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AWS · SAA-C03 · Intermediate

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate

Validates ability to design solutions based on the AWS Well-Architected Framework. 65+ AI-generated practice questions with explanations. Free trial, pass guarantee.

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65 Questions
130min Time Limit
720/ 1000 Pass Score
$150 Exam Fee

Overview

About the exam

The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate is AWS's most popular credential, validating the ability to design and deploy scalable, highly available, and fault-tolerant systems on AWS. It covers architectural best practices across compute, storage, networking, databases, security, and cost optimization using the AWS Well-Architected Framework.

This certification is ideal for solutions architects, cloud engineers, and IT professionals with at least one year of hands-on AWS experience. It demonstrates practical ability to select appropriate AWS services, design resilient multi-tier architectures, and implement secure, cost-effective cloud solutions.

Exam Domains

What's on the exam

The exam consists of 65 questions (50 scored, 15 unscored), featuring multiple-choice and multiple-response question types over 130 minutes. Questions are heavily scenario-based, presenting real-world architecture challenges and asking you to choose the best AWS approach. Expect questions on VPC design, IAM policies, storage selection, and disaster recovery strategies. Budget roughly 2 minutes per question.

Design Secure Architectures 30%
Design Resilient Architectures 26%
Design High-Performing Architectures 24%
Design Cost-Optimized Architectures 20%

Format

What to expect

multiple choice
70%
multiple response
30%

Watch out

Where candidates struggle

This exam rewards practical architecture experience. Candidates who only study individual service features without understanding how services integrate into complete solutions often struggle with multi-service scenario questions.

  1. 01
    Over-Engineering — Choosing the most complex multi-service solution when a simpler, more cost-effective AWS-managed option meets all the stated requirements.
  2. 02
    Ignoring Cost — Selecting technically correct but unnecessarily expensive architectures when the question explicitly asks for cost optimization.
  3. 03
    Storage Selection — Confusing when to use S3, EBS, EFS, and FSx based on access patterns, performance requirements, and cost constraints.
  4. 04
    Availability vs Durability — Conflating high availability with data durability and selecting the wrong replication or backup strategy as a result.
  5. 05
    VPC Misconfigs — Misunderstanding subnet routing, NAT gateways, security groups, and NACLs leads to wrong answers on networking architecture questions.

Details

Exam logistics

Delivered via Pearson VUE online or at testing centers. Available in English, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese. The certification is valid for 3 years with renewal through recertification exams.

Delivery Pearson VUE testing center or online proctored exam
Retake policy 14-day waiting period between exam attempts, no limit on total number of attempts
Validity 3 years
Career outcomes Solutions architect, cloud architect, cloud engineer, systems administrator, and technical consultant roles across organizations of all sizes adopting AWS
Renewal Pass a recertification exam before the 3-year expiration date, or earn a higher-level AWS certification to automatically renew
Study time ~50 hours
Official guide View on vendor site

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