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AWS • Solutions Architect Associate
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03)
Design secure, resilient, and cost-effective architectures on AWS.
Practice setup
Exam info
- Exam ID
- SAA-C03
- Cost of Exam
- $150 USD
- Length of Test
- 130 Minutes
- Number of Questions
- 65
View full exam details
- Exam Level
- Associate
- Launch Date
- August 2022
- Recommended Experience
- Around 1 year of hands-on experience designing AWS cloud solutions
- Question Types
- Multiple Choice / Multiple Response
- Passing Score
- Scaled score determined by AWS
Domains and Objectives
Design Secure Architectures1.030%
Objectives in this domain
- Design secure access for AWS resources and workloads.
- Design secure applications and data protection controls.
- Evaluate security requirements across network and service boundaries.
Design Resilient Architectures2.026%
Objectives in this domain
- Design architectures with fault tolerance and high availability.
- Choose durable storage and backup/restore strategies.
- Plan disaster recovery and continuity approaches aligned to business objectives.
Design High-Performing Architectures3.024%
Objectives in this domain
- Select performant compute and storage solutions for workload patterns.
- Design scalable architectures for changing demand and usage profiles.
- Optimize network and data path decisions for throughput and latency.
Design Cost-Optimized Architectures4.020%
Objectives in this domain
- Choose cost-efficient service options based on usage characteristics.
- Apply right-sizing and pricing model strategies.
- Balance performance, resilience, and security with cost constraints.
Resources
Official Exam Page
Official AWS exam overview with objectives, scheduling, pricing, and the exam prep plan.
Open resourceExam Guide (PDF)
Official SAA-C03 exam guide with content domains, weighting, and scope.
Open resourceExam Guide (Web)
Online guide for SAA-C03 including in-scope/out-of-scope services and domain details.
Open resourceCertification Prep Overview
How to prepare with AWS Skill Builder: practice question sets, exam prep courses, and official practice exams.
Open resourceAWS Skill Builder
Official training platform to access SAA-C03 exam prep plans, courses, and practice resources.
Open resourceArchitecting on AWS (Classroom)
3‑day instructor‑led course aligned to Well‑Architected principles; highly relevant for SAA-C03.
Open resourceAWS Power Hour: Architecting Associate (Twitch Series)
Free instructor-led prep series covering SAA-C03 topics and exam-style questions.
Open resourceRamp-Up Guide: Solutions Architect (PDF)
Curated learning path with courses, whitepapers, and hands-on resources for architects.
Open resourceAWS Well-Architected Framework (Overview)
Foundational architecture best practices referenced throughout the exam.
Open resourceIAM: What is AWS Identity and Access Management?
Core security and access management concepts and features.
Open resourceVPC: What is Amazon VPC?
Networking fundamentals: subnets, routing, gateways, endpoints, and connectivity.
Open resourceEC2: What is Amazon EC2?
Compute service overview, instance types, storage, security groups, and pricing models.
Open resourceRDS: What is Amazon RDS?
Managed relational databases, engines, high availability, and backups.
Open resourceDynamoDB: What is Amazon DynamoDB?
NoSQL database overview, tables, partitions, and performance concepts.
Open resourceElastic Load Balancing: What is ELB?
Load balancer types and core features relevant to resilient architectures.
Open resourceRoute 53: What is Amazon Route 53?
DNS, routing policies, health checks, and traffic management.
Open resourceCloudFront: What is Amazon CloudFront?
Content delivery network concepts and edge distribution.
Open resourceCloudWatch: What is Amazon CloudWatch?
Monitoring, metrics, logs, and alarms for observability.
Open resourceExam history
Launched on August 30, 2022, SAA‑C03 is the current iteration of the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, succeeding SAA‑C02 and continuing a version history that includes a major 2018 refresh.
Last reviewed: 2026-04-09
AWS publicly refreshed the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate exam in February 2018 (the version commonly referenced later as SAA‑C01). On February 25, 2020, AWS announced the next version (SAA‑C02), with the prior exam available through March 22, 2020 and SAA‑C02 opening March 23, 2020; in response to COVID‑19 disruptions, AWS extended the SAA‑C01 retirement to July 1, 2020, and in contemporaneous guidance explicitly referred to SAA‑C02 as the current exam replacing SAA‑C01. ([aws.amazon.com](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/architecture/new-aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-exam-now-in-general-availability/?utm_source=openai))
AWS opened registration for the updated SAA‑C03 on July 27, 2022, set the first day to test as August 30, 2022, and identified August 29, 2022 as the last day to take the previous version; a follow‑up post confirmed the update as of August 30, 2022. The official SAA‑C03 exam guide is hosted in AWS Documentation, and on December 17, 2025 AWS centralized all certification exam guides there and introduced a public “revisions” section for future changes and key transition dates. ([aws.amazon.com](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/training-and-certification/updated-aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-registration-now-open/?utm_source=openai))
Change tracker
SAA-C03 launched
AWS released SAA-C03 as the current associate architecture exam version with refreshed scenario focus and domain weighting.
SAA-C02 became previous version
The earlier exam version reflected prior architecture objectives before the C03 update cycle.