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AWS · SAP-C02 · Advanced

AWS Solutions Architect - Professional (SAP-C02) — Practice Questions and Mock Exam

Prepare for SAP-C02 with original practice questions and clear answer explanations. Ask Alex, your AI tutor, when you need more detail, use your results to identify topics to review, and practice your pacing with timed mock exams.

75Mock exam questions
180minTime limit
750/ 1000Passing score

Checked against AWS · September 2026 · Current exam version

About the exam

The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional is AWS's most demanding architecture credential, validating advanced technical skills in designing complex, multi-tier applications on AWS. It covers organizational complexity, hybrid architectures, migration strategies, cost control mechanisms, and continuous improvement of existing solutions at enterprise scale.

This certification targets experienced solutions architects with two or more years of hands-on AWS experience. It demonstrates the ability to evaluate complex requirements and design architectures that address security, reliability, performance, and cost optimization across multiple AWS accounts and regions.

Try five SAP-C02 questions

Try five practice questions from the app’s current AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional question bank, with answers and explanations.

Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity1 / 5

A company has a multi-account AWS Organization with a central shared services account, a development account, and a production account. They want to implement a CI/CD pipeline where code is committed in the development account, built and tested in the shared services account, and deployed to the production account. The pipeline must use AWS CodePipeline and minimize cross-account credential management complexity. Which approach should the solutions architect recommend?

AlexFull explanation from Alex

Cross-account CI/CD pipelines in AWS Organizations use CodePipeline in a central shared services account with cross-account IAM roles for deployment. The pipeline assumes roles in target accounts (dev, prod) to deploy resources, maintaining least-privilege access. A shared KMS key encrypts artifacts in the S3 artifact bucket, and the key policy grants usage to the cross-account roles. This pattern avoids giving developers direct access to production while enabling automated deployments. Placing separate pipelines in each account creates management overhead and inconsistency. Using organization-wide admin roles violates least privilege. CodeDeploy agents pulling from S3 skips the orchestration and approval capabilities of CodePipeline. Exam tip: Cross-account CodePipeline requires three components: cross-account IAM roles, shared KMS key, and S3 artifact bucket with appropriate bucket policies.

Sourcedocs.aws.amazon.com

Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization3 / 5

A company is migrating a legacy application that relies on Windows file shares (SMB protocol) accessed by on-premises servers. The company wants to extend these file shares to AWS while maintaining low-latency access for on-premises users. Which AWS service provides hybrid SMB file storage?

AlexFull explanation from Alex

AWS Storage Gateway File Gateway in SMB mode bridges on-premises Windows file share workloads with Amazon S3 cloud storage. It presents an SMB-compatible file interface to on-premises servers while storing data as objects in S3. A local cache on the gateway appliance keeps frequently accessed files available with low latency. File Gateway integrates with Active Directory for Windows authentication and supports Windows ACLs for access control. This is ideal for migrating legacy SMB-based applications without code changes. FSx for Windows File Server provides fully managed Windows file shares but requires VPN/Direct Connect and does not provide the on-premises caching benefit. DataSync is for one-time or scheduled transfers, not continuous file share access. EFS supports NFS, not SMB. Exam tip: File Gateway in SMB mode = on-premises Windows file shares backed by S3 with local caching; FSx for Windows = fully managed Windows NTFS in the cloud.

Sourcedocs.aws.amazon.com

367 practice questions

The Pass-IT question pool gives you material to practice for SAP-C02. A Pass-IT mock exam uses 75 questions and a 180-minute time limit; these are practice settings.

Pool details: SAP-C02

Exam details checked against AWSSeptember 9, 2026

date of the last check against the official AWS source

Passing score750 / 1,000

as published by AWS

Objectives in the guide20 objectives listed in the official guide

across 4 domains in the official exam guide

Pool size367 questions

= The pool size is equivalent to 4 sets of 75 questions; this does not mean that each mock exam uses a separate set.

Blueprint domains4 domains in the exam blueprint

Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity 92 · Design for New Solutions 115 · Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions 94 · Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization 66

Recorded as checked against sources367 of 367

questions recorded as having their answer, options, and explanation checked against official AWS documentation

What's on the exam

Design for New Solutions carries the most weight at 29%, covering deployment strategy, business continuity, security controls, reliability, performance, and cost optimization for architectures being built from scratch. Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity follows at 26%, testing network connectivity across a sprawling account structure, multi-account governance, and the security controls that have to hold consistently across all of it.

Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions takes 25%, nearly matching the two design domains combined, and shifts the question from how to build something new to how to evaluate and fix what's already running — operational excellence, security posture, performance, reliability, and cost, all assessed against an existing workload. Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization closes the blueprint at 20%, covering the 7 Rs of migration strategy and identifying which workloads are ready for a serverless or specialized database rebuild once they land.

Exam blueprint: SAP-C02

Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity26%

Connect a sprawling organization's networks together, prescribe the security controls that hold across it, design architectures resilient enough to survive failure, structure the multi-account environment itself, and keep cost and usage visible throughout.

≈ 26 h
Design for New Solutions29%

Design deployment strategies, business continuity solutions, and security controls to meet new solution requirements, and design architectures that meet reliability and performance objectives. Also covers determining cost optimization strategies to meet solution goals.

≈ 29 h
Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions25%

Determine strategies to improve the operational excellence, security, and performance of existing workloads, and identify opportunities to improve reliability and optimize costs across an AWS environment.

≈ 25 h
Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization20%

Pick which workloads are worth moving and how, choose the tooling that gets them there, redesign their architecture once they land, and flag where serverless or purpose-built databases could modernize them further.

≈ 20 h

Exam format and question types

The exam draws 75 questions (65 scored, 10 unscored) from multiple-choice and multiple-response formats inside a 180-minute window. Questions are long and dense, often laying out several pages of business requirements before asking for the single best architectural approach among multiple valid options. At 2.4 minutes per question, strict time discipline matters — reading for the specific constraints buried in a scenario is the skill being tested.

Question types: SAP-C02

Multiple Choice65%

Select the single answer that best meets the question’s requirements.

Multiple Response35%

Select multiple answers. Follow the question’s instructions on how many to choose.

See AWS for official question-format information. The shares shown describe the Pass-IT practice pool; they do not establish the proportions on the official exam.

Preparing for SAP-C02

The exam runs through Pearson VUE, either at a testing center or online with a remote proctor, and is offered in English, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Latin America), and Simplified Chinese. Certification holds for 3 years; passing a recertification exam renews it, and because this is a professional-level credential, earning it also renews any associate-level AWS certification you hold.

Preparation and logistics: SAP-C02

Preparation

Illustrative study time60–150 h

illustrative planning range: 60 h with relevant experience to 150 h when starting out; your needs may fall outside this range

LevelAdvanced

Taking and maintaining the certification

DeliveryPearson VUE testing center or online proctored exam
Retake policy14-day waiting period between exam attempts, no limit on total number of attempts
Certification validity3 years

Pass a recertification exam before the 3-year expiration date. Professional-level certifications also renew all associate-level certifications

Common pitfalls

Topics to review: SAP-C02

  1. 01Time Pressure

    The lengthy, complex scenarios consume significant reading time — candidates who don't practice pacing often run out of time before finishing.

  2. 02Multi-Account Design

    Not understanding AWS Organizations, SCPs, cross-account IAM roles, and Control Tower leads to wrong answers on enterprise architecture questions.

  3. 03Migration Strategies

    Confusing the 7 Rs of migration and when to apply rehost, replatform, refactor, or retire strategies for different workload types.

  4. 04Hybrid Networking

    Misunderstanding Direct Connect, Transit Gateway, VPN, and PrivateLink integration patterns for hybrid cloud connectivity scenarios.

  5. 05Choosing Best vs Correct

    Multiple answers may be technically valid — the exam requires identifying the BEST solution considering all stated constraints and trade-offs.

Frequently asked questions

How long is the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional exam?

The SAP-C02 exam has 75 questions and a 180-minute time limit.

What is the passing score for AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional?

The passing score for the SAP-C02 exam is 750 / 1000.

Which pitfalls should I review when preparing for AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional?

Topics to review include Time Pressure, Multi-Account Design, Migration Strategies, Hybrid Networking, Choosing Best vs Correct. Work through examples to check that you understand the distinctions and can explain your answer.

How do you prepare for SAP-C02?

The catalog budget is around 100 hours, and the difficulty is length as much as depth: long multi-requirement scenarios where two answers work and one is cheaper or safer. Design for new solutions is the largest domain at 29%, with organizational complexity close behind at 26%. Practising under time pressure matters more here than on any associate exam.

How is the SAP-C02 exam weighted?

Design for new solutions is the largest block at 29%, followed by organizational complexity at 26% and continuous improvement at 25%. Migration and modernization takes the remaining 20%. Multi-account and organization-level design therefore runs through more than half the exam.

How long is SAP-C02 valid?

Three years. Renewal means sitting the recertification exam before the expiry date, and a professional-level pass also renews every associate-level AWS certification you hold.

Do you need SAA-C03 before SAP-C02?

No, AWS states no formal prerequisite and the professional exam can be booked directly. Most people take SAA-C03 first anyway, because SAP-C02 assumes the associate material rather than teaching it. Passing SAP-C02 renews SAA-C03 if you already hold it.

How soon can you retake SAP-C02?

Fourteen days after a failed attempt, with no cap on the number of tries. The same waiting period applies to every attempt.

One certification, 12 months

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