AWS SAA-C03 — Exam Prep¶
A public study companion for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) exam. Three depths of content — Learn (deep), Revise (compressed), Practice (scored mocks) — plus hands-on labs, a one-page cheat sheet, and a personal gap tracker.
Exam at a glance¶
| Exam code | SAA-C03 |
| Questions | 65 (only ~50 are scored; ~15 are unscored pilot questions) |
| Question types | Multiple choice (1 of 4) and multiple response (2+ of 5+) |
| Time | 130 minutes |
| Cost | 150 USD |
| Passing score | 720 out of 1000 (scaled, 100–1000) |
| Validity | 3 years |
| Delivery | Pearson VUE test center or online proctored |
Scaled scoring, not a raw percentage
Your 720 target is on a scaled 100–1000 range — it does not map to "72% correct." AWS doesn't publish a fixed number-correct threshold, and unscored pilot questions are mixed in. Aim to be comfortably above pass level on full-length practice, not just scraping 72%.
Domain weightings¶
| Domain | Area | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Design Secure Architectures | 30% |
| 2 | Design Resilient Architectures | 26% |
| 3 | Design High-Performing Architectures | 24% |
| 4 | Design Cost-Optimized Architectures | 20% |
Security is the single biggest slice — this site front-loads it.
Start here¶
📚 Learn¶
Deep, plain-English guides for all 12 topics — with worked examples and practice MCQs.
⚡ Revise¶
Compressed pages: fact tables, decision trees, and flashcards. For the final stretch.
📝 Practice¶
Five interactive, scored mock exams with full per-question explanations.
🛠️ Hands-On Labs¶
Build it for real. 12 Free-Tier-aware console + CLI walkthroughs, teardown included.
🗒️ Cheat Sheet¶
Everything condensed onto one skimmable page. Numbers, traps, decision tables.
🎯 Gap Tracker¶
Mark each topic Known / Needs Review / New. Saves in your browser, shows your progress.
The 12 topics¶
| # | Topic | Domain |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | IAM Deep Dive | Security · 30% |
| 2 | Data Protection | Security · 30% |
| 3 | Network & Infrastructure Security | Security · 30% |
| 4 | High Availability & Fault Tolerance | Resilient · 26% |
| 5 | Database Resilience | Resilient · 26% |
| 6 | Decoupling & Disaster Recovery | Resilient · 26% |
| 7 | Compute Choices | Performance · 24% |
| 8 | Storage Performance | Performance · 24% |
| 9 | Database & Caching Performance | Performance · 24% |
| 10 | Networking Performance | Performance · 24% |
| 11 | Compute & Storage Cost Optimization | Cost · 20% |
| 12 | Cost Management Tools | Cost · 20% |
How this site is organized¶
Each topic exists at up to three depths, all sharing the same number:
- Learn
/learn/NN-*— read this first. Full explanations, analogies, worked examples, end-of-page MCQs. - Revise
/revise/NN-*— after you've learned it. Tables, decision trees, and flashcards only. - Labs
/labs/NN-*— build the thing. Console click-paths plus CLI equivalents, Free-Tier-aware.
Then two cross-cutting tools:
- Cheat Sheet — the whole exam condensed onto one page for last-minute skimming.
- Gap Tracker — your personal Known / Needs Review / New map, saved locally.
A suggested path: Learn → Lab → Revise per topic, moving Security first (it's 30%), then a mock exam once a domain feels solid.
Accuracy note
These are original study notes, cross-checked against official AWS documentation — but they may contain errors and AWS changes constantly. Always verify a specific limit, price, or default against the official docs before relying on it. See About.