- Design secure access to AWS resources
- Design secure workloads and applications
- Determine appropriate data security controls
AWS Certification Training Course
AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Training
We'll get you ready for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03) exam, the most requested AWS credential for cloud architects and engineers.
Course focus: Secure, resilient, high-performing and cost-optimized design with the AWS Well-Architected Framework, mapped to the four SAA-C03 domains.
Course Overview
What the Solutions Architect Associate course covers and who it's for.
AWS says SAA-C03 is for people in a solutions architect role and validates the ability to design solutions based on the AWS Well-Architected Framework. It's the exam most employers ask about first.
We follow the four domains in the official exam guide. Design Secure Architectures is the largest at 30%, so we spend serious lab time on IAM, VPC design and data protection before moving through resilience, performance and cost.
Live virtual expert-led classes, with self-paced access to all materials and labs. Most students finish in 4 to 8 weeks part-time.
Accumentum is an AWS Authorized Training Partner. AWS sets exam content, fees and policies, so check aws.amazon.com/certification before you book.
Course Objectives
Get ready for Solutions Architect Associate the way the exam is built.
01
Cover the Whole Exam Guide
Work through all 4 domains in the official SAA-C03 exam guide, weighted the way AWS weights them.
02
Go Deep on the Biggest Domain
Design Secure Architectures is 30% of the scored content per AWS, so it gets the most class time.
03
Practice in Real AWS Labs
Hands-on lab work on the tasks the SAA-C03 guide lists, not just slides.
04
Be Ready for Test Day
The exam has 65 multiple choice and multiple response questions in 130 minutes. We practice both question types under time.
Who Should Attend
- Cloud engineers and architects.
- Systems and network admins moving to AWS.
- Developers who design what they build.
- Cloud Practitioner holders ready for the next step.
Prerequisites
- AWS doesn't require another certification first, and we don't have enrollment prerequisites either.
- AWS recommends at least 1 year of hands-on experience designing cloud solutions with AWS services.
Pathway Map
The Solutions Architect Associate course in 4 modules.
Each module is one domain from the official SAA-C03 exam guide, with its exam weight.
Course Content
- Design scalable and loosely coupled architectures
- Design highly available and/or fault-tolerant architectures
- Determine high-performing and/or scalable storage solutions
- Design high-performing and elastic compute solutions
- Determine high-performing database solutions
- Determine high-performing and/or scalable network architectures
- Determine high-performing data ingestion and transformation solutions
- Design cost-optimized storage solutions
- Design cost-optimized compute solutions
- Design cost-optimized database solutions
- Design cost-optimized network architectures
Course Features
How we teach Solutions Architect Associate.
Expert-Led Classes
Live virtual instruction with time for questions, so you aren't figuring out the hard parts alone.
Hands-On Labs
Lab work in AWS tied to the tasks in the SAA-C03 exam guide.
Exam Guide Mapping
Every module maps to a domain in the official SAA-C03 exam guide.
Exam Strategy
Timed practice with multiple choice and multiple response questions, plus test day tips for the center or online.
Certification Exam
About the Solutions Architect Associate exam.
Solutions Architect Associate Exam Readiness
Our students pass at a 98.8% rate across Accumentum courses. We'll get you ready for Solutions Architect Associate the same way.
Per AWS, AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03) is a Associate level exam with 65 multiple choice and multiple response questions in 130 minutes, priced at 150 USD. You can take it at a Pearson VUE test center or as an online proctored exam.
AWS certifications are valid for three years. Full details are on the official AWS Solutions Architect Associate page and in the SAA-C03 exam guide.
Accumentum is an AWS Authorized Training Partner. AWS sets exam content, fees and policies, so check aws.amazon.com/certification before you book. We're also an Army CA and Air Force COOL Approved Vendor.
Exam Objectives
What SAA-C03 actually tests, task by task.
Here is the full SAA-C03 blueprint at the task level. That means 4 domains, 14 tasks and the specific knowledge and skills AWS tests under each one.
Domain 1: Design Secure Architectures (30%)
Task 1.1: Design secure access to AWS resources
- Access controls and management across multiple accounts
- AWS federated access and identity services (for example, IAM, AWS IAM Identity Center)
- AWS global infrastructure (for example, Availability Zones, AWS Regions)
- AWS security best practices (for example, the principle of least privilege)
- The AWS shared responsibility model
- Applying AWS security best practices to IAM users and root users (for example, multi-factor authentication [MFA])
- Designing a flexible authorization model that includes IAM users, groups, roles, and policies
- Designing a role-based access control strategy (for example, AWS STS, role switching, cross-account access)
- Designing a security strategy for multiple AWS accounts (for example, AWS Control Tower, service control policies [SCPs])
- Determining the appropriate use of resource policies for AWS services
- Determining when to federate a directory service with IAM roles
Task 1.2: Design secure workloads and applications
- Application configuration and credentials security
- AWS service endpoints
- Control ports, protocols, and network traffic on AWS
- Secure application access
- Security services with appropriate use cases (for example, Amazon Cognito, Amazon GuardDuty, Amazon Macie)
- Threat vectors external to AWS (for example, DDoS, SQL injection)
- Designing VPC architectures with security components (for example, security groups, route tables, network ACLs, NAT gateways)
- Determining network segmentation strategies (for example, using public subnets and private subnets)
- Integrating AWS services to secure applications (for example, AWS Shield, AWS WAF, IAM Identity Center, AWS Secrets Manager)
- Securing external network connections to and from the AWS Cloud (for example, VPN, AWS Direct Connect)
Task 1.3: Determine appropriate data security controls
- Data access and governance
- Data recovery
- Data retention and classification
- Encryption and appropriate key management
- Aligning AWS technologies to meet compliance requirements
- Encrypting data at rest (for example, AWS KMS)
- Encrypting data in transit (for example, AWS Certificate Manager [ACM] using TLS)
- Implementing access policies for encryption keys
- Implementing data backups and replications
- Implementing policies for data access, lifecycle, and protection
- Rotating encryption keys and renewing certificates
Domain 2: Design Resilient Architectures (26%)
Task 2.1: Design scalable and loosely coupled architectures
- API creation and management (for example, Amazon API Gateway, REST API)
- AWS managed services with appropriate use cases (for example, AWS Transfer Family, Amazon SQS, AWS Secrets Manager)
- Caching strategies
- Design principles for microservices (for example, stateless workloads compared with stateful workloads)
- Event-driven architectures
- Horizontal scaling and vertical scaling
- How to appropriately use edge accelerators (for example, content delivery network [CDN])
- How to migrate applications into containers
- Load balancing concepts (for example, Application Load Balancer [ALB])
- Multi-tier architectures
- Queuing and messaging concepts (for example, publish/subscribe)
- Serverless technologies and patterns (for example, AWS Fargate, AWS Lambda)
- Storage types with associated characteristics (for example, object, file, block)
- The orchestration of containers (for example, Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS)
- When to use read replicas
- Workflow orchestration (for example, AWS Step Functions)
- Designing event-driven, microservice, and/or multi-tier architectures based on requirements
- Determining scaling strategies for components used in an architecture design
- Determining the AWS services required to achieve loose coupling based on requirements
- Determining when to use containers
- Determining when to use serverless technologies and patterns
- Recommending appropriate compute, storage, networking, and database technologies based on requirements
- Using purpose-built AWS services for workloads
Task 2.2: Design highly available and/or fault-tolerant architectures
- AWS global infrastructure (for example, Availability Zones, AWS Regions, Amazon Route 53)
- AWS Managed Services (AMS) with appropriate use cases (for example, Amazon Comprehend, Amazon Polly)
- Basic networking concepts (for example, route tables)
- Disaster recovery (DR) strategies (for example, backup and restore, pilot light, warm standby, active-active failover, recovery point objective [RPO], recovery time objective [RTO])
- Distributed design patterns
- Failover strategies
- Immutable infrastructure
- Load balancing concepts (for example, ALB)
- Proxy concepts (for example, Amazon RDS Proxy)
- Service quotas and throttling (for example, how to configure the service quotas for a workload in a standby environment)
- Storage options and characteristics (for example, durability, replication)
- Workload visibility (for example, AWS X-Ray)
- Determining automation strategies to ensure infrastructure integrity
- Determining the AWS services required to provide a highly available and/or fault-tolerant architecture across AWS Regions or Availability Zones
- Identifying metrics based on business requirements to deliver a highly available solution
- Implementing designs to mitigate single points of failure
- Implementing strategies to ensure the durability and availability of data (for example, backups)
- Selecting an appropriate DR strategy to meet business requirements
- Using AWS services that improve the reliability of legacy applications and applications not built for the cloud (for example, when application changes are not possible)
- Using purpose-built AWS services for workloads
Domain 3: Design High-Performing Architectures (24%)
Task 3.1: Determine high-performing and/or scalable storage solutions
- Hybrid storage solutions to meet business requirements
- Storage services with appropriate use cases (for example, Amazon S3, Amazon EFS, Amazon EBS)
- Storage types with associated characteristics (for example, object, file, block)
- Determining storage services and configurations that meet performance demands
- Determining storage services that can scale to accommodate future needs
Task 3.2: Design high-performing and elastic compute solutions
- AWS compute services with appropriate use cases (for example, AWS Batch, Amazon EMR, AWS Fargate)
- Distributed computing concepts supported by AWS global infrastructure and edge services
- Queuing and messaging concepts (for example, publish/subscribe)
- Scalability capabilities with appropriate use cases (for example, Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling, AWS Auto Scaling)
- Serverless technologies and patterns (for example, AWS Lambda, Fargate)
- The orchestration of containers (for example, Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS)
- Decoupling workloads so that components can scale independently
- Identifying metrics and conditions to perform scaling actions
- Selecting the appropriate compute options and features (for example, EC2 instance types) to meet business requirements
- Selecting the appropriate resource type and size (for example, the amount of Lambda memory) to meet business requirements
Task 3.3: Determine high-performing database solutions
- AWS global infrastructure (for example, Availability Zones, AWS Regions)
- Caching strategies and services (for example, Amazon ElastiCache)
- Data access patterns (for example, read-intensive compared with write-intensive)
- Database capacity planning (for example, capacity units, instance types, Provisioned IOPS)
- Database connections and proxies
- Database engines with appropriate use cases (for example, heterogeneous migrations, homogeneous migrations)
- Database replication (for example, read replicas)
- Database types and services (for example, serverless, relational compared with non-relational, in-memory)
- Configuring read replicas to meet business requirements
- Designing database architectures
- Determining an appropriate database engine (for example, MySQL compared with PostgreSQL)
- Determining an appropriate database type (for example, Amazon Aurora, Amazon DynamoDB)
- Integrating caching to meet business requirements
Task 3.4: Determine high-performing and/or scalable network architectures
- Edge networking services with appropriate use cases (for example, Amazon CloudFront, AWS Global Accelerator)
- How to design network architecture (for example, subnet tiers, routing, IP addressing)
- Load balancing concepts (for example, Application Load Balancer [ALB])
- Network connection options (for example, AWS VPN, AWS Direct Connect, AWS PrivateLink)
- Creating a network topology for various architectures (for example, global, hybrid, multi-tier)
- Determining network configurations that can scale to accommodate future needs
- Determining the appropriate placement of resources to meet business requirements
- Selecting the appropriate load balancing strategy
Task 3.5: Determine high-performing data ingestion and transformation solutions
- Data analytics and visualization services with appropriate use cases (for example, Amazon Athena, AWS Lake Formation, Amazon Quick)
- Data ingestion patterns (for example, frequency)
- Data transfer services with appropriate use cases (for example, AWS DataSync, AWS Storage Gateway)
- Data transformation services with appropriate use cases (for example, AWS Glue)
- Secure access to ingestion access points
- Sizes and speeds needed to meet business requirements
- Streaming data services with appropriate use cases (for example, Amazon Kinesis)
- Building and securing data lakes
- Designing data streaming architectures
- Designing data transfer solutions
- Implementing visualization strategies
- Selecting appropriate compute options for data processing (for example, Amazon EMR)
- Selecting appropriate configurations for ingestion
- Transforming data between formats (for example, .csv to .parquet)
Domain 4: Design Cost-Optimized Architectures (20%)
Task 4.1: Design cost-optimized storage solutions
- Access options (for example, an S3 bucket with Requester Pays object storage)
- AWS cost management service features (for example, cost allocation tags, multi-account billing)
- AWS cost management tools with appropriate use cases (for example, AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets, AWS Cost and Usage Report)
- AWS storage services with appropriate use cases (for example, Amazon FSx, Amazon EFS, Amazon S3, Amazon EBS)
- Backup strategies
- Block storage options (for example, hard disk drive [HDD] volume types, solid state drive [SSD] volume types)
- Data lifecycles
- Hybrid storage options (for example, AWS DataSync, AWS Transfer Family, AWS Storage Gateway)
- Storage access patterns
- Storage tiering (for example, cold tiering for object storage)
- Storage types with associated characteristics (for example, object, file, block)
- Designing appropriate storage strategies (for example, batch uploads to Amazon S3 compared with individual uploads)
- Determining the correct storage size for a workload
- Determining the lowest cost method of transferring data for a workload to AWS storage
- Determining when storage auto scaling is required
- Managing S3 object lifecycles
- Selecting the appropriate backup and/or archival solution
- Selecting the appropriate service for data migration to storage services
- Selecting the appropriate storage tier
- Selecting the correct data lifecycle for storage
- Selecting the most cost-effective storage service for a workload
Task 4.2: Design cost-optimized compute solutions
- AWS cost management service features (for example, cost allocation tags, multi-account billing)
- AWS cost management tools with appropriate use cases (for example, AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets, AWS Cost and Usage Report)
- AWS global infrastructure (for example, Availability Zones, AWS Regions)
- AWS purchasing options (for example, Spot Instances, Reserved Instances, Savings Plans)
- Distributed compute strategies (for example, edge processing)
- Hybrid compute options (for example, AWS Outposts)
- Instance types, families, and sizes (for example, memory optimized, compute optimized, virtualization)
- Optimization of compute utilization (for example, containers, serverless computing, microservices)
- Scaling strategies (for example, auto scaling, hibernation)
- Determining an appropriate load balancing strategy (for example, Application Load Balancer [Layer 7] compared with Network Load Balancer [Layer 4] compared with Gateway Load Balancer)
- Determining appropriate scaling methods and strategies for elastic workloads (for example, horizontal compared with vertical, EC2 hibernation)
- Determining cost-effective AWS compute services with appropriate use cases (for example, AWS Lambda, Amazon EC2, AWS Fargate)
- Determining the required availability for different classes of workloads (for example, production workloads, non-production workloads)
- Selecting the appropriate instance family for a workload
- Selecting the appropriate instance size for a workload
Task 4.3: Design cost-optimized database solutions
- AWS cost management service features (for example, cost allocation tags, multi-account billing)
- AWS cost management tools with appropriate use cases (for example, AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets, AWS Cost and Usage Report)
- Caching strategies
- Data retention policies
- Database capacity planning (for example, capacity units)
- Database connections and proxies
- Database engines with appropriate use cases (for example, heterogeneous migrations, homogeneous migrations)
- Database replication (for example, read replicas)
- Database types and services (for example, relational compared with non-relational, Amazon Aurora, Amazon DynamoDB)
- Designing appropriate backup and retention policies (for example, snapshot frequency)
- Determining an appropriate database engine (for example, MySQL compared with PostgreSQL)
- Determining cost-effective AWS database services with appropriate use cases (for example, DynamoDB compared with Amazon RDS, serverless)
- Determining cost-effective AWS database types (for example, time series format, columnar format)
- Migrating database schemas and data to different locations and/or different database engines
Task 4.4: Design cost-optimized network architectures
- AWS cost management service features (for example, cost allocation tags, multi-account billing)
- AWS cost management tools with appropriate use cases (for example, AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets, AWS Cost and Usage Report)
- Load balancing concepts (for example, Application Load Balancer [ALB])
- NAT gateways (for example, NAT instance costs compared with NAT gateway costs)
- Network connectivity (for example, private lines, dedicated lines, VPNs)
- Network routing, topology, and peering (for example, AWS Transit Gateway, VPC peering)
- Network services with appropriate use cases (for example, DNS)
- Configuring appropriate NAT gateway types for a network (for example, a single shared NAT gateway compared with NAT gateways for each Availability Zone)
- Configuring appropriate network connections (for example, AWS Direct Connect compared with VPN compared with internet)
- Configuring appropriate network routes to minimize network transfer costs (for example, Region to Region, Availability Zone to Availability Zone, private to public, AWS Global Accelerator, VPC endpoints)
- Determining strategic needs for content delivery networks (CDNs) and edge caching
- Reviewing existing workloads for network optimizations
- Selecting an appropriate throttling strategy
- Selecting the appropriate bandwidth allocation for a network device (for example, a single VPN compared with multiple VPNs, Direct Connect speed)
Before You Start
What AWS expects from a SAA-C03 candidate.
AWS describes a target candidate for every exam. Here is how it describes the person who should sit SAA-C03, in its words.
Who AWS wrote this exam for
The target candidate should have at least 1 year of hands-on experience designing cloud solutions that use AWS services.
Scoring and Format
Inside the SAA-C03 exam.
SAA-C03 has 65 questions in total. 50 of them count toward your score and 15 are unscored questions AWS uses to gather data for future exams. You won't know which ones are unscored, so give every question your full attention.
AWS reports results as a scaled score from 100 to 1,000, and the minimum passing score for SAA-C03 is 720. The exam uses compensatory scoring, which means you pass on your overall score and don't have to pass each domain on its own.
The question types listed in the SAA-C03 exam guide are multiple choice and multiple response. You get 130 minutes, and the exam fee AWS lists is $150.
The biggest single block is Design Secure Architectures at 30%. We weight our labs and practice questions the same way.
Career Outcomes
Where SAA-C03 can take you.
Solutions Architect Associate is the AWS cert hiring managers ask about most often for cloud engineer, cloud architect and solutions engineer roles. It proves you can pick the right service for a workload and defend that choice on cost, security and resilience.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the median annual wage for computer network architects was $134,050 in May 2025. Treat it as a reference point and not a promise. Location, experience and the employer drive what any one person earns. Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook.
Funding and PathPay
Ways to pay for SAA-C03 training.
Accumentum is an Army CA and Air Force COOL Approved Vendor. If you're serving, start with your education center and read our Army CA and Air Force COOL pages for the steps. We'll help you line up the course with your request.
Paying on your own? SAA-C03 prep is eligible for PathPay, our monthly payment plan. Terms of 3, 4 and 6 months carry no added fee. 9, 12 and 18 month terms add 5%, 10% and 15%. Course access opens when your first payment clears.
Veterans can also look at VR&E benefits for career training.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about our Solutions Architect Associate course.
AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate is a Associate level certification from AWS. Details are on the official page at https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-solutions-architect-associate/
Yes. We're an AWS Authorized Training Partner, and our course follows the official AWS exam guide domain by domain.
AWS lists the exam at 150 USD. Exam pricing can change and foreign exchange rates may apply, so check the AWS exam pricing page before you buy.
Yes. AWS offers the exam at Pearson VUE test centers or as an online proctored exam.
AWS certifications are valid for three years. AWS publishes recertification options on its certification pages.
AWS doesn't require another certification first, and we don't have enrollment prerequisites either. AWS recommends at least 1 year of hands-on experience designing cloud solutions with AWS services.
Live virtual expert-led classes, with self-paced access to all materials and labs. Most students finish in 4 to 8 weeks part-time. Ask us about upcoming class dates.
Yes. We're an Army CA and Air Force COOL Approved Vendor. Email info@accumentum.net and we'll walk you through the options.
Use the registration page linked below, or email info@accumentum.net and we'll follow up with dates and next steps.
50 of the 65 questions are scored. The other 15 are unscored questions AWS uses for research, and they aren't marked.
AWS uses a scaled score from 100 to 1,000. The minimum passing score for SAA-C03 is 720.
Design Secure Architectures at 30% of the scored content, per the official AWS exam guide.
The target candidate should have at least 1 year of hands-on experience designing cloud solutions that use AWS services.
Yes. SAA-C03 prep is eligible for PathPay. Terms of 3, 4 and 6 months add no fee, and longer terms add 5% to 15%.
Enrollment
Enroll in Solutions Architect Associate training with Accumentum.
Enroll in our Solutions Architect Associate course to get ready for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate exam with expert-led classes and hands-on labs.
For dates and next steps, use the registration page linked below or email info@accumentum.net.
Ready to start on Solutions Architect Associate?
Tell us your target date and we'll help you plan the path.