u/InternationalIce8576

THIS IS NOT CLICKBAIT, JUST ACTUAL STUFF.

Was running a self-hosted GitHub Actions runner on a t3.micro (1 GB RAM) to build Flutter and Node apps. Every single pipeline run crashed. CloudWatch showed the same pattern every time: CPU spike, memory spike, process dead.

Turns out you don't need to upgrade the instance to fix this. To find out what I did instead (and where this fix would actually be a bad idea), read the full breakdown here: https://builder.aws.com/content/3I19RRzHfurmLkbJQfBtA3lLQjx/survive-memory-crashes-without-upgrading-your-instance

Just cleared the Solutions Architect Associate and I wanted to say a big thank you to this subreddit. The tips, exam experiences, and shared resources here really made the difference.

Quick context: before this I passed both the AI Practitioner (AIF) and the Cloud Practitioner (CLF), so in roughly 3 to 4 weeks I now have three AWS certs in hand. I'm also 19, so this feels like a solid start to build on.

A bit about the prep:

• For the two foundational ones (AIF and CLF), I didn't really prepare. I had close to a year of hands-on experience, so that carried me through.
• For SAA, I used Stephane Maarek's course to understand the services, but the Tutorials Dojo tests are what really helped, mainly because they give proper explanations for every question.
• I was scoring 70+ on TD across multiple tests, and sometimes 50 to 55, though the lower ones were partly down to a TD issue on my end.

On the exam itself, the questions leaned on core services: S3, EC2, ALB, NLB, CloudFront, Cost Explorer, Lambda, Route 53, DynamoDB, DAX, and S3 lifecycle policies. There were also a few analytics questions, mostly around Kinesis. The services themselves were familiar, but the exact features being tested had real depth, so it was less about recognition and more about knowing the finer details.

NOTE: If any AWS folks are reading this, please don't add too much ambiguity to the questions. I get why it happens, since a client can absolutely hand a solutions architect an ambiguous brief. But in real life we can go back and discuss it further with the client to clear things up, whereas in an exam we can't do that.

Happy to connect on LinkedIn, feel free to reach out