This course prepares you for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) exam. It is deliberately text-first. Everything is written out so you can read at your own pace, search it, re-read the paragraph that did not land the first time, and print the handouts to annotate.
What is in each section
- Written lessons. Each concept is explained in prose, with tables where a comparison is the point and callouts where the exam has a favourite trap.
- A knowledge check partway through. Short, immediate, answers shown straight away. This is for catching a misunderstanding while the material is still fresh.
- A timed section assessment. Longer scenario questions in the style of the real exam. Answers unlock once you pass, so a failed attempt sends you back to the text rather than to the answer key.
- A PDF handout. The whole section as a printable document — useful for revision on a commute or offline.
How to actually study this
Reading alone produces a comfortable feeling of understanding that collapses under exam pressure. The questions are not decoration; they are the part that builds recall. A workable rhythm:
- Read a section's lessons in order, without stopping to take notes.
- Take the knowledge check before re-reading anything. A wrong answer tells you precisely where to look.
- Re-read only the lessons the check exposed.
- Take the section assessment. Aim to pass it on the second attempt, not the fifth.
- Move on. Come back to the assessment a week later — spaced repetition is what makes it stick.
SAA-C03 is 65 questions in 130 minutes, scored 100–1000 with a pass mark of 720. Fifteen of the 65 are unscored trial questions, but you cannot tell which. Questions are multiple choice (one correct answer) or multiple response (usually two or three correct, and the question always tells you how many to pick).
The four exam domains
| Domain | Weight | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Design Secure Architectures | 30% | Sections 2–4 |
| 2. Design Resilient Architectures | 26% | Sections 4–8 |
| 3. Design High-Performing Architectures | 24% | Sections 5–7 |
| 4. Design Cost-Optimized Architectures | 20% | Sections 6–8 |
The domains overlap heavily — a single question about choosing an S3 storage class touches performance, cost and durability at once. This course is organised by service area rather than by domain, because that is how you will actually think when you design something.
SAA-C03 tests architectural judgement, not console clicks or command syntax. You will not be asked to write a CLI command. You will constantly be asked to pick the best of four technically-workable options, where "best" is defined by a constraint buried in the scenario — lowest cost, least operational overhead, minimum downtime. Train yourself to find that constraint first.