AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
Overview
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate validates expertise in designing distributed systems on AWS. This certification demonstrates the ability to design cost-effective, fault-tolerant, and scalable systems.
Skills Validated
- Design resilient architectures
- Design high-performing architectures
- Design secure applications and architectures
- Design cost-optimized architectures
Key Areas
Compute Services
- EC2 instance types and families
- Auto Scaling and Load Balancing
- Lambda and serverless architectures
- Container services (ECS, EKS)
Storage Solutions
- S3 storage classes and lifecycle policies
- EBS volume types
- EFS for shared file storage
- Storage Gateway for hybrid cloud
Database Services
- RDS and database engine selection
- DynamoDB for NoSQL workloads
- ElastiCache for caching
- Database migration strategies
Networking
- VPC design and subnets
- Route 53 for DNS
- CloudFront for content delivery
- Direct Connect and VPN
Security
- IAM policies and roles
- Security groups and NACLs
- KMS for encryption
- AWS Organizations and SCPs
Exam Details
- Exam Code: SAA-C03
- Format: Multiple choice and multiple response
- Duration: 130 minutes
- Cost: $150 USD
- Passing Score: 720/1000
Preparation Tips
- Get hands-on experience with core AWS services
- Use AWS Free Tier to practice
- Take practice exams
- Review AWS whitepapers
- Study the AWS Well-Architected Framework
Resources
- AWS Certification Page
- Exam Guide
- My blog posts on AWS and CDK implementations