thinQmaster Virtual testing partner Adaptive practice exams that find your weak spots and drill them. Every answer explained. From $69

thinQmaster

Find your exam

Five questions free, before you decide.

Step 1 · choose a vendor

In one of our camps? Your practice exams come with the tuition — they are on your study page already.

thinQcompass

Tell us where you are standing and which way you want to go. We will lay out which certifications to take, in what order, and how long each one is likely to take you — including the ones we do not teach.

Plan my direction
Have a job in mind? Paste the details and we will read them

Paste the details of the position or offer — the requirements section is the part that matters. We will pull out the job title, the certifications it asks for, the experience and the pay, show you what we matched, and build the route from there.

Cloud Architect

Deciding how an organisation runs in the cloud. Landing zones, resilience, cost models, and defending those choices to people who sign cheques.

$134,050Median pay
12 moYour horizon
8 hrsPer week
5Steps in range

Pay is the US Bureau of Labor Statistics median for Computer Network Architects, May 2025 — the occupation this job is counted inside, which is usually broader than the job title itself. Cloud architects are counted with network architects in the BLS data. Study times are our own estimates for someone working 8 hours a week, and they are ranges for a reason.

We do not teach AWS Solutions Architect - Associate. It is on your plan because you need it, not because we sell it.
Most postings for Cloud Architect name a bachelor's degree. Plenty of people hold this job without one, and certifications plus demonstrable experience are how they got there - but expect the résumé screen to be the hard part, not the interview.
Cloud Architect is not usually a first job. The realistic route is years running cloud or infrastructure first. This is a destination, not an entry point. The plan below is still the right study order for getting there - it is the timeline to the title that is longer than the timeline to the certifications.
3 further steps sit past your 12-month horizon. They are shown so you can see the whole route; they are not lost, only later.

What are you aiming to earn?

$134,000
$62,000 $176,000

Cloud Architect reaches this. Its median is $134,050.

Your sequence

In order. Each step assumes the one above it.
Scroll the steps — the marker follows  
$99,130 · Network and Computer Systems Administrators $134,050 · Computer Network Architects

Both ends are US Bureau of Labor Statistics medians, May 2025. Everything between them is a straight line we drew, not data: nobody publishes pay per certification, and real pay moves when you change job, not when you pass an exam.

  1. 1

    CompTIA Network+

    1.8-2.8 months · from month 1

    Vendor-neutral networking. The foundation almost every later path assumes you already have.

    ~$103,495 modelled Associate We teach this See dates →
    Other ways to take this step
    • Cisco CCST Networking — if Network+ feels like too big a first step, this is the same ground at half the depth
  2. 2

    CompTIA Linux+

    1.8-2.8 months · from month 3

    Almost everything in cloud, security and automation is standing on Linux.

    ~$107,860 modelled Associate We teach this See dates →
  3. 3

    CompTIA Cloud+

    1.8-2.8 months · from month 6

    Vendor-neutral cloud operations, useful before committing to AWS or Azure.

    ~$112,225 modelled Associate We teach this See dates →
  4. 4

    Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ-104)

    2.3-3.2 months · from month 9

    The working Azure credential. This is the one that changes job postings you qualify for.

    ~$116,590 modelled Associate We teach this See dates →
    Other ways to take this step
    • AWS Solutions Architect - Associate — same rung on AWS instead of Azure - pick the platform your target employers actually run (we do not teach this one)
  5. 5

    AWS Solutions Architect - Associate

    2.3-3.2 months · from month 12

    The most requested AWS credential. AWS runs its own training and the self-study material is good.

    ~$120,955 modelled Associate We do not teach this
Past your 12-month horizon
  1. 6

    HashiCorp Terraform Associate

    0.9-1.8 months · from month 15

    The infrastructure-as-code tool most job postings name. HashiCorp study material is good and the exam is inexpensive.

    ~$125,320 modelled Associate We do not teach this
  2. 7

    Designing Azure Infrastructure Solutions (AZ-305)

    2.8-3.9 months · from month 17

    Moves you from running Azure to designing it.

    ~$129,685 modelled Professional We teach this See dates →
  3. 8

    ISC2 CCSP

    3.2-5.1 months · from month 21

    Cloud security at architect level, where security and cloud paths meet.

    ~$134,050 modelled Expert We teach this See dates →

    On the model, this is the step that reaches your $134,000 goal.

    Experience requirement. Five years IT with three in security and one in a cloud domain. Holding CISSP satisfies the whole requirement.

Change your answers

Nothing is saved and no account is needed. Your answers live in the page address.

What interests you?

Pick as many as apply. If you are not sure, pick the one you would read about on a Saturday.

Where you are now

Both of these change the plan. Experience especially — it decides what we skip and how fast we think you will move.

How much time you have

Be honest rather than optimistic. A plan built on hours you will not find is a plan you abandon in week five.

$62,000 $134,000 $176,000

Anything you already hold

Tick these and we will not sell you a course you do not need.

I already hold some certifications

Free, and it will tell you about certifications we do not sell. If the honest answer is that you need something we do not teach, the plan says so.