AWS Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03)

By far the most popular of AWS's 13 certifications is the Solutions Architect - Associate. It occupies more job listings than any other AWS certification, because it’s broadly useful for employers trying to figure out if you truly understand AWS's services and features and how to properly build a solution with them.

In this article, I'll share the answers to the most common questions you might have about the Solutions Architect - Associate and the exam, including how it's structured and what to study up on, so you can pass it on your first time around like I did.

What is the AWS Solutions Architect - Associate, exactly?

The AWS Solutions Architect - Associate is an intermediate-level certification that tests your ability to design cloud solutions based on AWS's Well-Architected Framework. It involves answering questions on how you'd build something in the cloud so it's secure, resilient, high performing, and/or cost optimized.

I didn't pick those four examples at random. Those are literally the four domains you're scored against! Going into the exam, you get a lot of scenario questions where they ask you what solution you'd choose based on one of those needs, so you're often keeping an eagle eye out for those key terms.

Who is the AWS Solutions Architect - Associate for?

Official AWS answer? It's what it says on the tin: a cert for people who architect cloud solutions. Real answer? It's for everyone. I can't think of a single tech IC who would not benefit from studying and taking the SAA-C03 exam, from cloud roles to cybersecurity and software development. 

Even if you're a leader or someone in a non-technical profession, I'd still say it's worth it. Unlike the Cloud Practitioner, which is a gentle certification that lightly touches on AWS essentials, the Solutions Architect - Associate really opens your eyes to the real-world use cases and architectural patterns of the cloud.

How hard is the SAA-C03?

Moderate, though it depends on your experience. If you’re someone who’s worked professionally with a lot of different AWS cloud solutions before, you’ll only need some light study to make sure you really know all 140 of the possible AWS services and features that can be mentioned in the exam. If not, you’ll want to spend a few months studying most of those and they should be used.

I found this exam a bit of a shock after coming in from the comparatively AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, because the question intensity does spike. You’re often asked to pick the best solution from a list of good ones, so it can be hard to pick out the right answer from the process of elimination—you really need to know the services and features in question.

What are the exam requirements for the SAA-C03?

There’s no exam requirements for the SAA-C03, which means there’s no need to have passed any foundational certifications to sign up for the exam. 

Do I need hands-on experience to take the SAA-C03?

No, but it helps a lot. Without it, you’ll struggle to remember all the AWS services and best-case scenarios, no matter how many videos you watch and notes you take.

The good news is that you don’t actually need to be a working cloud professional to get this experience. In fact, that would be contradictory, because then you’d need the work experience to get the certification to get the job to get the work experience… and now you’re stuck in an infinite loop with no escape statement.

You can build up your hands-on cloud experience using one of three approaches:

• AWS’s free cloud tier

• Hands-on cloud labs

• Cloud sandboxes

Pluralsight author and seasoned cloud engineer Andru Estes has a great guide on how to do all three on this blog, as well as the pros and cons of building experience with each approach.

The chicken or the egg: AWS’s cloud experience recommendation

Officially, AWS recommends you should have “at least one year of hands-on experience designing cloud solutions that use AWS services” before taking the exam. However, I think you should study for the exam, then go on to get that experience. Why?

• You don’t need a whole year of practice to take the exam, because that’s overkill. 

• Unless you’re using one of the safety net methods mentioned above, this means you’re going to spend a whole year using AWS without studying how to use it in a non-screwy way.

• Studying for your SAA-C03 gives you the knowledge and confidence to architect in AWS better

• If you’ve learned best-practice architecture in some other way before you got started, you’ve met the requirements to pass the exam anyway.

• Passing the exam is a good way to confirm your knowledge before you’re in a position to actually do any real damage (or at least, minimize some of it.)

What is the structure of the SAA-C03 exam?

The exam is 130 minutes and is made up of 65 questions. Only 50 of these are scored, the remaining 15 are unscored questions. Those are just there so AWS can test these questions out for future exams, and you won’t know if an exam is scored or not in the exam.

There are two types of questions in the exam:

• Multiple choice: You’re asked to choose one correct response out of three incorrect responses (distractors). 

• Multiple response: You choose two or more correct responses out of five or more response options. 

The distractors are designed to seem correct to anyone who hasn’t studied up fully on AWS! In fact, even with foundational knowledge, some will seem quite plausible because two or more services you can pick from could be used to solve the problem you’re presented with. I cannot emphasize enough how much you need to read out the problem statement in detail.

The good news is that you don’t need to linger on a question, you can skip forward, go backwards, or flag questions to check later. In fact, a good exam trick is to give yourself a certain amount of time to answer any question, and if you can’t figure it out, move on and double back later.

Do I need to sit the SAA-C03 exam remotely or in a facility?

You can do either! I sat mine remotely, because my office setup is fairly clean and distraction free, and I don’t mind if a stranger has strong opinions on how close my phone is. However, I’ve also sat exams in facilities, and it was nice not to worry about having to open task manager and shut down conflicting programs that were clashing with the exam software.

Here’s what I’d recommend:

• Sit your exam remotely if you’ve got a good home office setup where nobody is going to walk in or make lots of background noise, you’ve successfully tested the exam software, and you’re moderately confident your internet won’t cut out.

• Sit your exam in a facility if you’ve got a cluttered home setup, lots of people or kids wandering around, and the idea of random disasters like the internet cutting out makes you break out in a cold sweat.

And hey, even if the worst happens, you’ll get a good story out of it.

How much does the SAA-C03 cost to take?

The AWS Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) exam is currently 150 USD, and the price is subject to change and local currency conversion. To check the latest pricing, visit AWS’s official exam pricing page.

What is the pass score of the SAA-C03?

Your results are reported as a scaled score between 100 and 1000, and the minimum passing score is 720. Now, you might think “that means I only need to get 72% of the questions correct!” but that would be wrong. The passing score is actually determined by your ability to answer the questions and their difficulty level.

Another important point is that points are never deducted. In short, you should always answer every question, even if you need to guess.

How soon will I get the results for taking the SAA-C03?

Unlike the AWS Cloud Practitioner, you don’t get the results for the AWS Solutions Architect - Associate right after the exam (I know, right?) Instead, you’ve got to wait for AWS to send you an email to find out if you’ve passed or failed. Officially, this takes about five business days from completing the exam, but many people get it a lot sooner. 

Can I take the SAA-C03 multiple times?

If you fail any AWS exam—not just the SAA-C03—you’ve got to wait 14 calendar days before you can take it again. There’s no limit on exam attempts, except for your wallet, which will start to sting a lot if you retry too many times! That’s because you’ve got to pay the full registration fee for each exam attempt.

What does the SAA-C03 cover?

The SAA-C03 is broken up into four domains, which break down into designing for security, resilience, high performance, or cost optimization. That’s also the order of how much of your mark it’s worth from highest to lowest, so you’re going to want to give more study time to security best practice than cost optimization. Here are the official weightings:

You can check out the full list of in-scope AWS services and features in AWS’s exam guide. What the guide won’t tell you, though, is where to spend your time. For example, when I sat the exam, database-related questions around Aurora, Redshift, and DynamoDB came up a lot, but I didn’t see AWS X-Ray at all, which is also on the list. 

How should I study for the SAA-C03?

For this exam, I recommend a mix of watching expert-authored videos and hands-on learning. Start by carefully reading the exam guide to determine your strengths and weaknesses, and create a study plan focused on addressing your weakest areas. 

A great place to start (or really end as well, since it’s very comprehensive) is Andru Estes’s SAA-C03 exam prep course. It covers all you need to know to pass the exam in far more detail than I can in this blog, and also highlights where it’s worth spending most of your study time. There’s also hands-on labs to get that important practical experience.

Conclusion

I hope this article was helpful to you, and I wish you the best with taking the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate exam! Until next time.