The exam
The SAA-C03 exam guide splits the scored content into four domains: Secure 30%, Resilient 26%, High-Performing 24% and Cost-Optimized 20%.
Format
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03)
An Associate level exam that validates the ability to design solutions based on the AWS Well-Architected Framework, secure, resilient, high-performing and cost-optimized.
Key points
- 65 questions: 50 scored and 15 unscored. The unscored ones are not identified, so treat every question as real.
- Multiple choice: 1 correct answer and 3 distractors. Multiple response: 2 or more correct answers among 5 or more options.
- 130 minutes. An unanswered question counts as wrong and there is no penalty for guessing, so never leave a blank.
- 150 USD, taken at a Pearson VUE test center or as an online proctored exam.
- Languages: English, French (France), Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Spain), Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. Italian is retired after December 31, 2026.
- Extra time: non-native English speakers can request a 30 minute extension once, and it applies to later registrations.
On the exam
Distractors are plausible answers that match the content area. Expect two options that both work, and pick the one that meets every requirement in the stem.
The result is pass or fail, reported as a scaled score so that exam forms with slightly different difficulty are comparable.
Key points
- Scaled score from 100 to 1000. The minimum passing score is 720.
- Compensatory model: you do not need to pass each section, only the exam as a whole.
- Section feedback: the score report may classify your performance per domain. Read it as a general hint, not a precise grade.
- Results are posted to your AWS Certification Account within 5 business days.
- Retake: after a fail, wait 14 calendar days. There is no attempt limit, but every attempt pays the full fee.
On the exam
A weak domain does not fail you by itself. Domain 1 (30%) and Domain 2 (26%) together are more than half of the scored content, so they deserve the most study time.
Four content domains, each split into task statements. The guide lists the knowledge and skills behind every task, which makes it the real syllabus.
Key points
- Domain 1, Design Secure Architectures (30%): secure access, secure workloads and data security controls.
- Domain 2, Design Resilient Architectures (26%): loose coupling, scaling, high availability, fault tolerance and DR.
- Domain 3, Design High-Performing Architectures (24%): storage, compute, database, network and data ingestion.
- Domain 4, Design Cost-Optimized Architectures (20%): storage, compute, database and network cost.
On the exam
The domain names mirror four Well-Architected pillars. When a question says "most secure", "most resilient", "best performance" or "lowest cost", it is telling you which domain, and which trade-off, it is grading.
Domains and task statements
| Domain | Weight and tasks |
|---|---|
| Domain 1 |
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| Domain 2 |
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| Domain 3 |
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| Domain 4 |
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The exam targets someone with at least 1 year of hands-on experience designing cloud solutions with AWS services. The guide publishes both an in-scope and an out-of-scope service list.
Key points
- Target candidate: at least 1 year designing on AWS. Without IT experience, AWS suggests starting with Cloud Practitioner.
- In scope: analytics, application integration, cost management, compute, containers, databases, networking, security, serverless, storage, migration and a set of AI services such as Amazon Comprehend and Amazon Rekognition.
- Out of scope (list): Amazon Lightsail, AWS CDK, AWS CodeBuild, AWS CodeDeploy, AWS CodeCommit, all IoT services, Amazon GameLift, Amazon MWAA, AWS Cloud Map, Amazon Braket and AWS Ground Station, among others.
- Short names: services with abbreviations appear in short form, e.g. Amazon SNS. The in-exam Help feature lists the full names.
- No deep coding: the exam is about design choices, not writing code, though basic programming familiarity helps.
On the exam
An option built on an out-of-scope service (Lightsail, CDK, CodeDeploy) is almost never the expected answer. Prefer the in-scope managed service that meets the requirement.
Most questions are scenarios with several technically valid answers. The qualifier in the last sentence decides which one is correct.
Key points
- "Least operational overhead": managed or serverless (Lambda, Fargate, DynamoDB, Aurora Serverless) beats anything you patch and scale on EC2.
- "Most cost-effective": the cheapest option that still meets every stated requirement, e.g. Spot only when the work tolerates interruption.
- "Highly available": spread across multiple Availability Zones. "Fault tolerant": keeps working through a component failure with no interruption.
- "Decouple" or "absorb spikes": a queue or event bus (Amazon SQS, Amazon SNS, Amazon EventBridge) between producer and consumer.
- "Without changing the application": services that add reliability around legacy code, e.g. a load balancer with Auto Scaling or a Multi-AZ database.
- Hard constraints first: RPO and RTO, compliance, Region, latency. Discard every option that breaks one, then apply the qualifier.
On the exam
Read the last sentence first. "Most secure" and "least operational overhead" can point to different answers for the same scenario, and the distractor is usually the one that optimizes the wrong qualifier.
The certification is valid for 3 years. Renewal requires an active certification.
Key points
- Retake the current version of the exam: 3 more years of validity.
- Pass the Professional: AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional also renews the Associate.
- Maintain on AWS Skill Builder: needs a paid subscription and a certification within 90 days of expiration. It adds 1 year.
- 50% voucher: available in your AWS Certification Account and usable on a future exam, including the recertification.
On the exam
Not an exam topic, but plan for it: a renewal exam started with the 50% voucher costs half of the 150 USD fee.