AWS / Associate / SAA-C03
Solutions Architect Associate
Design secure, resilient and cost-effective systems. Learn the requirement that makes one architecture the right choice.
THE REVISION PATH
Your topics, in order.
Read. Recall. Explain the alternative.
Getting Started with AWS
Choose the geography first, separate failure domains next, and bring eligible content closer to users at the edge.
IAM & AWS CLI
Identify who is calling, how they authenticated, and which policies authorize the exact request.
EC2 Fundamentals
Match the machine to the bottleneck, the purchase model to the commitment, and access to a temporary role.
EC2 SAA Level
Preserve the right identity, separate the right failure domains, and distinguish resuming a machine from recovering an application.
EC2 Instance Storage
Choose block, file or local scratch first, then check its failure boundary, performance and recovery behavior.
ELB & Auto Scaling
A load balancer chooses a destination; an Auto Scaling group maintains capacity; application state must survive either decision.
RDS, Aurora & ElastiCache
Replicas add read capacity, failover preserves service, backups recover history, proxies manage connections, and caches avoid repeated work.
Route 53
DNS chooses an answer that clients may cache; it does not inspect or balance every application request.
Classic Solutions Architectures
Make compute replaceable by putting necessary state in services with deliberately chosen durability, access and failure behavior.
S3 Introduction
A key names an object, versioning preserves history, and replication places eligible copies elsewhere.
Advanced S3
Measure access, choose an economical storage class, automate aging, and make event consumers tolerate retries.
S3 security
Encryption protects stored bytes, policies authorize callers, and browser rules do neither job for you.
CloudFront and Global Accelerator
CloudFront caches HTTP content, Global Accelerator routes network connections, and replication creates durable regional copies.
Storage extras
Choose the application's storage protocol first, then decide whether you need persistent access, hybrid access or data movement.
SQS, SNS, Kinesis and Amazon MQ
Queue work for competing workers, fan out events to independent consumers, and retain streams when replay matters.
Containers on AWS
Separate the container image, application task, compute capacity and permissions before choosing an orchestrator.
Serverless services
Separate execution limits, data access patterns, API authorization and workflow state instead of treating serverless as unlimited capacity.
Serverless solution architectures
Authenticate the caller, authorize the operation, keep durable state outside functions, and cache only responses safe to share.
Choosing an AWS database
Start with the required queries and consistency, then choose the data model, resilience and operating model.
Data and analytics
Separate ingestion, storage, metadata, permissions, computation and visualization so each requirement has a clear owner.
Machine Learning
Identify the input and the required output before choosing an AI service.
Monitoring & Audit
Metrics show symptoms, logs explain events, traces follow requests, and audit records identify changes.
IAM Advanced
First identify the caller, then find its grants, its permission ceilings and every applicable explicit deny.
Security & Encryption
Protect the connection, the stored data, the permission to use it and the evidence of misuse separately.
Networking: VPC
A working connection needs the right address, a forward route, permission and a return path.
Disaster Recovery & Migrations
RPO limits how much data may be lost; RTO limits how long useful service may be unavailable.
More Solution Architectures
Choose the delivery, state and failure behavior first, then select services that preserve those decisions.
Other Services
Separate deployment, administration, cost evidence and application delivery before choosing a tool.
Whitepapers & Architectures
Start with the workload's requirements, then explain what the design protects, what it costs and how you know it works.
How this guide is organised
The existing 29-topic study pack is preserved. Familiar course-style topics organise original explanations; all 14 official task objectives map to the notes.
- AWS SAA-C03 official exam guide ↗ Scope authority
- Stephane Maarek: Solutions Architect Associate course ↗ Topic-sequence reference; no paid material reproduced
Revision material supports preparation; it does not guarantee every possible exam question. Check the exam version and official objectives before booking.