AWS · SAA-C03
AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate practice exams
The most in-demand IT certification there is. Associate-level AWS architecture — deeper than Cloud Practitioner, and worth the extra preparation.
Or read 15 sample questions with answers.
Try a real SAA-C03 question
An application connects to an Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL database with a username and password. The password must be stored encrypted, changed automatically on both the secret and the database every 30 days, and fetched by the application at runtime so that no redeployment is needed after a change. Which solution meets these requirements?
About the SAA-C03 exam
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.
It is a meaningfully harder exam than Cloud Practitioner. It expects working familiarity with a wide range of services and, more importantly, with the trade-offs between them — when to reach for a queue versus a stream, a NAT gateway versus a gateway endpoint, provisioned versus on-demand capacity.
The real exam
Public information published by AWS. A CertRidge practice exam matches this format — it is not a copy of the exam's contents.
- 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.
Practice by exam domain
CertRidge practice exams draw questions in these same proportions, from a bank of 616 SAA-C03 questions. Open a domain for what it covers and free questions with answers.
Who it's 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 prepare
- 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.
See the free SAA-C03 cheat sheet for a one-page domain summary, the SAA-C03 study guide for how to plan your preparation, and the content policy for how these questions are written.
Free SAA-C03 practice resources
- 15 free SAA-C03 practice questionsSpread across every domain, each with the answer and an explanation for every option.
- Free 10-question diagnosticA quick, scored check of where you stand, with no account needed.
- SAA-C03 cheat sheetThe domains and the facts that come up most, on one page.
- SAA-C03 study guideHow to plan your preparation, week by week.
SAA-C03 questions, answered
- How much does the SAA-C03 exam cost?
- Approximately 150 USD, before regional pricing and taxes.
- What is the SAA-C03 passing score?
- Scored on a scaled 100–1000 range; 720 is the passing mark. AWS does not publish the exact question-to-scale conversion.
- How many questions are on the SAA-C03 exam?
- 65 questions (multiple choice and multiple response) in 130 minutes. Delivered at a Pearson VUE test centre or online with a proctor.
- How long is the SAA-C03 certification valid?
- Valid for 3 years, then renewed by recertifying or by earning a higher-level AWS certification.
- Where can I practise SAA-C03 questions for free?
- CertRidge has a free 10-question SAA-C03 diagnostic with every answer explained, no account needed, and 15 free sample questions with answers at certridge.com/certifications/aws-saa-c03/practice-questions. All questions are original, written to the published exam objectives.