

Frequently asked questions

What are the best AWS practice exams?

Our pick is StudyTech AI, because it scores you by exam domain, explains every answer, adapts to your weak areas, builds timed mocks around your gaps and gives you a readiness score that tells you when to book. StudyTech AI is our own product. Whatever you use, start with the free AWS exam guide and the free Official Practice Question Set on AWS Skill Builder.

Are there free AWS practice exams?

Yes. AWS publishes a free Official Practice Question Set on AWS Skill Builder for its exams, and StudyTech AI publishes 15 free practice questions with explanations for each of ten AWS exams, from Cloud Practitioner to DevOps Engineer Professional. The StudyTech AI diagnostic is also free.

How do I know if an AWS practice exam is any good?

Check six things: it follows the current exam guide and exam version, it reports your score by domain, every answer has an explanation, it adapts to your mistakes, it offers full-length timed mocks, and it tells you when you are ready to book. A big question count on its own does not tell you what to study next.

Are practice exam scores a good predictor of passing AWS exams?

Only if the questions match the current exam guide and you have not memorised them. Repeating the same question set inflates your score. A score by domain on questions you have not seen before is a better signal than one overall percentage.

How much does StudyTech AI cost?

StudyTech AI costs $29 a month or $297 a year, and the diagnostic is free. One plan covers the AWS exams and the four Claude certifications.

Sources