The Short Answer
AWS Skill Builder has two kinds of official practice for certification exams. The Official Practice Question Sets are free: 20 exam-style questions per exam, written by AWS, with feedback on every answer. The full-length assessments, called Official Pretests and Official Practice Exams, need a Skill Builder subscription, which starts at $29 USD a month.
The full-length official exams are the closest thing to the real exam you can get: same number of questions, same time limit and, for most exams, the same scaled scoring, written by the people who write the real thing. If you can spare $29 in the final weeks before your exam, they are worth it. You do not need them to start, though. The free question set, AWS's free exam prep videos and free full-length practice exams such as CloudNinja's cover most of your preparation, and you can save the subscription for a final readiness check.
Every AWS fact below was checked on AWS's own pages on November 4, 2026. AWS changes Skill Builder often, so check the links before you pay.
What AWS Skill Builder Offers for Exam Prep
AWS groups its exam prep for each certification into an Exam Prep Plan with four steps. For SAA-C03, for example, AWS describes the plan as having "practice assessments with more than 100 exam-style questions", hands-on labs, videos reviewing each exam domain and 40 flashcards, and notes that "some of this content requires an AWS Skill Builder subscription". Here is how it splits. AWS says the exact materials vary by certification exam.
| Resource | Access | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Official Practice Question Set | Free account | 20 questions written by AWS, with feedback on every answer choice and recommended resources. Retakes show the same questions in a different order. |
| Exam Prep Review | Free account | Videos reviewing each exam domain and how it maps to AWS services. |
| Exam Prep Practice | Limited on a free account | Exam-style questions and flashcards for each domain. A free account gets limited access; the full set needs a subscription. AWS describes the free Exam Prep course as 2 hours per exam and the subscription version as 6-8 hours with labs and extra practice questions. |
| Official Pretest | Subscription | A full-length assessment with the same number of questions and time limit as the real exam, and feedback on every answer. Most Pretests use the exam's scaled scoring and give a pass or fail result; the AIF-C01 Pretest instead reports the percentage you got right and your correct answers per domain. |
| Official Practice Exam | Subscription | A full-length assessment with the same question count, time limit and scaled scoring as the real exam, and a pass or fail result. Where AWS offers both, it is a second attempt alongside the Pretest. |
| Labs and games | Mostly subscription | Most guided AWS Builder Labs need a subscription; the Cloud Foundations labs are free. AWS Card Clash is free, AWS Cloud Quest has a free version, and AWS Escape Room: Exam Prep is a demo on a free account. |
What a Skill Builder Subscription Costs
Skill Builder has three paid plans. Full-length official practice exams come with every paid plan, starting with the monthly one.
| Plan | Price (USD) | Adds |
|---|---|---|
| Free account | $0 | 900+ digital courses, learning plans, Exam Prep Review, limited Exam Prep Practice, Official Practice Question Sets |
| Monthly subscription | $29, billed monthly | Official Pretests and Practice Exams, AWS Builder Labs, AWS Industry Quest and the rest of the digital catalogue |
| Annual subscription | $449, billed annually | Everything monthly, plus AWS Digital Classroom courses |
| Team subscription | $449 per seat, billed annually, 5 seat minimum | Everything annual, plus admin dashboard, reporting and team tools |
What the Official Practice Exams Do Better
It is worth being straight about this: nobody else can match the official exams on a few things.
They are written by AWS. The question style, the length of the scenarios and the level of detail come from the same team that writes the certification exams, so they are the best signal of what exam-day questions feel like.
They score like the real exam. The Official Practice Exams, and most Pretests, use the same number of questions, the same time limit and the same scaled scoring method as the certification exam, and tell you whether you would have passed. (The AIF-C01 Pretest is an exception: it reports a percentage and per-domain counts instead. AWS says the exact materials vary by certification exam.) Third-party practice exams, CloudNinja's included, show a raw percentage instead, which is only an estimate of a scaled score.
They track exam versions closely. Each assessment is tied to one exam version: AWS already lists Official Practice Exams for new versions such as DVA-C03 and SCS-C03.
They link to AWS's own training. Feedback on each answer points to recommended AWS resources, so a wrong answer leads straight to the right course or documentation.
Where They Fall Short
The full-length assessments cost money. $29 is small next to a $150 or $300 exam fee, but it is a subscription, so set a reminder if you only want one month.
There are not many of them. For each exam you get at most two full-length official assessments and one 20-question set. AWS says that retakes show the same questions in a different order, so your second attempt measures memory more than readiness. Treat your first attempt as the honest score.
They are not built for daily drilling. They work best as a readiness check near the end. Most of your practice, the part where you get questions wrong and learn why, needs more questions than AWS provides.
Free Alternatives
Free AWS material goes further than most people expect. Start with these.
The Official Practice Question Set. Free, written by AWS, and the quickest way to see the real question style. Take it early, before you study, to see where you stand.
AWS's free exam prep. A free Skill Builder account includes the Exam Prep Review videos for each exam domain and limited access to Exam Prep Practice; the full set of practice questions and flashcards needs a subscription. AWS also runs free live Exam Readiness webinars.
CloudNinja's practice exams. Free, with no account and no sign-up, for all 13 current AWS certifications. Each one is a full-length exam of 65 or 75 questions, spread across the exam domains in close to their official weights. Practice mode explains every answer as you go; exam mode is timed, with no feedback until the end; the results page breaks your score down by domain and lets you drill your weakest one. To be fair about the differences: our questions are written by CloudNinja, not AWS, we show a raw percentage rather than AWS's scaled score, and each exam has one full-length set, so repeat attempts show the same questions too.
CloudNinja cheat sheets and certification guides. One-page summaries of each exam's services and decision rules, and guides to each exam's format, domains and study plan.
Paid third-party practice exams are the other option. Providers such as Tutorials Dojo, and practice-exam courses sold on Udemy, are usually a one-off purchase per exam rather than a subscription. We do not rate them here: if you buy one, check that it names the exam version you are sitting.
Avoid Exam Dumps
Search results for "AWS practice exam" also turn up sites that sell or share real exam questions, often called dumps. Stay away from them. The AWS Certification Program Agreement forbids using unauthorized exam content, and AWS's policies allow it to invalidate results and revoke certifications when candidates do. They also do not teach you anything: memorized answers fall apart as soon as AWS rotates its questions.
A Free-First Plan
This is how we would combine them, spending nothing until the last two weeks, and only if you want to.
- Read the official exam guide, then take the free Official Practice Question Set on Skill Builder cold to see where you stand.
- Learn the material with a course or AWS's free Exam Prep Review videos, domain by domain.
- Take a CloudNinja practice exam in practice mode and read every explanation, including the ones you got right.
- Drill your weakest domain from the results page, then sit the full exam again in exam mode, timed.
- When you score 80% or more on a first attempt in exam mode, consider one month of Skill Builder ($29) and take the Official Pretest or Practice Exam as a final check under real scoring.
- Book the exam. If you already passed an AWS exam, use your 50% voucher.