AWS Certification Path

AWS SAA-C03 Roadmap

Complete preparation guide for AWS Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03) certification

Welcome! This roadmap covers all domains for the SAA-C03 exam organized into 4 Units with 12 Chapters. Master AWS services, architecture patterns, and best practices to design resilient, secure, and cost-optimized solutions.

1

Unit 1: Core AWS Services

Master fundamental AWS services and concepts

Chapter 1.1
Unit 1

Compute Services

EC2, Lambda, ECS, EKS, and compute optimization

EC2 Instance Types & Pricing
AWS Lambda & Serverless
ECS, EKS & Fargate
Auto Scaling & Load Balancing
Chapter 1.2
Unit 1

Storage Services

S3, EBS, EFS, and storage optimization strategies

S3 Storage Classes & Lifecycle
EBS Volume Types & Snapshots
EFS & FSx File Systems
Storage Gateway & DataSync
Chapter 1.3
Unit 1

Database Services

RDS, DynamoDB, Aurora, and database selection

RDS Multi-AZ & Read Replicas
DynamoDB & DAX
Aurora Serverless & Global
ElastiCache & MemoryDB
2

Unit 2: Networking & Content Delivery

Design secure and scalable network architectures

Chapter 2.1
Unit 2

VPC & Networking

VPC design, subnets, routing, and network security

VPC, Subnets & CIDR
Security Groups & NACLs
NAT Gateway & Internet Gateway
VPC Peering & Transit Gateway
Chapter 2.2
Unit 2

Load Balancing & DNS

ELB types, Route 53, and traffic management

ALB, NLB & Gateway LB
Route 53 Routing Policies
Health Checks & Failover
Global Accelerator
Chapter 2.3
Unit 2

CloudFront & CDN

Content delivery, caching, and edge locations

CloudFront Distributions
Origin & Cache Behaviors
Lambda@Edge & CloudFront Functions
SSL/TLS & Security
3

Unit 3: Security & Compliance

Implement security best practices and compliance

Chapter 3.1
Unit 3

IAM & Access Management

Users, roles, policies, and identity federation

IAM Users, Groups & Roles
Policy Types & Evaluation
STS & Cross-Account Access
Cognito & Identity Federation
Chapter 3.2
Unit 3

Encryption & Secrets

KMS, encryption at rest/transit, and secrets management

KMS & CMK Management
S3 & EBS Encryption
Secrets Manager & Parameter Store
CloudHSM & Certificate Manager
Chapter 3.3
Unit 3

Security Services

WAF, Shield, GuardDuty, and threat protection

WAF & Shield (DDoS)
GuardDuty & Macie
Inspector & Security Hub
CloudTrail & Config
4

Unit 4: Architecture & Best Practices

Design resilient, high-performing, and cost-optimized solutions

Chapter 4.1
Unit 4

High Availability & DR

Multi-AZ, disaster recovery, and fault tolerance

Multi-AZ Deployments
Backup & Restore Strategies
Pilot Light & Warm Standby
Multi-Region Architectures
Chapter 4.2
Unit 4

Performance & Scalability

Auto scaling, caching, and performance optimization

Auto Scaling Policies
Caching Strategies (ElastiCache)
Read Replicas & Sharding
CloudWatch Monitoring
Chapter 4.3
Unit 4

Cost Optimization

Cost management, reserved instances, and optimization

Reserved & Spot Instances
S3 Storage Class Analysis
Cost Explorer & Budgets
Trusted Advisor

AWS Well-Architected Framework

1

Operational Excellence

2

Security

3

Reliability

4

Performance Efficiency

5

Cost Optimization

All exam questions are based on these five pillars

💡 Exam Tip: Focus on hands-on practice with AWS Free Tier. Build real projects covering multiple services. Understand when to use each service and why!

Study Resources & Preparation

Official AWS Resources

  • • AWS Skill Builder: Free digital training courses
  • • AWS Whitepapers: Well-Architected Framework
  • • AWS Documentation: Service-specific guides
  • • AWS Free Tier: Hands-on practice environment

Practice & Courses

  • • A Cloud Guru: SAA-C03 Complete Course
  • • Stephane Maarek: Ultimate AWS Certified SAA
  • • Tutorials Dojo: Practice Exams (Jon Bonso)
  • • AWS Workshops: Hands-on labs and scenarios

Exam Details

  • • Duration: 130 minutes
  • • Questions: 65 (multiple choice & multiple response)
  • • Passing Score: 720/1000
  • • Cost: $150 USD

Exam Domains

  • • Design Resilient Architectures: 26%
  • • Design High-Performing Architectures: 24%
  • • Design Secure Applications: 30%
  • • Design Cost-Optimized Architectures: 20%