Notes and walkthroughs for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate exam (SAA-C03). The layout follows a short course shape: concepts, how to choose between options, common patterns, and runnable examples under examples/ that you can copy or trim.
Disclaimer: AWS services, quotas, pricing, and exam blueprints change. Always verify critical facts in the AWS Documentation and the official exam guide before the exam or for production design.
- People studying for SAA-C03 who care about coverage across services and about which service fits a given constraint.
- Builders who already think in terms of the Well-Architected pillars (security, reliability, performance, cost, operations).
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Format | Multiple choice, multiple response |
| Length | 130 minutes (check current official page) |
| Delivery | Pearson VUE testing center or online proctored |
| Prerequisite | None (Associate level) |
The blueprint groups skills into four domains (weights are approximate; confirm on AWS):
- Design secure architectures: IAM, data protection, secure connectivity.
- Design resilient architectures: multi-AZ, backups, fault tolerance.
- Design high-performing architectures: scaling, caching, data access patterns.
- Design cost-optimized architectures: right-sizing, storage tiers, governance.
- Read Exam blueprint and study plan for pacing, resources, and how questions are usually phrased.
- Work through the topic guides in order (02 → 09) or skip to weak areas.
- Run or edit examples (CloudFormation, AWS CLI, Python/boto3).
| Guide | Topics |
|---|---|
| 01 – Exam blueprint & study plan | Domains, question style, study schedule |
| 02 – Security, identity & compliance | IAM, KMS, Secrets Manager, WAF, Shield, organizations |
| 03 – Networking & edge | VPC, load balancing, Route 53, CloudFront, API Gateway |
| 04 – Compute | EC2, Auto Scaling, containers, Lambda |
| 05 – Storage | S3, EBS, EFS, FSx |
| 06 – Data & databases | RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, caching, analytics overview |
| 07 – Integration & serverless | SQS, SNS, EventBridge, Step Functions |
| 08 – Observability & operations | CloudWatch, CloudTrail, Systems Manager, deployment |
| 09 – Resilience, patterns & cost | Multi-AZ/Region, DR tiers, Well-Architected, cost |
| 10 – Hands-on code reference | Links to templates and scripts in examples/ |
| 11 – Appendix (glossary & checklists) | Quick terms, decision hints, exam-day checklist |
| Location | Contents |
|---|---|
| examples/README.md | How to run samples safely |
| examples/cloudformation/ | Sample templates |
| examples/cli/ | AWS CLI patterns |
| examples/python/ | boto3 snippets |
- Pick the service that fits the stated constraints (RPO/RTO, compliance, latency, cost).
- Use managed services when they satisfy the requirements so you are not managing undifferentiated infrastructure.
- Know trade-offs: strong consistency vs. availability, sync vs. async coupling, and similar.
- Read the stem: region, public vs. private access, and hard requirements (“must use X”).
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
- AWS Well-Architected Framework
- AWS Documentation (service home pages + FAQs)
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