About AWS and the

Exam
CHAPTER 0
What Is AWS?
AWS Solutions Architect – Associate
Exam Domains (SAA-C03)

Domain % of Exam

1.0 – Design Secure Architectures 30%

AWS Solutions Architect – Associate
Exam Domains (SAA-C03)

Domain % of Exam

1.0 – Design Secure Architectures 30%

2.0 – Design Resilient Architectures 26%

AWS Solutions Architect – Associate
Exam Domains (SAA-C03)

Domain % of Exam

1.0 – Design Secure Architectures 30%

2.0 – Design Resilient Architectures 26%

3.0 – Design High-Performing Architectures 24%

AWS Solutions Architect – Associate
Exam Domains (SAA-C03)

Domain % of Exam

1.0 – Design Secure Architectures 30%

2.0 – Design Resilient Architectures 26%

3.0 – Design High-Performing Architectures 24%

4.0 – Design Cost-Optimized Architectures 20%

Why Use AWS?
Why Use AWS?
• Popularity
• Large corporations trust it
• Many available services
• Learning materials
How to Get Started with
AWS
How to Get Started with AWS
• https://aws.amazon.com/
- Click “Create an AWS Account”
AWS Certifications
AWS Certifications
• AWS Certification - Validate AWS Cloud Skills -
Get AWS Certified (amazon.com)
Preparation Resources
Preparation Resources
• This AWS Certified Solutions Architect –
Associate course
• Books
• Amazon videos
• Practice tests
• AWS documentation
Benefits of Certification
Benefits of Certification
• Knowledge
• Proof of knowledge
- For employers
• Job opportunities
• Pay increase
• Confidence
AWS CSA-A Overview
Who Should Take this Exam?
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate showcases knowledge and
skills in AWS technology, across a wide range of AWS services. The
focus of this certification is on the design of cost and performance
optimized solutions, demonstrating a strong understanding of the AWS
Well-Architected Framework. This certification can enhance the career
profile and earnings of certified individuals and increase your credibility
and confidence in stakeholder and customer interactions.
This exam does not require deep hands-on coding experience, although
familiarity with basic programming concepts would be an advantage.

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Who Should Take this Exam?
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate is a great starting point on
the AWS Certification path for individuals who may have any of the
following:
• Experience in AWS technology
• Strong on-premises IT experience and understanding of mapping on-
premises to cloud
• Experience working in other cloud services

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What You’ll Learn
Preparing for and attaining this certification will showcase:
• Knowledge and skills in compute, networking, storage, and database AWS
services as well as AWS deployment and management services
• Knowledge and skills in deploying, managing, and operating workloads on
AWS as well as implementing security controls and compliance requirements
• Knowledge and skills in using the AWS Management Console and the AWS
Command Line Interface (CLI)Understanding of the AWS Well-Architected
Framework, AWS networking, security services, and the AWS global
infrastructure
• Ability to identify which AWS services meet a given technical requirement
and to define technical requirements for an AWS-based application

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Exam Overview
Level: Associate
Length: 130 minutes to complete the exam
Cost: 150 USD
Visit Exam pricing for additional cost information.

Format: 65 questions, either multiple choice or multiple response.

Delivery method: Pearson VUE; testing center or online proctored exam.

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What’s New on the SAA-
C03 Exam?
What’s New?
• Current SAA-C03 domains:

• Previous SAA-C03 domains:

AWS Tools Covered in the Exam
• Refer to the exam objectives appendix for a complete
list of tools, technologies, and concepts
Analytics: Application Integration: AWS Cost Management:
• Amazon Athena • Amazon AppFlow • AWS Budgets
• AWS Data Exchange • AWS AppSync • AWS Cost and Usage Report
• AWS Data Pipeline • Amazon EventBridge (Amazon • AWS Cost Explorer
• Amazon EMR CloudWatch Events) • Savings Plans
• AWS Glue • Amazon MQ Compute:
• Amazon Kinesis • Amazon Simple Notification Service • AWS Batch
• AWS Lake Formation (Amazon SNS) • Amazon EC2
• Amazon Managed Streaming for • Amazon Simple Queue Service • Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling
Apache Kafka (Amazon MSK) (Amazon SQS) • AWS Elastic Beanstalk
• Amazon OpenSearch Service • AWS Step Functions • AWS Outposts
(Amazon Elasticsearch Service) • AWS Serverless Application Repository
• Amazon QuickSight • VMware Cloud on AWS
• Amazon Redshift • AWS Wavelength
 AWS Tools Covered in the Exam
Containers: Database: Machine Learning:
• Amazon Elastic Container Registry • Amazon Aurora • Amazon Comprehend
(Amazon ECR) • Amazon Aurora Serverless • Amazon Forecast
• Amazon Elastic Container Service • Amazon DocumentDB (with • Amazon Fraud Detector
(Amazon ECS) MongoDB compatibility) • Amazon Kendra
• Amazon ECS Anywhere • Amazon DynamoDB • Amazon Lex
• Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service • Amazon ElastiCache • Amazon Polly
(Amazon EKS) • Amazon Keyspaces (for Apache • Amazon Rekognition
• Amazon EKS Anywhere Cassandra) • Amazon SageMaker
• Amazon EKS Distro • Amazon Neptune • Amazon Textract
• Amazon Quantum Ledger Database • Amazon Transcribe
Developer Tools:
(Amazon QLDB) • Amazon Translate
• AWS X-Ray
• Amazon RDS
Front-End Web and Mobile: • Amazon Redshift
• AWS Amplify • Amazon Timestream
• Amazon API Gateway
• AWS Device Farm
• Amazon Pinpoint
 AWS Tools Covered in the Exam
Management and Governance: Media Services: Networking and Content
• AWS Auto Scaling • Amazon Elastic Transcoder Delivery:
• AWS CloudFormation • Amazon Kinesis Video Streams • Amazon CloudFront
• AWS CloudTrail • AWS Direct Connect
• Amazon CloudWatch Migration and Transfer: • Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)
• AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) • AWS Application Discovery Service • AWS Global Accelerator
• AWS Compute Optimizer • AWS Application Migration Service • AWS PrivateLink
• AWS Config (CloudEndure Migration) • Amazon Route 53
• AWS Control Tower
• AWS Database Migration Service (AWS • AWS Transit Gateway
• AWS License Manager
DMS) • Amazon VPC
• Amazon Managed Grafana
• Amazon Managed Service for Prometheus
• AWS DataSync • AWS VPN
• AWS Management Console • AWS Migration Hub
• AWS Organizations • AWS Server Migration Service (AWS
• AWS Personal Health Dashboard SMS)
• AWS Proton • AWS Snow Family
• AWS Service Catalog • AWS Transfer Family
• AWS Systems Manager
• AWS Trusted Advisor
• AWS Well-Architected Tool
 AWS Tools Covered in the Exam
Security, Identity, and Compliance: Serverless:
• AWS Artifact • AWS AppSync
• AWS Audit Manager • AWS Fargate
• AWS Certificate Manager (ACM)
• AWS Lambda
• AWS CloudHSM
• Amazon Cognito
• Amazon Detective Storage:
• AWS Directory Service • AWS Backup
• AWS Firewall Manager • Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS)
• Amazon GuardDuty • Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS)
• AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) • Amazon FSx (for all types)
• Amazon Inspector • Amazon S3
• AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) • Amazon S3 Glacier
• Amazon Macie
• AWS Network Firewall
• AWS Storage Gateway
• AWS Resource Access Manager (AWS RAM)
• AWS Secrets Manager
• AWS Security Hub
• AWS Shield
• AWS Single Sign-On
• AWS WAF
AWS CSA-A Exam
Objectives
What Does the Exam Evaluate?
• The exam also validates a candidate’s ability to
complete the following tasks:
- Design solutions that incorporate AWS services to
meet current business requirements and future
projected needs
- Design architectures that are secure, resilient, high-
performing, and cost-optimized
- Review existing solutions and determine
improvements

Source: AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) Exam Guide

Target Candidate Description
• The target candidate should have at least 1 year
of hands-on experience designing cloud
solutions that use AWS services.
• For a detailed list of specific tools and
technologies that might be covered on the
exam, as well as lists of in-scope and out-of-
scope AWS services, refer to the Appendix.

Source: AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) Exam Guide

AWS CSA-A (SAA-C03) Exam
Domains
Exam Objectives
• Highest level is the domain
- Example: Domain 1: Design Secure Architectures
• Next level is the task statement
- Example: Task Statement 1: Design secure access to
AWS resources.
- Note: When you see the objectives mapped as “1.1”
that refers to Domain 1, Task Statement 1
• The next levels are the knowledge and skills
- Example: Knowledge of: Access and management across
multiple accounts
 How to Read the Mapped
Objectives
When an objective is referred
to in this course, you may see
something like this:
• Episode: Cloud Computing
Defined
• Objective: 1.1 K1
• This is shorthand to quickly
point you to the objective
covered in the exam
objective document Objective 1.1 = K1 =
Domain 1, 1st objective under
Task Statement 1 “Knowledge of:”
The Four Key Areas
(Compute, Networking,
Storage, and Databases)
The Four Key Areas
• Compute
- The services AWS provides in the cloud
• Networking
- Virtual networking in the cloud
• Storage
- Archive: AWS Glacier, store large amounts of data at a
lower cost
- Live: S3 buckets, DBS volumes attached to EC2 instances
• Databases
- AWS RDS enables storage of and manipulation of data in
many ways
Master the Knowledge
Areas
Knowledge Areas
Sample Exam Question

See AWS-Certified-Solutions-Architect-Associate_Sample-Questions.pdf resource for more information

(see resources with the Take the Exam episode)
Use the System
Use the System
• Create an account
• Use free services and free types and classes
• Create an S3 bucket
• Create VPCs, subnets, NACLs, and more (that’s
what this course will show you!)
• Use AWS documentation
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/index.html
Take Notes
Take Notes
• Text notes
- Note features and capabilities of tools
• Visual notes
- Iconic memory is powerful!
- Try diagramming networks
- Draw cartoons (stick figures count) to help
remember important tips
Be Mentally and
Physically Prepared
Be Mentally and Physically
Prepared
• Mental preparation
- Know the topics
- Know your learning style
- Test yourself
- Think positive, be confident on test day
• Physical preparation
- Get a good night’s sleep leading up to the exam
- Drink plenty of water
- Eat healthy foods
- Sit with good posture during the exam
Take the Exam
 Sample Exam Question

See AWS-Certified-Solutions-Architect-Associate_Sample-Questions.pdf resource along with the episode, or these can be

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