AWS Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03) Exam Preparation

Section 1: The Architect Role and the Exam Scope

• What a solutions architect does and how to turn a business problem into a design
• SAA-C03 structure: the four domains, their weightings and the scenario question style
• Reading a question for its real constraints and eliminating options that miss them
• AWS global infrastructure: regions, availability zones and edge locations

Section 2: The AWS Well-Architected Framework

• The six pillars: operational excellence, security, reliability, performance, cost and sustainability
• The design principles the exam uses to decide which answer is best
• Using the framework to review an existing architecture and find what to improve
• Trade-offs between pillars in real scenarios

Section 3: IAM and Permission Management

• IAM structure: users, groups, roles and policies, and how permissions are evaluated
• Writing least-privilege policies and narrowing scope with conditions
• Using roles instead of embedded access keys, and cross-account access
• Lab: create a role and policy giving a system only the access it needs

Section 4: Defense in Depth

• Encryption at rest and in transit, and managing keys with a key management service
• Storing passwords and secrets safely instead of embedding them in code
• Network and application layer protection, and absorbing volumetric attacks
• Separating accounts by environment and applying multi-account guardrails

Section 5: VPC Design

• Planning IP ranges and splitting public and private subnets
• Route tables, internet gateways and NAT gateways, and the path to the internet
• Security groups versus network ACLs and where each belongs
• Lab: build a multi-subnet VPC across availability zones and test connectivity

Section 6: Connecting Networks

• Connecting VPCs together and the limits that appear as the system grows
• Connecting the corporate data center to AWS over encrypted tunnels or dedicated links
• Reaching AWS services privately with endpoints instead of over the internet
• Choosing the connectivity option that matches speed and security requirements

Section 7: DNS, Load Balancing and Content Delivery

• Managing domains and the DNS routing policies that steer users
• Load balancer types and matching them to the traffic profile
• Using a CDN to speed up delivery and reduce origin load
• Lab: put a load balancer in front of several servers and test distribution

Section 8: Network and Security Scenarios

• Analyzing a scenario where part of the system is public and part must stay closed
• The three-tier pattern the exam favours and why each tier sits where it does
• Common network design mistakes and how to avoid them
• Workshop: design a network from a business scenario and defend your choices

Section 9: Compute Services and How to Choose

• Instance families and sizing for the workload
• Instance purchase options and their long-term cost impact
• Running containers and choosing between self-managed and AWS-managed
• Lab: launch and configure a server with an automatic setup script at boot

Section 10: Serverless and Event-Driven Compute

• Serverless functions and when they beat running a server around the clock
• Triggering functions from events and exposing them through an API
• The limits that matter: maximum runtime, memory size and cold starts
• Lab: build a function that runs whenever a file is uploaded to storage

Section 11: Storage Types and Storage Classes

• Object, block and file storage and the workloads each suits
• Storage classes and lifecycle rules that move data automatically to cut cost
• Durability, cross-region replication and protecting against accidental deletion
• Lab: set a lifecycle rule that moves old data to a cheaper storage class

Section 12: Databases on AWS

• Managed relational databases, multi-AZ deployments and read replicas
• NoSQL databases and designing keys that spread load evenly
• In-memory databases for workloads that need very low latency
• Lab: deploy a multi-AZ database and test failover when the primary goes down

Section 13: Designing Against Outages

• Spreading systems across availability zones and why the exam weights this heavily
• Auto scaling: setting thresholds that track real load
• Health checks and automatically removing unhealthy instances from service
• Lab: configure an auto scaling group and watch it add capacity under load

Section 14: Backup and Disaster Recovery

• Setting recovery time and recovery point objectives
• Recovery strategies from the cheapest through to instant failover
• Cross-region backup and testing the recovery plan regularly
• Choosing the strategy that fits the budget the scenario gives you

Section 15: Decoupling with Queues and Notifications

• The problems of tightly coupled systems and what a queue buys you
• Message queues and handling failed work with a dead-letter queue
• Fan-out notifications and wiring services together
• Lab: connect two components through a queue and test with the consumer stopped

Section 16: Accelerating Performance

• Caching at each layer to cut database load and response time
• Choosing disk types and tuning them to the read and write pattern
• Distributing content through a CDN to shorten the distance to users
• Lab: add a cache layer in front of the database and measure before and after

Section 17: Designing for Cost Optimization

• How the main services are priced and where bills quietly run away
• Purchase options and using cheap interruptible capacity for suitable workloads
• Reducing data transfer out charges and picking the right storage class
• Budgets, alerts and tagging resources to attribute cost per team

Section 18: Monitoring and Governance

• Collecting metrics and logs and alerting when the system misbehaves
• Recording an audit trail of API activity for later investigation
• Automatically checking configuration against organizational policy
• Lab: set an alert that fires when a resource exceeds a defined threshold

Section 19: Assembling Architectures from Real Scenarios

• The architecture patterns the exam reuses and the conditions that select each one
• Migrating legacy systems to the cloud and choosing a migration strategy
• Reviewing an architecture against the Well-Architected Framework before handover
• Workshop: design a complete system from a business scenario and defend every decision

Section 20: Mock Exam and Study Plan

• Exam technique: spotting keywords, managing time and handling uncertain questions
• Walking through option elimination question by question on the mock exam
• The topics candidates most often miss and how to revise them in the final week
• Workshop: sit a full mock exam with explained answers and build your personal study plan