AI-assisted: compiled with an AI tool from AWS's exam page and the SAA-C03 exam guide, and checked against both. I run LearnSome.tech, which has an AWS Solutions Architect course; the advice here doesn't need it.
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate is often the first "real" AWS certification people sit. Here is the exam as AWS describes it, and the question pattern that trips up people who know the services well.
The numbers
- Questions: 65, each multiple choice (one right answer) or multiple response (two or more).
- Scored: 50 of the 65. The other 15 are unscored pretest questions, and you can't tell which are which.
- Time: 130 minutes, so two minutes a question.
- Pass mark: 720 on a scaled score of 100 to 1,000.
- Cost: USD 150.
- Valid for: 3 years.
- Recommended: at least 1 year of hands-on experience designing cloud solutions on AWS. AWS also suggests the Cloud Practitioner first for people with no IT experience.
The four domains
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| Design Secure Architectures | 30% |
| Design Resilient Architectures | 26% |
| Design High-Performing Architectures | 24% |
| Design Cost-Optimized Architectures | 20% |
Security is the biggest single domain, which surprises people who expect an architecture exam to be mostly about compute and storage.
How the questions are built
Most questions describe a requirement and then add a qualifier: least operational overhead, most cost-effective, highest availability. Often every option would technically work. The qualifier decides which one scores.
Here's one in that shape:
An orders database must fail over to another Availability Zone automatically, with no change to the address the application connects to, and with the least operational overhead. What should the team do?
A. Convert the database to a Multi-AZ deployment
B. Create a read replica in another zone and write a script that promotes it on failure
C. Take a snapshot every hour and restore the latest one in another zone after a failure
D. Move the database to a larger instance
Before you pick, underline the three requirements: automatic, same address, least overhead. Then strike out each option that misses any one of them. That habit, more than memorising service limits, is what the exam rewards.
Two pacing habits worth practising
- Flag and move. Two minutes a question is tight. When one runs long, choose your best option, flag it, and come back on a second pass with the time you saved.
- Answer everything. An unanswered question is simply wrong, so never leave one blank at the end.
What it proves
Passing shows you can choose sound AWS designs from a description. It doesn't test hands-on skill, and it doesn't replace building on AWS: the console, the bill and the 2 a.m. alarm teach things a multiple-choice exam can't.
Which domain did you find hardest?
