This article will talk about the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate – Exam format and we will look at the various Questions Or Response types. We will also look at the various areas of topics that make up the AWS CSA – Associate Exam. We will also be reviewing the weightage of each topic from the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate exams perspective.
Kindly note that this article is referencing to the SAA-C03 version of the exam.
What are the Question Or Response types on the AWS CSA – Associate Exam?
The AWS Certification exam questions are based on real world scenarios. The AWS CSA – Associate Exam consists of 2 types of Question Or Response types. Listed below are the 2 Question Or Response types:
Multiple choice
The Multiple Choice response or questions have one correct answer and 3 incorrect answers or responses. The incorrect answers or responses are know as Distractors.
Multiple response
The Multiple response has two or more correct responses out of five or more response options that you will see.
You have to select one or more responses to Multiple Choice and Multiple Response questions that would best complete statement or answer the question.
AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate Exam Domains
The AWS CSA – Associate exam has the following 4 domains with the weightage of the topics next to them:
| AWS CSA – Associate Exam Topic | Weightage |
| Design Secure Architectures | 30% |
| Design Resilient Architectures | 26% |
| Design High-Performing Architectures | 24% |
| Design Cost-Optimized Architectures | 20% |
What should you know about Design Resilient Architectures?
Multi-tier Architectures
You should be able to design solutions that are easily saleable, loose decouple and multi-tier at the same time.
Highly Available (HA) and Fault-Tolerant Architectures
As an Certified Solutions Architect, you should be able to design Highly Available (HA) and/or Fault-Tolerant Architectures
Decoupling Mechanisms using AWS Services
To be a successful AWS CSA – Associate, you should be able to design Decoupling Mechanisms using AWS Services.
Resilient Storage
As a AWS CSA – Associate, you should be able to choose the appropriate Resilient Storage option on the basis of the storage requirements, data access frequency etc.
What should you know about High-Performance Architectures?
Elastic and Scalable Compute
As and AWS CSA – Associate, you should be able to create High-Performance Architectures by identifying Elastic and Scalable Compute solutions for a workload.
E.g. Autoscaling Groups Or Elastic Load Balancers for managing and distributing workload
High-Performing and Scalable Storage
A successful AWS CSA – Associate should be able to select High-Performing and Scalable Storage solutions for a workload.
High-Performing Networking
You need to have the knowledge on selecting High-Performing Networking solutions that will best suit your workload.
E.g. Do you need a VPN (Virtual Private Network) Or a Direct Access solution for your environment.
High-Performing Database
A AWS CSA – Associate should be able to determine the best High-Performing Database solution that will work the best for the workload.
E.g. Non Relational Database like DynamoDB or Amazon RedShift etc.
What should you know about designing Secure Architectures?
Secure access to AWS resources
You should be able to provide the best solution to provide the most secure ways for users to access AWS resources. The options that you will work with to achieve this are IAM, AWS Single Sign On (SSO) etc.
Secure Application tier
Data Security Options
Want to learn more about the AWS CSA – Associate – Exam?
AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate – Exam Guide
Click here to download the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate - Exam Guide
AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate – Exam – Sample Questions
Click here to download the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate - Exam Sample Questions