The AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03) exam tests whether you can choose the right AWS design for a stated requirement: secure, resilient, high-performing or cost-optimized. It is 65 questions in 130 minutes, costs $150 USD, and needs a scaled score of 720 to pass. SAA-C03 is still the current version in October 2026.
Last updated October 2026.
| SAA-C03 | |
|---|---|
| Questions | 65 (50 scored, 15 unscored and unidentified) |
| Question types | Multiple choice (1 of 4) and multiple response (2 or more of 5 or more) |
| Time | 130 minutes |
| Cost | $150 USD |
| Passing score | 720 on a 100 to 1,000 scale, compensatory |
| Recommended experience | At least 1 year designing cloud solutions on AWS |
| Valid for | Three years |
Format, scoring, domains and target candidate from the official SAA-C03 exam guide; time and cost from the AWS certification page, checked 22 October 2026.
Compensatory scoring means there is no per-domain pass mark. You need one overall scaled score of 720, so a weak domain can be carried by strong ones. The 15 unscored questions are mixed in and not marked, so treat every question as if it counts.
The exam guide anchors SAA-C03 to the AWS Well-Architected Framework. Its four domains are four of the framework's six pillars, which is why so many questions read "which design meets the requirement with the least operational overhead".
| Domain | Weight | Of 50 scored |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Design Secure Architectures | 30% | About 15 |
| 2. Design Resilient Architectures | 26% | About 13 |
| 3. Design High-Performing Architectures | 24% | About 12 |
| 4. Design Cost-Optimized Architectures | 20% | About 10 |
Security is the largest domain, and it reaches well beyond IAM: VPC design, security groups and network ACLs, encryption with AWS KMS, and backups all sit in Domain 1. The domains and weighting breakdown walks through all 14 task statements.
SAA-C03 is a design exam, not a configuration exam. Almost every question gives a scenario with one or two hard requirements and asks which architecture meets them. Three habits separate a pass from a near miss:
Multiple response is the format to practise. A "choose two" question scores nothing unless both selections are right. Each option has to be judged on its own, not as half of a pair.
The SAA-C03 guide has not been revised for some service changes. Several services in its in-scope list are no longer open to new customers, and a current study plan should know which:
Learn the replacement first and the old name as background. A question can still mention a closed service as a distractor, so it helps to know why it is no longer the answer.
Statuses from each service's AWS documentation, checked 21 October 2026.
AWS describes the target candidate as someone with at least one year of hands-on experience designing cloud solutions on AWS. That is a recommendation, not a requirement: there are no prerequisites, and many people take SAA-C03 as their first associate exam.
You build or review AWS architectures, or you are a developer, sysadmin or data engineer who wants the cross-service design view that every other AWS associate exam assumes.
AWS itself is new to you. Cloud Practitioner builds the vocabulary first, or plan for the longer timeline below.
Most candidates with some AWS experience need 6 to 8 weeks of part-time study, roughly 60 to 70 hours. Working architects can often be ready in 3 to 4 weeks, and someone new to AWS should budget 10 to 12. These are our estimates, not AWS figures. The SAA-C03 study plan lays out the weeks, and the cost and format post covers booking, retakes and the question types.
The Certified SAA-C03 course gives each skill in the exam guide its own chapter, plus ten chapters for knowledge topics the exam leans on, such as Amazon Route 53 and EC2 purchasing options. That makes 89 short chapters across four units, one per domain. Unit 1 starts with identity and access, then network and workload security: security groups vs network ACLs, VPC endpoints and Secrets Manager vs Parameter Store. Chapters ship unit by unit.
Yes. SAA-C03 is the current version as of October 2026, and AWS has not published a successor exam guide. Check the AWS certification page before booking, since AWS announces new versions there first.
65 questions in 130 minutes. Only 50 are scored; the other 15 are unscored trial questions that are not identified during the exam, so answer every question as if it counts.
720 on a scaled score of 100 to 1,000. Scoring is compensatory, so there is no separate pass mark for each domain: a strong result in one domain can make up for a weaker one.
$150 USD, the standard AWS associate exam fee. Retakes are paid in full, and the certification is valid for three years.
No. AWS has no prerequisites for SAA-C03. Cloud Practitioner helps if AWS is new to you, but candidates with hands-on AWS experience usually go straight to the associate exam.
The Certified SAA-C03 course teaches each exam guide skill as a short visual chapter, starting with identity, network and workload security. Unit 1 is free.
Open the SAA-C03 course →