AWS Certified Solutions Architect

Last updated August 2022.

Exam Topics and Subtopics

The Amazon AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification exam covers four topic areas. These are design resilient architectures; design high-performing architectures; design secure architectures and applications; designing cost-optimized architectures. When preparing for the test, it is critical to take note of the associated percentage for each of these domains. This indicates the volume of questions that may be administered during the delivery of the exam. Additionally, the candidates should also pay attention to the subtopics highlighted within each objective. They are:

• Design Resilient Architectures – 30%

  This domain has the highest percentage, and by extension, the learners should expect more weight of questions from this topic. It covers a wide range of areas, such as designing a multi-tier architecture solution; designing high availability or/and fault-tolerant architecture; designing decoupling mechanisms with the use of AWS services; selecting relevant resilient storage.

• Design High-Performing Architectures – 28%

  In the hierarchy of the exam content, this subject takes the second place in terms of weight. It requires that the candidates demonstrate their skills in identifying scalable and elastic compute solutions for workloads; selecting high-performing and scalable storage solutions for workloads; selecting high-performing networking solutions for workloads; selecting high-performing database solutions for workloads.

• Design Secure Applications & Architectures – 24%

  This objective covers three different subtopics. These include designing secure access to AWS resources; selecting relevant data security options; and designing secure application tiers.

• Design Cost-Optimized Architectures – 18%

  This section requires that the test takers develop competence in identifying cost-effective storage solutions; designing cost-optimized network architectures; identifying cost-effective database and compute services.

Recommended Requirements

To obtain this associate-level certification, the students must pass the prerequisite exam, known under the codename SAA-C02. Apart from the test, there are no other official requirements to get the Amazon AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certificate. However, the learners are recommended to have at least 1 year of practical experience in developing scalable, fault-tolerant, and cost-effective distributed systems on AWS. The potential examinees should also have experience in using computing, storage, database AWS services, and networking; AWS deployment and management services. Additionally, they need to know recommended best practices designed for building reliable and secure applications within the AWS platform.