AWS Certified Solutions Architect-Associate (SAA-C03) Exam Guide - Preparation and Exam Structure

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Melati

AWS Certified Solutions Architect-Associate (SAA-C03) Exam Guide outlines the exam’s purpose for solutions architects and validates the ability to design solutions using the AWS Well-Architected Framework. It covers key responsibilities such as incorporating AWS services for current and future business needs, creating secure, resilient, high-performing, and cost-optimized architectures, and improving existing solutions. The guide explains question formats, scored and unscored question handling, and pass/fail scoring with scaled results, plus the domain-level content weighting and task statements, starting with secure architectures.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages23

Reading Time58 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Target candidate description

Exam content

Response types

Unscored content

Exam results

Content outline

Domain 1: Design Secure Architectures

AWS Certified Solutions Architect-Associate (SAA-C03) Exam Guide Introduction The AWS Certified Solutions Architect-Associate (SAA-C03) exam is intended for individuals who perform a solutions architect role. The exam validates a candidate’s ability to design solutions based on the AWS Well-Architected Framework. The exam also validates a candidate’s ability to complete the following tasks: • Design solutions that incorporate AWS services to meet current business requirements and future projected needs • Design architectures that are secure, resilient, high-performing, and costoptimized • Review existing solutions and determine improvements Target candidate description The target candidate should have at least 1 year of hands-on experience designing cloud solutions that use AWS services. Refer to the Appendix for a list of technologies and concepts that might appear on the exam, a list of in-scope AWS services and features, and a list of out-of-scope AWS services and features. Exam content Response types There are two types of questions on the exam: • Multiple choice: Has one correct response and three incorrect responses (distractors) • Multiple response: Has two or more correct responses out of five or more response options Select one or more responses that best complete the statement or answer the question. Distractors, or incorrect answers, are response options that a candidate with incomplete knowledge or skill might choose. Distractors are generally plausible responses that match the content area. Unanswered questions are scored as incorrect; there is no penalty for guessing. The exam includes 50 questions that affect your score. Unscored content The exam includes 15 unscored questions that do not affect your score. AWS collects information about performance on these unscored questions to evaluate these questions for future use as scored questions. These unscored questions are not identified on the exam. Exam results The AWS Certified Solutions Architect-Associate (SAA-C03) exam has a pass or fail designation. The exam is scored against a minimum standard established by AWS professionals who follow certification industry best practices and guidelines. Your results for the exam are reported as a scaled score of 100–1,000. The minimum passing score is 720. Your score shows how you performed on the exam as a whole and whether you passed. Scaled scoring models help equate scores across multiple exam forms that might have slightly different difficulty levels. Your score report could contain a table of classifications of your performance at each section level. The exam uses a compensatory scoring model, which means that you do not need to achieve a passing score in each section. You need to pass only the overall exam. Each section of the exam has a specific weighting, so some sections have more questions than other sections have. The table of classifications contains general information that highlights your strengths and weaknesses. Use caution when you interpret section-level feedback. Content outline This exam guide includes weightings, content domains, and task statements for the exam. This guide does not provide a comprehensive list of the content on the exam. However, additional context for each task statement is available to help you prepare for the exam. The exam has the following content domains and weightings: • Domain 1: Design Secure Architectures (30% of scored content) • Domain 2: Design Resilient Architectures (26% of scored content) • Domain 3: Design High-Performing Architectures (24% of scored content) • Domain 4: Design Cost-Optimized Architectures (20% of scored content) Domain 1: Design Secure Architectures Task Statement 1.1 : Design secure access to AWS resources. Knowledge of: • Access controls and management across multiple accounts • AWS federated access and identity services (for example, AWS Identity and Access Management [IAM]

FAQs

Who is the AWS Certified Solutions Architect-Associate (SAA-C03) exam intended for?

The exam is intended for individuals performing a solutions architect role and validating their architecture design capabilities based on the AWS Well-Architected Framework.

What are the two types of response formats on the exam?

The exam uses multiple choice questions (one correct and three incorrect options) and multiple response questions (two or more correct answers out of five or more options).

How does scoring work, including unscored questions and passing criteria?

The exam includes 50 scored questions and 15 unscored questions that do not affect the score. Results are reported as a scaled score from 100–1,000, and the minimum passing score is 720.

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Melati