AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) tests whether you can design solutions on AWS based on the AWS Well-Architected Framework. Here is how the exam works in 2026, the four domains and their weights, what each domain covers, who it is aimed at, how to keep the certification, and our suggested study plan.
Is SAA-C03 being replaced?
Not as far as AWS has said. AWS’s September 2026 certification update announced new versions of three exams: Machine Learning Engineer – Associate, Solutions Architect – Professional and Developer – Associate. It did not include Solutions Architect – Associate. As of 28 October 2026, the AWS exam guides index still lists SAA-C03, and the AWS Training and Certification blog has not announced a successor.
The only change AWS has announced is about language: the Italian version of the exam will be retired after 31 December 2026. The exam stays available in its other languages.
The format
| Detail | SAA-C03 |
|---|---|
| Level | Associate |
| Questions | 65: 50 scored and 15 unscored |
| Time | 130 minutes |
| Question types | Multiple choice and multiple response |
| Passing score | 720 on a scaled score from 100 to 1,000 |
| Fee | USD 150 (AWS notes that extra costs, such as foreign exchange, may apply) |
| Delivery | Pearson VUE, at a test centre or online proctored |
| Validity | 3 years |
A multiple choice question has one correct answer and three incorrect ones. A multiple response question has two or more correct answers out of five or more options. Unanswered questions are scored as incorrect, and there is no penalty for guessing, so answer every question.
The 15 unscored questions are ones AWS is trying out for future use. They are not marked on the exam, so treat every question as if it counts.
The exam uses a compensatory scoring model. You need to pass the exam as a whole, not each domain. Your score report may show how you did in each section, but AWS advises caution when reading that section-level feedback.
The exam uses short names for some AWS services. A list of short names and full names is available through the Help button during the exam, and AWS suggests you look at it before exam day.
The four domains
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| 1. Design Secure Architectures | 30% |
| 2. Design Resilient Architectures | 26% |
| 3. Design High-Performing Architectures | 24% |
| 4. Design Cost-Optimized Architectures | 20% |
The weights are shares of the scored content, so a higher weight means more questions from that domain.
What each domain covers
This is our short summary of the task statements in the official exam guide. The guide itself has the full lists of knowledge and skills.
Design Secure Architectures (30%)
- Secure access to AWS resources: IAM users, groups, roles and policies, least privilege and MFA, role switching and cross-account access, federation, and multi-account security with AWS Control Tower and service control policies.
- Secure workloads and applications: VPC design with security groups, network ACLs, route tables and public and private subnets, plus services such as AWS WAF, AWS Shield, Amazon Cognito, Amazon GuardDuty and AWS Secrets Manager.
- Data security controls: encryption at rest with AWS KMS and in transit with AWS Certificate Manager, key policies and rotation, backups and replication, and data retention and compliance.
Design Resilient Architectures (26%)
- Scalable and loosely coupled designs: event-driven, microservice and multi-tier architectures, queues and publish/subscribe messaging, serverless with AWS Lambda and AWS Fargate, containers on Amazon ECS and Amazon EKS, Amazon API Gateway, load balancing, caching and read replicas.
- High availability and fault tolerance: designs across Availability Zones and Regions, Amazon Route 53, removing single points of failure, failover, and disaster recovery strategies from backup and restore to active-active, judged against RPO and RTO.
Design High-Performing Architectures (24%)
- Storage: choosing between object, file and block storage, such as Amazon S3, Amazon EFS and Amazon EBS, for performance and growth.
- Compute: EC2 instance types, Auto Scaling, Lambda sizing, containers, and decoupling so components scale on their own.
- Databases: picking a database type and engine, such as Amazon Aurora or Amazon DynamoDB, read replicas, proxies and caching with Amazon ElastiCache.
- Networks: subnet tiers and routing, load balancing, Amazon CloudFront, AWS Global Accelerator, and connections such as VPN, AWS Direct Connect and AWS PrivateLink.
- Data ingestion and transformation: streaming with Amazon Kinesis, transfer with AWS DataSync, transformation with AWS Glue, data lakes, and analytics with Amazon Athena.
Design Cost-Optimized Architectures (20%)
- Storage: storage tiers, S3 lifecycle rules, backup and archive choices, and the cheapest way to move data into AWS.
- Compute: Spot Instances, Reserved Instances and Savings Plans, right-sizing instances, and choosing between Lambda, EC2 and Fargate.
- Databases: cost-effective database services, backup and retention policies, and capacity planning.
- Networks: NAT gateway choices, data transfer routes, VPC endpoints, AWS Transit Gateway and VPC peering, and Direct Connect versus VPN.
Cost tools such as AWS Cost Explorer and AWS Budgets appear across this domain.
Recommended experience
The exam guide describes a target candidate with at least 1 year of hands-on experience designing cloud solutions that use AWS services. The exam page adds that people with 1 to 3 years of IT experience have prepared for and earned this certification as a starting point. If you have no IT work experience, AWS suggests earning AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner first.
Keeping your certification
The certification is valid for 3 years. To recertify, you can pass the latest version of the exam. Earning AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional also recertifies the Associate certification automatically.
Our suggested study plan
This is our suggestion, not AWS’s. It gives each domain time roughly in line with its weight, over eight weeks. Stretch it if you are new to AWS.
- Weeks 1–2: Secure architectures. IAM policies and roles, cross-account access, VPC security, and encryption with KMS and ACM.
- Weeks 3–4: Resilient architectures. Queues and events, serverless and containers, load balancing, multi-AZ and multi-Region designs, and the disaster recovery strategies.
- Week 5: High-performing architectures. Matching storage, compute, database and network services to performance needs, plus caching and data ingestion.
- Week 6: Cost-optimized architectures. Purchasing options, storage tiers and lifecycles, NAT gateway and data transfer costs.
- Weeks 7–8: Practice and review. Take timed practice exams, read every explanation, and go back to your weakest domain.
Throughout, build things in your own AWS account where you can. Many questions describe a scenario and ask for the most secure, most resilient or cheapest design, and hands-on practice makes those trade-offs easier to spot. AWS also lists an Official Practice Question Set and an Official Practice Exam on the exam page.
Confirm the latest details on AWS’s Solutions Architect – Associate page before you book.
I run ExamCrest, where this guide first appeared. Try free SAA-C03 practice questions: https://examcrest.com/exam/aws-saa-c03/free-questions?utm_source=devto&utm_campaign=s-n2a-saa-c03
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