Study Guide

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate Study Guide

Use the official AWS domain outline to connect Secure, resilient, high-performing, and cost-optimized AWS architectures to scenario-based questions and explanations.

Download App Free Practice Exam Key Terms Glossary

How the Exam Is Structured

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) validates Secure, resilient, high-performing, and cost-optimized AWS architectures. The ExamPal practice bank includes 661 premium questions and 40 free questions mapped across the official blueprint.

Domain	Weight	Focus
Domain 1: Design Secure Architectures	30%	Task 1.1: Design secure access to AWS resources; Apply security best practices to IAM and root users
Domain 2: Design Resilient Architectures	26%	Task 2.1: Design scalable and loosely coupled architectures; Task 2.2: Design highly available and/or fault-tolerant architectures
Domain 3: Design High-Performing Architectures	24%	Task 3.1: Determine high-performing and/or scalable storage solutions; Task 3.2: Design high-performing and elastic compute solutions
Domain 4: Design Cost-Optimized Architectures	20%	Task 4.1: Design cost-optimized storage solutions; Task 4.2: Design cost-optimized compute solutions

30% of exam

Domain 1: Design Secure Architectures

This domain covers securing AWS access, workloads, applications, and data. It emphasizes identity and access management, network and application security, and data protection controls aligned to AWS security best practices and the shared responsibility model.

Task 1.1: Design secure access to AWS resources

Apply security best practices to IAM and root users

Design flexible authorization model

Task 1.2: Design secure workloads and applications

Design VPC architectures with security components

Determine network segmentation strategies

Task 1.3: Determine appropriate data security controls

26% of exam

Domain 2: Design Resilient Architectures

This domain covers scalable, loosely coupled, highly available, and fault-tolerant architectures. It emphasizes distributed design, load balancing, disaster recovery, failover, service quotas, and AWS global infrastructure across Regions and Availability Zones.

Task 2.1: Design scalable and loosely coupled architectures

Task 2.2: Design highly available and/or fault-tolerant architectures

24% of exam

Domain 3: Design High-Performing Architectures

This domain covers storage, compute, database, network, and data ingestion/transformation solutions optimized for performance and scalability. It focuses on selecting appropriate AWS services, configurations, and patterns to meet business requirements for throughput, latency, elasticity, and data processing.

Task 3.1: Determine high-performing and/or scalable storage solutions

Task 3.2: Design high-performing and elastic compute solutions

Task 3.3: Determine high-performing database solutions

Task 3.4: Determine high-performing and/or scalable network architectures

Task 3.5: Determine high-performing data ingestion and transformation solutions

20% of exam

Domain 4: Design Cost-Optimized Architectures

This domain covers designing storage, compute, database, and network architectures that minimize cost while meeting business requirements. It focuses on selecting cost-effective AWS services and configurations across core workload components.

Task 4.1: Design cost-optimized storage solutions

Task 4.2: Design cost-optimized compute solutions

Knowledge of:

Task 4.3: Design cost-optimized database solutions

Task 4.4: Design cost-optimized network architectures

Key Terms to Know

These terms are loaded from the shared terminology pack and appear across the question explanations.

.csv: A comma-separated values file format mentioned as an example of transforming data between formats.
.parquet: A columnar data file format mentioned as an example of transforming data between formats.
ACM: AWS Certificate Manager, used for encrypting data in transit using TLS and renewing certificates.
ALB: Abbreviation for Application Load Balancer.
AMS: Abbreviation for AWS Managed Services.
AWS: Amazon Web Services, the cloud platform referenced throughout the text for designing secure access, workloads, and data controls.
AWS Auto Scaling: An AWS service that automatically adjusts scalable resources; listed as an example of a scalability capability with appropriate use cases.
AWS Batch: An AWS compute service listed as having appropriate use cases for high-performing compute solutions.
AWS Budgets: An AWS cost management tool used to set cost or usage budgets and track progress against them.
AWS Certificate Manager: An AWS service used for encrypting data in transit using TLS and for renewing certificates.
AWS Cognito: An AWS security service listed as an example of a service with specific use cases for securing workloads and applications.
AWS Control Tower: An AWS service used to design a security strategy for multiple AWS accounts.
AWS Cost Explorer: An AWS cost management tool used to analyze and visualize AWS spending and usage patterns.
AWS Cost and Usage Report: An AWS report that provides detailed cost and usage data for analysis and billing visibility.
AWS DataSync: An AWS hybrid storage service used for data transfer and migration between on-premises and AWS storage services.
AWS Direct Connect: An AWS service that provides dedicated network connectivity between on-premises environments and AWS.
AWS Fargate: An AWS serverless technology and pattern used for running containers.
AWS Global Accelerator: An AWS networking service that improves global application performance by routing traffic through AWS edge locations.

Official Materials and Guidance

This page is built from AWS SAA-C03 official exam guide, the shared syllabus, topic tree, terminology pack, free pack, and premium pack.

-AWS Saa c03 Exam Guide
-Solutions Architect Associate 03 domain1
-Solutions Architect Associate 03 domain2
-Solutions Architect Associate 03 domain3
-Solutions Architect Associate 03 domain4
-Solutions Architect Associate 03

Download App Official source Start Free Practice Exam