AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) tests your ability to design solutions on AWS that are secure, resilient, high-performing, and cost-optimized — the four exam domains. Questions are scenario-based: you are given a situation and asked for the best design, not a definition.
Exam format at a glance
| Format | 65 questions (multiple choice and multiple response) in 130 minutes. Delivered at a Pearson VUE test centre or online with a proctor. |
| Cost | Approximately 150 USD, before regional pricing and taxes. |
| Scoring | Scored on a scaled 100–1000 range; 720 is the passing mark. AWS does not publish the exact question-to-scale conversion. |
| Validity | Valid for 3 years, then renewed by recertifying or by earning a higher-level AWS certification. |
Who this exam is for
- Cloud, DevOps, and backend engineers who design or operate AWS infrastructure and want the credential that most reliably clears recruiter screens
- Solutions Architect Associate is commonly the first "real" AWS cert people target after — or instead of — Cloud Practitioner
- Teams standardising on a shared architecture vocabulary and using the exam guide as the checklist
How to actually study for it
- Domain weighting matters: Design Secure Architectures is 30% of the exam and Design Resilient Architectures 26% — over half the exam between them.
- For every core service, be able to say what it is FOR and what its nearest alternative is FOR: SQS vs. SNS vs. Kinesis, ALB vs. NLB, EFS vs. FSx, RDS Multi-AZ vs. read replicas.
- Know the VPC building blocks cold — subnets, route tables, NAT gateways, internet gateways, security groups vs. NACLs, VPC endpoints (interface vs. gateway).
- Practise reading the question for the constraint that decides the answer — "lowest cost", "least operational overhead", "no downtime", "must be private" — then take timed attempts to build stamina for 65 scenarios in 130 minutes.
Where to go next
Start with the free 10-question diagnostic to see where you actually stand, read 15 sample questions with answers, or go straight to the one-page SAA-C03 cheat sheet. The full SAA-C03 practice exam covers every domain at the real exam's weighting, with every answer explained.