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How I Passed AWS Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03): A Simple 7-Step

I'm a DevOps/Platform Engineer from Sri Lanka, and I passed the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate exam after 4 weeks of preparation. Here's the exact plan I followed, so you can skip the confusion I had at the start.

Exam at a glance
  • Exam code: SAA-C03
  • Questions: 65 (multiple choice / multiple response)
  • Time: 130 minutes
  • Passing score: 720 / 1000
  • Cost: 150 USD
  • Validity: 3 years
The 4 domains:
  1. Design Secure Architectures – 30%
  2. Design Resilient Architectures – 26%
  3. Design High-Performing Architectures – 24%
  4. Design Cost-Optimized Architectures – 20%
Security is the biggest chunk. Don't skip IAM.
Step 1: Read the official exam guide (30 minutes)
Download the exam guide from the AWS Certification page and highlight the in-scope services. This is your syllabus; anything outside it, don't stress about.
Step 2: Create a free-tier account and set a budget alert first
Before touching any service, protect yourself from surprise bills:
  1. Go to Billing and Cost Management → Budgets → Create budget
  2. Choose Zero spend budget
  3. Add your email
Also enable MFA on the root user and create an IAM user (or use IAM Identity Center) for daily work.
Step 3: Learn the core services (2–3 weeks)
Focus your time here, in this order:
  • IAM – users, roles, policies, least privilege
  • VPC – subnets, route tables, IGW, NAT Gateway, security groups vs NACLs
  • EC2 – instance types, pricing models (On-Demand, Reserved, Spot, Savings Plans)
  • ELB + Auto Scaling – ALB vs NLB, scaling policies
  • S3 – storage classes, lifecycle rules, versioning, encryption
  • RDS & Aurora – Multi-AZ vs Read Replicas (this comes up a lot)
  • DynamoDB – when to pick NoSQL
  • Route 53 – routing policies
  • CloudFront – caching and edge
  • SQS, SNS, EventBridge – decoupling
  • Lambda & API Gateway – serverless basics
  • CloudWatch, CloudTrail – monitoring vs auditing
Step 4: Get hands-on (don't skip this!)
Reading alone won't stick. Build these mini labs:
  1. Launch a web server in a custom VPC
    • Create a VPC with 2 public and 2 private subnets
    • Launch EC2 in a public subnet and install nginx
    • Put an ALB in front with an Auto Scaling group
  2. Host a static website on S3 + CloudFront
  3. Create an RDS database in a private subnet and connect from EC2
  4. Build a serverless API: API Gateway → Lambda → DynamoDB
Delete everything after each lab. Watch out for NAT Gateways and RDS; they cost money even when idle.
Step 5: Learn the keywords pattern
SAA questions are scenario-based. The keyword usually points to the answer:
  • "Most cost-effective" → S3 lifecycle, Spot, right-sizing
  • "Highly available" → Multi-AZ
  • "Read-heavy workload" → Read Replicas, ElastiCache
  • "Decouple components" → SQS
  • "Least operational overhead" → Managed / serverless services
  • "Disaster recovery across regions" → Cross-region replication, Aurora Global Database
  • "Static content, global users" → CloudFront
  • "Temporary credentials" → IAM Roles, STS
Step 6: Practice exams (1–2 weeks)
  • Do at least 4–6 full-length practice exams
  • Aim for 80%+ consistently before booking
  • Review every wrong answer, and the right ones you guessed
  • Keep a mistakes notebook sorted by domain
Step 7: Exam day tips
  • Book via Pearson VUE (online or test center)
  • If taking it online, clear your desk completely and test your webcam the day before
  • Use flag for review; don't get stuck on one question
  • Eliminate obviously wrong answers first; usually 2 options are clearly out
  • There's no penalty for wrong answers, so never leave a question blank
My biggest lessons
  1. Networking was my weakest area until I built a VPC by hand
  2. Hands-on practice beats watching videos at 2x speed
  3. Understand why an answer is right, not just memorizing it
Final thoughts
SAA isn't about memorizing every service; it's about thinking like an architect: secure, resilient, fast and cost-effective. Follow these steps, stay consistent, and you'll get there.
If you're preparing right now, drop a comment with your exam date. Happy to answer questions! 🚀
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I'm Ajith, a DevOps/Platform Engineer and visiting lecturer. I share DevOps and cloud content.
Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajithkumara-madialagan/
# aws-certification# aws-knowledge-mcp# aws-academy
Any opinions in this article are those of the individual author and may not reflect the opinions of AWS.
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