Three of my AWS colleagues run the popular BeSA (Become a Solutions Architect) program. They meet every Saturday online to provide structured mentoring to help aspiring Solutions Architects prepare to interview at AWS.

They record each session and post the videos to the AWS Solutions Architect Interview Process playlist.

What is the learning path to prepare for "Solution Architect" Role?

Recommend online courses (or) Interview material.

I have experience as an architect mainly AWS, Kafka, Java and dot net, but I want to prepare my self to face interviews in 3 months.

What are the areas I need to focus?

Don't know If this is the right sub to ask but here goes nothing , I applied for a for Solutions Architect job on the amazon jobs website and got an email that they want to interview me . So my questions are how does the interview process usually go ( Tips would have highly appreciated) and how many of you here have actually got hired after the interview?

I need some guidance on the Online Assessment for the Solutions Architect Role at AWS.

Assessment Format:

• Workstyles (10-min): questions about how you approach your work.

• Working with Customers Simulation (15-min): Respond to situations similar to those an AWS employee might encounter on the job

• Technical Assessment (20-min): Demonstrate knowledge across 2 of the following technical domains:

  • Modern Data Platform - Analytics, Database, Data Science

  • Cloud Compute - Windows and Linux Compute, Containers, Compute Fundamentals

  • Application Development - modern development languages, AWS development (SKK, CDK, CloudFormation etc..)

  • Migration - Migration tools, Enterprise Apps, Virtualization

Are there any online resources that I should follow that have helped you in the past? What are some sure-shot questions, or should I sign up for Exponent and go through the courses?

I am interviewing for a position of an principal solution architect focusing on a industry vertical. I know very well this industry vertical , worked on the customer side of it, created and launched successfully many digital and AI projects that brought significant value to the companies. My experience is quite unique. However, I always relied on internal and aws architects to help us build the cloud architecture, I am not a aws cloud expert. My role was to ensure that what they were doing filled our requirements. Hence, I was more on the te technical product management side. Any chance to successfully pass these interviews? The job description is quite vague on the requirements…

Hi. Was approached by AWS for a SA position some weeks ago. Submitted answers to a series of questions, did a online technical assessment, and conducted a recruiter prescreen. Next step in the process is a 1 hour technical prescreen interview.

Am familiar with the AWS leadership principles and how I need to find real world examples of how I’ve applied these principles in prior/current roles.

Besides this, are there any other tips/recommendations you can provide? Any pitfalls or things to avoid?

Appreciate any feedback.

I just had my AWS phone interview and wanted to share some feedback and notes from my interview in case this can benefit you.

Overall, I would say the interview process was terrible and, needless to say, I didn’t get to move along the process. But certainly learnt a few lessons. As far as qualifications, I have 12 years experience, was IT director in a multi-billion dollar company, ran my own successful company for 6 years, and am certified in Microsoft, Cisco, Amazon, and CompTIA. Just to give some perspective to what’s coming.

The interview was pleasant and friendly, but the tricks were sophisticated and slimy. It started off with the interviewer introducing herself and explaining a bit about the job description and the general yadayada. She then proceeded to say that CSAA’s really have to know a lot but it's impossible to know everything and therefore you have to fall back on colleagues who may be more knowledgeable than yourself in a particular industry. She told me her strengths and what areas she personally felt not as strong. She then asked me to share back and disclose what areas I feel strong with as well as what areas I fall behind in so that she can inquire about my strengths and avoid asking me about my weak spots "because why beat a dead horse" as she put it. Like an idiot, I fell for this trap. I told her where I feel most comfortable (Servers/client environments, EC2, Load Balancing, Security etc.) and what I felt not as strong in (Large Data, AD, among others). She immediately said, "Well, I still like to ask questions on what you feel weak in since often candidates actually know more than they think." BAM! I was screwed. She obviously didn’t ask a single question about anything I felt confident in and roasted me on ridiculous, open-ended questions that even after I answered correctly (which was always followed with “cool”) she kept asking me to go more in depth. An example: What’s the difference between TCP and UDP? So I explained the ‘handshake’ analogy of ensuring packets are received... Which was followed up with, “What else can you tell me about that?” Umm what do you wanna know? That question is meant to make you lose confidence even when you get the answer right. Listening to the conversation again afterwards it was clear I had no chance.

Here’s the bottom line for those interviewing with Amazon:

1. Don’t reveal your weakness.

2) Answer vaguely enough to give room for when they probe further if it's not something you’re 100% comfortable with

3) Answering a question right will lead to a further open-ended question.

4) Ask for questions to be clarified and narrowed down

Finally, don’t feel bad if you don’t get a follow up interview. I’m far more than qualified and have had jobs which required far more than an AWS job requires and I still didn’t get it. In retrospect, I’m thankful as things turned out for the best with my next employment but it was the first time I interviewed for a job and didn’t get it.

need advice on phone interview with hiring team. recently passed online assessment - but nervous about phone interview. it should be a 60 minute call with my goal to pass and move on to the LOOP.

my background is Cloud Engineering with Big4 firm - tbh my work/project experience were all team based. there was lots of guidance and peer review before delivering solutions for Big4 clients.

as i write my accomplishments and prepare STAR responses it'll be hard to state "I" did the work and give quantifiable results. my goal is to have 20 stories prepared for the interview next week.

is a week of prep enough? any help or pointers would be appreciated.

Hi, I have an upcoming interview with HR for Associate Solutions Architect position.

Has anyone gone through this interview before. I just have my CCP and currently started preparing for SAA.

Recruiter reached out to me.

What kind of question to expect? how long is the interview process?

Hello there!

I recently scored an interview as a Solutions Architect Associate with one of the offices in Europe. I'm extremely stoked for the opportunity and consideration. My only issue is that I'm not certified yet, although I'm grinding through Adrian Cantrill's course and have what I believe to be a reasonable grasp on how the console functions and theories behind the systems (Obviously I have a lot more to learn).

I really would like to know what I should be expecting and particular areas I should focus my studies/refresh on. Any and all tips/ stories are absolutely welcome.

I also just want to say thank you to all of you in this community, everyone has been so friendly and helpful with all of my questions. I really appreciate it.

Hello,

After +15 years in IT and 8 in cloud engineering, I noticed a trend. Many trained AWS solution architects seem to have very little hands-on experience with actual computers, be it networking, databases, or writing commands.

I especially noticed this in the public sector.

What are your thoughts and how do you avoid hiring solution architects who bring little to the table, other than standard AWS solution diagrams and running around gathering requirements?

Thanks.

Update: This is based on the study guide for "AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) Exam Guide", which states: "The target candidate should have at least 1 year of hands-on experience designing cloud solutions that use AWS services."

Hi Fam,

I need your help and suggestions here, please. I had an interview this afternoon for AWS Solutions Architect role in Amazon. The Hiring Manager asked me to explain how the home router is set up and configured using a specific IP address. After explaining that, he asked further what Multi-tier architecture was, and I tried to explain it using the Onion/Defence In-depth principle, and he stopped me that he got what I was trying to explain.

Now, he asked me to update my resume and send it to him for further discussion. I am not sure of what to do and the type of questions to expect from him. I need insight on how to proceed.

Kindly oblige if you know any questions or tips that I can use to prepare for my next interview. There was no question about the Leadership Principle, though.

Thank you.

I received an email stating that I am invited for a phone interview for the Cloud Infrastructure Architect role at AWS. It will be about an hour interview and I wonder what should be a focus? I've heard it will be like super technical so I am bit concerned and looking for some tips if it's possible.

Anyone got any information about what the phone screen is like and what to expect? Are there any technical questions and of what kind? Will I be asked to code?

The Job post is here https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4059564444

Hello all,

I have an incredible opportunity to interview with AWS for an Associate Solutions Architect role through the tech u program. I am very excited for this opportunity and want to do everything I can to give myself the best chance for success. I would like to do some training on the AWS platform to be more prepared for the technical side of the interview. Can anyone suggest anything on the AWS learning tab - paid or not that would help me get up to speed as much as possible?

Thank you for any advice!

Hi everyone,

I recently moved forward in the interview process for the AWS Solutions Architect Intern, US role (Job ID: 3187408) and I’m trying to understand what the actual interview experience has been like for people who already went through it.

From the recruiter email, it sounds like there are 2 separate 45-minute interviews, likely back to back over Zoom:

•	Interview 1: Technical Depth / Communication, AI knowledge, and Behavioral

•	Interview 2: Technical Breadth, Cloud Computing, and Behavioral

•	The order can vary

I wanted to ask people who have already interviewed for this role, or a very similar AWS Solutions Architect intern / early career SA role:

1.	What kinds of technical questions were you actually asked?

Were they more AWS-service based, cloud fundamentals, networking/security, architecture design, databases/analytics, coding concepts, or more resume/project deep dives?

2.	What did “technical depth” look like in practice?

Did they pick one area and go very deep, or was it still fairly broad?

3.	What did “technical breadth” look like?

Was it more like surface-level questions across multiple topics such as networking, databases, security, hardware, app development, and AI/ML?

4.	Were you asked architecture / design scenario questions?

For example, things like designing a scalable app, handling uploads, reliability, cost, security, load balancing, etc.

5.	What kind of behavioral questions came up?

Which Amazon Leadership Principles showed up the most?

Were the questions more around conflict, ownership, ambiguity, customer obsession, learning quickly, delivering results, or something else?

6.	How deep did they go into your resume/projects?

Did they interrupt and keep drilling down on one project, or move across multiple experiences?

7.	How important was the “explain technical concepts to non-technical people” part?

Did they explicitly ask you to simplify something technical?

8.	For the AI knowledge part, what did that mean in your case?

Was it very basic high-level knowledge, or were there deeper questions?

9.	Did anyone already get scheduled for interviews yet?

I’m also trying to understand the timeline. If you’ve already been scheduled, roughly when did you hear back after getting the prep email?

10.	If you interviewed recently, what would you focus on most if you had to prepare again?

I’d especially appreciate responses from people who interviewed for:

•	AWS Solutions Architect Intern

•	Associate / Early Career Solutions Architect

•	similar AWS customer-facing intern roles

Also, if anyone else is currently in the process for this same role and wants to connect / compare prep, feel free to comment or DM me.

Thanks a lot, I’d really appreciate any insight. I’m trying to prepare smart and focus on the most likely question types instead of spreading myself too thin.

Hey ladies and Gents, I hope you are having a great weekend...

Next Wednesday, I have a phone interview with AWS for an early start 2022 SA role ( for newly grads and early career pros ) I've passed the online assessment, and I've been doing to reading and research on the Leader Principles and the STAR method.

the thing is I don't have much experience to create stories to impress the interviewer and I don't want to B.S as well.

please any tips are welcome <3