AWS Certification Exam Mapping

This page maps the 20 bootcamp modules to the four domains of the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) exam.

Exam Overview

Aspect	Details
Exam code	SAA-C03
Format	Multiple choice and multiple response
Questions	65 (50 scored + 15 unscored)
Duration	130 minutes
Passing score	720 out of 1,000
Cost	$150 USD
Validity	3 years

Domain	Weight	Focus
Domain 1: Design Secure Architectures	30%	IAM, encryption, VPC security, data protection, compliance
Domain 2: Design Resilient Architectures	26%	Multi-AZ, disaster recovery, decoupling, Auto Scaling, replication
Domain 3: Design High-Performing Architectures	24%	Compute selection, storage optimization, database choice, caching, networking
Domain 4: Design Cost-Optimized Architectures	20%	Pricing models, storage classes, right-sizing, cost management tools

This is the highest-weighted domain. It tests your ability to design secure access, secure application tiers, and appropriate data security controls.

Module	Topics Covered for This Domain
02, IAM and Security	IAM users, groups, roles, policies, policy evaluation logic, MFA, least privilege
03, Networking Basics	VPC, security groups, NACLs, public vs. private subnets, route tables
05, Storage: S3	S3 bucket policies, ACLs, encryption (SSE-S3, SSE-KMS, SSE-C), access points
06, Databases	RDS encryption at rest, DynamoDB encryption, IAM database authentication
13, Security in Depth	KMS, Secrets Manager, WAF, Shield, CloudTrail, GuardDuty, Config, Security Hub
17, Well-Architected Framework	Security pillar design principles

This domain tests your ability to design multi-tier architectures, highly available systems, and decoupled architectures.

Module	Topics Covered for This Domain
03, Networking Basics	Multi-AZ VPC design, NAT gateways, redundant networking
04, Compute: EC2	Auto Scaling groups, launch templates, health checks, placement groups
06, Databases	RDS Multi-AZ, read replicas, Aurora, DynamoDB global tables
07, Load Balancing and DNS	ALB/NLB, target groups, health checks, Route 53 routing policies, failover
08, Messaging and Integration	SQS, SNS, EventBridge, decoupling patterns, dead-letter queues
16, Reliability and DR	RTO/RPO, backup and restore, pilot light, warm standby, active-active
17, Well-Architected Framework	Reliability pillar design principles

This domain tests your ability to select the right compute, storage, database, and networking solutions for a workload.

Module	Topics Covered for This Domain
04, Compute: EC2	Instance types, EBS volume types, instance store, placement groups
05, Storage: S3	Storage classes, S3 Transfer Acceleration, multipart upload
06, Databases	RDS vs. DynamoDB selection, read replicas for read scaling, DAX, ElastiCache
07, Load Balancing and DNS	ALB vs. NLB selection, CloudFront, Route 53 latency-based routing
09, Serverless: Lambda	Lambda concurrency, cold starts, provisioned concurrency, API Gateway caching
10, Containers: ECS	Fargate vs. EC2 launch type, ECS service auto scaling
18, Architecture Patterns	Microservices, event-driven, CQRS, caching patterns
19, Advanced Topics	CloudFront, ElastiCache, Step Functions, Athena

This domain tests your ability to select cost-effective compute, storage, and database services.

Module	Topics Covered for This Domain
04, Compute: EC2	On-Demand, Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, Spot Instances
05, Storage: S3	Storage class tiers, lifecycle policies, Intelligent-Tiering
09, Serverless: Lambda	Pay-per-invocation pricing, right-sizing memory
10, Containers: ECS	Fargate pricing vs. EC2, Spot for ECS
15, Cost Optimization	Cost Explorer, Budgets, Compute Optimizer, right-sizing, tagging strategies
17, Well-Architected Framework	Cost Optimization pillar design principles

Focus on Domain 1 first. At 30%, security is the highest-weighted domain. Make sure you deeply understand IAM policies, encryption with KMS, VPC security groups vs. NACLs, and the Shared Responsibility Model.
Practice scenario-based questions. The exam presents real-world scenarios and asks you to choose the best architecture. The phase exams in this bootcamp use a similar format.
Know the "why," not just the "what." The exam tests whether you can select the right service for a given set of requirements, not whether you can recite service features.
Use official practice questions. AWS offers a free official practice question set for SAA-C03 on AWS Skill Builder.
Review the Well-Architected Framework. Module 17 covers this in depth. The exam frequently asks you to evaluate architectures against the six pillars.

AWS Bootcamp: From Novice to Architect Author: Samuel Ogunti License: CC BY-NC 4.0