SAA-C03 exam format: what to expect
A quick reference for how AWS actually structures and scores the Solutions Architect – Associate exam, straight from the official exam guide.
Questions and timing
The exam has 65 questions and a 130-minute time limit. Questions come in two forms: multiple choice (one correct answer, three distractors) and multiple response (two or more correct answers out of five or more options). There's no penalty for guessing, but an unanswered question is scored as incorrect, so answer every question even when you're unsure.
How scoring works
Only 50 of the 65 questions count toward your score. The other 15 are unscored, used by AWS to test future questions, and they aren't identified anywhere on the exam, so treat every question as if it counts. Results are reported as a scaled score from 100 to 1,000, and the minimum passing score is 720. Scaling equates difficulty across different exam forms, so 720 doesn't map to a fixed percentage of correct answers.
The four exam domains
Content is split into four weighted domains. Here's roughly how they map to the topics you can drill on this site:
- Design secure architectures — 30%. Mostly IAM & Security.
- Design resilient architectures — 26%. Mostly High Availability & DR, plus RDS, DynamoDB & Databases.
- Design high-performing architectures — 24%. Spread across EC2 & Compute, S3 & Storage, VPC & Networking, and Lambda & Serverless.
- Design cost-optimized architectures — 20%. Mostly Cost Optimisation.
Cost and delivery
The exam costs $150 USD (before tax; check AWS's own pricing page for local currency and regional adjustments) and can be taken at a Pearson VUE testing centre or as an online proctored exam from home. A pass is valid for 3 years before recertification is required.
Who it's for
AWS pitches this exam at candidates with at least one year of hands-on experience designing AWS-based solutions. If you're newer than that, it's still learnable, just expect to spend more time drilling scenario questions before the terminology and service limits feel automatic.
Source: AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) exam guide, AWS official documentation.