AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate

(SAA-C03) Exam Guide

This is an adapted version of the AWS SAA-C03 Exam Guide that references where each topic is covered in the
video course. See additional resources for the original exam guide, or download it from AWS’s website here.

Introduction
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) exam is intended for individuals who perform
in a solutions architect role. The exam validates a candidate’s ability to use AWS technologies to design
solutions based on the AWS Well-Architected Framework.

The exam also validates a candidate’s ability to complete the following tasks:

• Design solutions that incorporate AWS services to meet current business requirements and future
projected needs
• Design architectures that are secure, resilient, high-performing, and cost-optimized
• Review existing solutions and determine improvements

Target candidate description

The target candidate should have at least 1 year of hands-on experience designing cloud solutions that use
AWS services.

For a detailed list of specific tools and technologies that might be covered on the exam, as well as lists of
in-scope and out-of-scope AWS services, refer to the Appendix.

Exam content
Response types
There are two types of questions on the exam:

• Multiple choice: Has one correct response and three incorrect responses (distractors)
• Multiple response: Has two or more correct responses out of five or more response options

Select one or more responses that best complete the statement or answer the question. Distractors, or
incorrect answers, are response options that a candidate with incomplete knowledge or skill might choose.
Distractors are generally plausible responses that match the content area.

Unanswered questions are scored as incorrect; there is no penalty for guessing. The exam includes
50 questions that will affect your score.

Unscored content
The exam includes 15 unscored questions that do not affect your score. AWS collects information about
candidate performance on these unscored questions to evaluate these questions for future use as scored
questions. These unscored questions are not identified on the exam.

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Exam results
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate exam is a pass or fail exam. The exam is scored against a
minimum standard established by AWS professionals who follow certification industry best practices and
guidelines.

Your results for the exam are reported as a scaled score of 100–1,000. The minimum passing score is 720.
Your score shows how you performed on the exam as a whole and whether or not you passed. Scaled
scoring models help equate scores across multiple exam forms that might have slightly different difficulty
levels.

Your score report could contain a table of classifications of your performance at each section level. This
information provides general feedback about your exam performance. The exam uses a compensatory
scoring model, which means that you do not need to achieve a passing score in each section. You need to
pass only the overall exam.

Each section of the exam has a specific weighting, so some sections have more questions than other
sections have. The table contains general information that highlights your strengths and weaknesses. Use
caution when interpreting section-level feedback. Candidates who pass the exam will not receive this
additional information.

Content outline
This exam guide includes weightings, test domains, and task statements for the exam. It is not a
comprehensive listing of the content on the exam. However, additional context for each of the task
statements is available to help guide your preparation for the exam. The following table lists the main
content domains and their weightings. The table precedes the complete exam content outline, which
includes the additional context. The percentage in each domain represents only scored content.

Domain % of Exam
Domain 1: Design Secure Architectures 30%

Domain 2: Design Resilient Architectures 26%

Domain 3: Design High-Performing Architectures 24%

Domain 4: Design Cost-Optimized Architectures 20%

TOTAL 100%

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 Domain 1: Design Secure Architectures
Task Statement 1.1 - Design secure access to AWS resources.

Knowledge of:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Ch 2 - Storage Access Security Lab
Ch 7 – Root User, Authentication,
Authorization Policies, Multiple
Permissions
1.1 K1 Access controls and management across multiple accounts Ch 8 – User Accounts, IAM Roles
Ch 10 - Configuring ACLs and NACLs
Lab
Ch 11 – Cognito
Ch 15 – Secure Design Scenario
Ch 2 - Storage Access Security Lab
Ch 7 - Identity and Access
Management (IAM) Overview,
Principals, Root User,
AWS federated access and identity services (for example, AWS Authentication, Authorization
1.1 K2 Identity and Access Management [IAM], AWS Single Sign-On [AWS Policies, Multiple Permissions,
SSO]) Federated Directory Services
Ch 8 – User Accounts, IAM Roles,
Policy Conditions
Ch 11 – Cognito, Organizations
Ch 15 – Secure Design
AWS global infrastructure (for example, Availability Zones, AWS Ch 1 - Regions and Availability
1.1 K3
Regions) Ch 15 – General Best Practices
Ch 7 - Authorization Policies, Multi-
Factor Authentication, Key
Rotation, Data Security Control
AWS security best practices (for example, the principle of least
1.1 K4 Ch 8 - Principle of Least Privilege,
privilege)
Policy Conditions
Ch 15 – Secure Design, Secure
Design Scenario
Ch 1 – AWS Security and
Compliance
1.1 K5 The AWS shared responsibility model Ch 7 – Shared Responsibility
Model
Ch 15 – Secure Design

Skills in:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Ch 7 – Root User, Authentication,
Authorization Policies, Multi-Factor
Authentication, Multiple
Permissions
Applying AWS security best practices to IAM users and root users (for
1.1 S1 Ch 8 – User Accounts, Principle of
example, multi-factor authentication [MFA])
Least Privilege, IAM Roles
Ch 12 - Database Security
Ch 15 – Secure Design, Secure
Design Scenario
1.1 S2 Designing a flexible authorization model that includes IAM users, Ch 7 – Principals, Multiple
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 groups, roles, and policies Permissions, IAM Roles, Policy
Conditions
Ch 15 – Secure Design
Ch 7 - Authorization Policies,
Designing a role-based access control strategy (for example, AWS Multiple Permissions
1.1 S3 Security Token Service [AWS STS], role switching, cross-account Ch 8 - Amazon STS, Principle of
access) Least Privilege, IAM Roles
Ch 15 – Secure Design Scenario
Ch 7 – Multiple Permissions
Ch 8 - Principle of Least Privilege,
Designing a security strategy for multiple AWS accounts (for Policy Conditions, AWS Control
1.1 S4
example, AWS Control Tower, service control policies [SCPs]) Tower, Service Control Policies
Ch 15 – Secure Design, Secure
Design Scenario
Ch 7 - Authorization Policies
Ch 8 – User Accounts, Policy
Determining the appropriate use of resource policies for AWS
1.1 S5 Conditions
services
Ch 12 – Data Security Policies
Ch 15 – Secure Design Scenario
Ch 7 – Federated Directory
1.1 S6 Determining when to federate a directory service with IAM roles
Services

Task Statement 1.2 - Design secure workloads and applications.

Knowledge of:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Ch 8 – Password Policies,
Credential Rotation
Ch 11 – Additional Application
1.2 K1 Application configuration and credentials security
Services
Ch 14 – Desktop & App Streaming
Ch 15 – Secure Design Scenario
Ch 2 - EFS and PrivateLink
1.2 K2 AWS service endpoints
Ch 3 - Endpoints
Ch 10 – Flow Logs
1.2 K3 Control ports, protocols, and network traffic on AWS
Ch 15 – Secure Design Scenario
Ch 8 - Key Security Services,
Additional Security Services
1.2 K4 Secure application access Ch 11 – Additional Application
Services, Cognito
Ch 15 – Secure Design Scenario
Ch 7 - AWS Security Hub
Ch 8 - Additional Security
Security services with appropriate use cases (for example, Amazon
1.2 K5 Services
Cognito, Amazon GuardDuty, Amazon Macie)
Ch 11 – Cognito, CloudWatch,
Trusted Advisor
1.2 K6 Threat vectors external to AWS (for example, DDoS, SQL injection) Ch 8 – Key Security Services

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Skills in:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Ch 3 - Creating a VPC Lab, Security
Groups Overview, Network Address
Translation (NAT)
Ch 6 - Working with Security
Designing VPC architectures with security components (for example,
1.2 S1 Groups, Working with Security
security groups, route tables, network ACLs, NAT gateways)
Groups Lab
Ch 10 - Configuring ACLs and NACLs
Lab
Ch 15 – Secure Design Scenario
Determining network segmentation strategies (for example, using
1.2 S2 Ch 3 - Creating a VPC Lab
public subnets and private subnets)
Ch 8 - Key Security Services
Integrating AWS services to secure applications (for example, AWS Ch 11 – Additional Application
1.2 S3
Shield, AWS WAF, AWS SSO, AWS Secrets Manager) Services, Web Application Firewall
(WAF), Cognito
Ch 2 - EFS and PrivateLink
Securing external network connections to and from the AWS Cloud Ch 3 - Creating a VPC Lab,
1.2 S4
(for example, VPN, AWS Direct Connect) Gateways (VPGs and CGWs), VPN
Configuration Options

Task Statement 1.3 - Determine appropriate data security controls.

Knowledge of:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Ch 2 - Storage Access Security Lab
Ch 7 – Principals, Root User,
Authorization Policies, Multi-Factor
Authentication, Multiple
1.3 K1 Data access and governance Permissions, Data Security Control
Ch 8 – User Accounts
Ch 11 - Cognito
Ch 12 – Database Security, Data
Security Policies
1.3 K2 Data recovery Ch 7 - Data Security Control
Ch 7 - Data Security Control
1.3 K3 Data retention and classification
Ch 12 – Data Security Policies
Ch 7 – Authentication, Key
Rotation, Data Security Control
1.3 K4 Encryption and appropriate key management
Ch 8 – User Accounts
Ch 12 - Redshift

Skills in:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Ch 5 – Dedicated Hosts
Ch 7 - AWS Compliance Program
Ch 7 – Multiple Permissions
1.3 S1 Aligning AWS technologies to meet compliance requirements
Ch 8 – CloudTrail
Ch 11 – Reference Architectures
Ch 12 – Data Security Policies
1.3 S2 Encrypting data at rest (for example, AWS Key Management Service Ch 12 - Database Security

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 [AWS KMS]) Ch 14 – Security Services Lab
Ch 15 – Secure Design, Secure
Design Scenario
Ch 11 - Kinesis Data Streams and
Encrypting data in transit (for example, AWS Certificate Manager Firehose
1.3 S3
[ACM] using TLS) Ch 15 – Secure Design, Secure
Design Scenario
Ch 7 – Key Rotation
1.3 S4 Implementing access policies for encryption keys
Ch 15 – Secure Design Scenario
Ch 15 – Secure Design Scenario
1.3 S5 Implementing data backups and replications
Ch 15 – General Best Practices
Ch 2 - Storage Access Security Lab
Ch 8 – User Accounts
1.3 S6 Implementing policies for data access, lifecycle, and protection
Ch 12 – Data Security Policies
Ch 15 – Secure Design Scenario
1.3 S7 Rotating encryption keys and renewing certificates Ch 7 – Key Rotation

Domain 2: Design Resilient Architectures

Task Statement 2.1 - Design scalable and loosely coupled architectures.

Knowledge of:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
API creation and management (for example, Amazon API Gateway, Ch 2 – S3 Terminology
2.1 K1
REST API) Ch 11 - API Gateway
AWS managed services with appropriate use cases (for example,
Ch 8 – Key Security Services
2.1 K2 AWS Transfer Family, Amazon Simple Queue Service [Amazon
Ch 11 – Simple Queue Service (SQS)
SQS], Secrets Manager)
2.1 K3 Caching strategies Ch 11 - CloudFront
Design principles for microservices (for example, stateless
2.1 K4 Ch 15 - Resilient Design
workloads compared with stateful workloads)
2.1 K5 Event-driven architectures Ch 15 – General Best Practices
2.1 K6 Horizontal scaling and vertical scaling Ch 15 – Resilient Design
How to appropriately use edge accelerators (for example, content
2.1 K7 Ch 11 - CloudFront
delivery network [CDN])
Not specifically covered, find
2.1 K8 How to migrate applications into containers
more information here
Ch 9 – Load Balancing Concepts,
2.1 K9 Load balancing concepts (for example, Application Load Balancer) Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)
Ch 15 – General Best Practices
2.1 K10 Multi-tier architectures Ch 15 – General Best Practices
Ch 11 - Simple Queue Service
2.1 K11 Queuing and messaging concepts (for example, publish/subscribe) (SQS), Simple Notification Service
(SNS)
Serverless technologies and patterns (for example, AWS Fargate, Ch 11 – Lambda, API Gateway
2.1 K12
AWS Lambda) Ch 15 – Performant Design
Storage types with associated characteristics (for example, Ch 2 - Elastic Block Store (EBS),
2.1 K13
object, file, block) Elastic File System (EFS)
The orchestration of containers (for example, Amazon Elastic
Ch 6 - Elastic Container Service
2.1 K14 Container Service [Amazon ECS], Amazon Elastic Kubernetes
(ECS)
Service [Amazon EKS])
2.1 K15 When to use read replicas Ch 13 - Configuration Lab
2.1 K16 Workflow orchestration (for example, AWS Step Functions) Ch 11 - Simple Workflow (SWF),
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 Step Functions

Skills in:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Designing event-driven, microservice, and/or multi-tier architectures
2.1 S1 Ch 15 – Resilient Design
based on requirements
Determining scaling strategies for components used in an Ch 15 – Resilient Design,
2.1 S2
architecture design Performant Design
Determining the AWS services required to achieve loose coupling Ch 15 – Resilient Design, General
2.1 S3
based on requirements Best Practices
Not specifically covered, find
2.1 S4 Determining when to use containers
more information here
Ch 11 – API Gateway
2.1 S5 Determining when to use serverless technologies and patterns
Ch 15 – Performant Design
Recommending appropriate compute, storage, networking, and Ch 12 – Database Types, most of
2.1 S6
database technologies based on requirements chapter 12
2.1 S7 Using purpose-built AWS services for workloads Ch 14 – AWS Solutions

Task Statement 2.2 - Design highly available and/or fault-tolerant architectures.

Knowledge of:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Ch 1 - Regions and Availability
AWS global infrastructure (for example, Availability Zones, AWS
2.2 K1 Ch 10 – Configuring Route 53 Lab
Regions, Amazon Route 53)
Ch 15 – General Best Practices
AWS managed services with appropriate use cases (for example,
2.2 K2 Ch 11 - CloudWatch
Amazon Comprehend, Amazon Polly)
2.2 K3 Basic networking concepts (for example, route tables) Ch 10 - DNS
Ch 6 - Advanced EC2 Management
Disaster recovery (DR) strategies (for example, backup and restore,
Ch 13 – Restore Lab
2.2 K4 pilot light, warm standby, active-active failover, recovery point
Ch 14 – AWS Backup
objective [RPO], recovery time objective [RTO])
Ch 15 – General Best Practices
2.2 K5 Distributed design patterns Throughout chapter 15
Ch 6 - Advanced EC2 Management
2.2 K6 Failover strategies
Ch 11 - CloudWatch
2.2 K7 Immutable infrastructure Throughout chapter 15
Ch 9 – Load Balancer Concepts,
2.2 K8 Load balancing concepts (for example, Application Load Balancer) Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)
Ch 15 – General Best Practices
Not specifically covered, find
2.2 K9 Proxy concepts (for example, Amazon RDS Proxy)
more information here
Service quotas and throttling (for example, how to configure the
2.2 K10 Ch 15 – Cost Optimization
service quotas for a workload in a standby environment)
Ch 2 - Elastic Block Store (EBS),
Storage options and characteristics (for example, durability,
2.2 K11 Storage Performance
replication)
Ch 4 – EBS and EC2
Not specifically covered, find
2.2 K12 Workload visibility (for example, AWS X-Ray)
more information here

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Skills in:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Ch 6 - Elastic Beanstalk
2.2 S1 Determining automation strategies to ensure infrastructure integrity Environment
Ch 15 - Resilient Design Scenario
Determining the AWS services required to provide a highly available
2.2 S2 and/or fault-tolerant architecture across AWS Regions or Ch 15 – General Best Practices
Availability Zones
Identifying metrics based on business requirements to deliver a
2.2 S3 Ch 15 - Resilient Design Scenario
highly available solution
2.2 S4 Implementing designs to mitigate single points of failure Ch 15 - Resilient Design Scenario
Ch 2 - Elastic Block Store (EBS)
Implementing strategies to ensure the durability and availability of Ch 14 – AWS Backup
2.2 S5
data (for example, backups) Ch 15 - Resilient Design Scenario
Ch 15 – General Best Practices
Selecting an appropriate disaster recovery strategy to meet business
2.2 S6 Ch 15 - Resilient Design Scenario
requirements
Using AWS services that improve the reliability of legacy applications
2.2 S7 and applications not built for the cloud (for example, when Ch 2 - S3 and Tape Gateway
application changes are not possible)
Ch 11 – CloudFormation,
2.2 S8 Using purpose-built AWS services for workloads CloudFormation Properties
Ch 15 – General Best Practices

Domain 3: Design High-Performing Architectures

Task Statement 3.1 - Determine high-performing and/or scalable storage solutions.

Knowledge of:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Ch 2 - Integrating On-Premises
3.1 K1 Hybrid storage solutions to meet business requirements
Storage
Ch 2 – Storage Services, S3 Storage
Class, S3 Terminology, S3 Advanced
Features, S3 Bucket Properties,
Glacier, S3 and Tape Gateway,
Storage services with appropriate use cases (for example, Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), Elastic
3.1 K2 S3, Amazon Elastic File System [Amazon EFS], Amazon Elastic Block File System (EFS), Creating an EFS
Store [Amazon EBS]) File System Lab
Ch 4 – EBS and EC2
Ch 15 – Performant Design,
Performant Design Scenario

Ch 2 - Storage Services, Elastic

Block Store (EBS), Creating EBS
Storage types with associated characteristics (for example, object, file, Volumes Lab, Elastic File System
3.1 K3
block) (EFS)
Ch 4 – EBS and EC2
Ch 15 – Performant Design

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Skills in:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Ch 2 - Creating S3 Buckets Lab, S3
Managing Objects Lab, Setting up a
Glacier Vault Lab, S3 and Tape
Gateway, S3 Enhanced Features,
Determining storage services and configurations that meet Elastic Block Store (EBS), Creating
3.1 S1
performance demands EBS Volumes Lab, Storage
Performance
Ch 4 – EBS and EC2
Ch 15 – Performant Design,
Performant Design Scenario
Ch 2- S3 Enhanced Features
Determining storage services that can scale to accommodate future
3.1 S2 Ch 15 – Performant Design,
needs
Performant Design Scenario

Task Statement 3.2 - Design high-performing and elastic compute solutions.

Knowledge of:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Ch 4 – EC2 Overview
AWS compute services with appropriate use cases (for example, AWS
3.2 K1 Ch 6 – AWS Batch
Batch, Amazon EMR, Fargate)
Ch 11 - Elastic MapReduce (EMR)
Distributed computing concepts supported by AWS global
3.2 K2 Ch 11 - CloudFront
infrastructure and edge services
Ch 11 - Simple Queue Service
(SQS), Simple Notification Service
3.2 K3 Queuing and messaging concepts (for example, publish/subscribe) (SNS)
Ch 15 - Performant Design
Scenario
Ch 9 – Auto Scaling Overview, Auto
Scaling Groups, Termination
Policies, Auto Scaling Configuration
Scalability capabilities with appropriate use cases (for example,
3.2 K4 Lab, Launch Methods
Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling, AWS Auto Scaling)
Ch 15 – Resilient Design,
Performant Design
Ch 15 – General Best Practices
3.2 K5 Serverless technologies and patterns (for example, Lambda, Fargate) Ch 11 – Lambda, API Gateways
The orchestration of containers (for example, Amazon ECS, Amazon Ch 6 - Elastic Container Service
3.2 K6
EKS) (ECS)

Skills in:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Ch 11 - Simple Queue Service (SQS)
3.2 S1 Decoupling workloads so that components can scale independently
Ch 15 – General Best Practices
Ch 15 - Resilient Design Scenario,
3.2 S2 Identifying metrics and conditions to perform scaling actions Performant Design, Performant
Design Scenario
Ch 4 – EC2 Instance Types, AWS
Compute Optimizer
Selecting the appropriate compute options and features (for
3.2 S3 Ch 5 - Launching an EC2 Linux
example, EC2 instance types) to meet business requirements
Instance Lab, Configuring an EC2
Linux Instance Lab, Setting up an
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 EC2 Windows Instance Lab, Shared
Tenancy, AMI Virtualization
Ch 6 – Instance Management,
Connecting to Instances Lab
Ch 15 - Performant Design Scenario
Ch 5 - Launching an EC2 Linux
Selecting the appropriate resource type and size (for example, the Instance Lab, Configuring an EC2
3.2 S4
amount of Lambda memory) to meet business requirements Linux Instance Lab, Setting up an
EC2 Windows Instance Lab

Task Statement 3.3 - Determine high-performing database solutions.

Knowledge of:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Ch 12 - High Availability Solutions
AWS global infrastructure (for example, Availability Zones, AWS Ch 13 - Configuration Lab
3.3 K1
Regions) Ch 15 - Resilient Design Scenario
Ch 15 – General Best Practices
3.3 K2 Caching strategies and services (for example, Amazon ElastiCache) Ch 14 - ElastiCache
Data access patterns (for example, read-intensive compared with
3.3 K3 Ch 12 - Relational Databases
write-intensive)
Database capacity planning (for example, capacity units, instance
3.3 K4 Ch 2 - Storage Performance
types, Provisioned IOPS)
Ch 11 – Additional Application
3.3 K5 Database connections and proxies
Services
Ch 12 – Database Types, Aurora
Database engines with appropriate use cases (for example,
3.3 K6 Ch 13 - MySQL Lab
heterogeneous migrations, homogeneous migrations)
Ch 15 - Resilient Design Scenario
Ch 12 - High Availability
Solutions, Scalability Solutions
3.3 K7 Database replication (for example, read replicas) Ch 13 - Configuration Lab
Ch 15 - Performant Design
Scenario
Database types and services (for example, serverless, relational Ch 12 – Database Types,
3.3 K8
compared with non-relational, in-memory) Relational Databases, Aurora

Skills in:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Ch 12 - Scalability Solutions
3.3 S1 Configuring read replicas to meet business requirements Ch 13 - Configuration Lab
Ch 15 – Performant Design
3.3 S2 Designing database architectures Ch 12 - Database Hosting Methods
Ch 12 – Database Types
Determining an appropriate database engine (for example, MySQL
3.3 S3 Ch 13 – MySQL Lab
compared with PostgreSQL)
Ch 15 – Widget Makers Scenario
Determining an appropriate database type (for example, Amazon Ch 12 – Database Types, Aurora,
3.3 S4
Aurora, Amazon DynamoDB) DynamoDB
3.3 S5 Integrating caching to meet business requirements Ch 14 - ElastiCache

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 Task Statement 3.4 - Determine high-performing and/or scalable network architectures.
Knowledge of:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Edge networking services with appropriate use cases (for example,
3.4 K1 Ch 11 - CloudFront
Amazon CloudFront, AWS Global Accelerator)
Ch 3 - Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)
Overview, Configuring DHCP
Options Lab, Elastic IP Addresses
How to design network architecture (for example, subnet tiers,
3.4 K2 (EIPs), Elastic Network Interfaces
routing, IP addressing)
(ENIs), Endpoints, VPC Peering,
Creating a VPC Peering Connection
Lab
Ch 9 – Load Balancer Concepts,
3.4 K3 Load balancing concepts (for example, Application Load Balancer)
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)
Ch 2 - EFS and PrivateLink
Ch 3 - Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)
Overview, Creating a VPC Lab,
Network connection options (for example, AWS VPN, Direct Connect,
3.4 K4 Endpoints, VPC Peering, Creating a
AWS PrivateLink)
VPC Peering Connection Lab,
Gateways (VPGs and CGWs), VPN
Configuration Options

Skills in:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Ch 3 – Endpoints, VPC Peering,
Creating a network topology for various architectures (for example,
3.4 S1 Creating a VPC Peering Connection
global, hybrid, multi-tier)
Lab
Ch 3 - Configuring DHCP Options
Determining network configurations that can scale to accommodate
3.4 S2 Lab, Elastic IP Addresses (EIPs),
future needs
Elastic Network Interfaces (ENIs)
Determining the appropriate placement of resources to meet Ch 3 - VPC Peering, Creating a VPC
3.4 S3
business requirements Peering Connection Lab
Ch 9 – Load Balancer Concepts,
3.4 S4 Selecting the appropriate load balancing strategy
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)

Task Statement 3.5 - Determine high-performing data ingestion and transformation solutions.
Knowledge of:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Data analytics and visualization services with appropriate use cases
Ch 11 - Elastic MapReduce (EMR)
3.5 K1 (for example, Amazon Athena, AWS Lake Formation, Amazon
Ch 14 – Analytics Engines
QuickSight)
3.5 K2 Data ingestion patterns (for example, frequency) Ch 15 - Performant Design Scenario
Data transfer services with appropriate use cases (for example, AWS Ch 2 - Integrating On-Premises
3.5 K3
DataSync, AWS Storage Gateway) Storage
Data transformation services with appropriate use cases (for
3.5 K4 Ch 14 – Analytics Engines
example, AWS Glue)
Ch 2 - Storage Access Security
3.5 K5 Secure access to ingestion access points
Lab
3.5 K6 Sizes and speeds needed to meet business requirements Ch 15 - Performant Design
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 Scenario
Streaming data services with appropriate use cases (for example, Ch 11 – Kinesis
3.5 K7
Amazon Kinesis) Ch 14 – Media Content Delivery

Skills in:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
3.5 S1 Building and securing data lakes Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
Ch 11 – Kinesis, Kinesis Data
3.5 S2 Designing data streaming architectures Streams and Firehose, Kinesis Data
Analytics
Ch 2 - Storage Services, S3 Storage
3.5 S3 Designing data transfer solutions
Class, Glacier
3.5 S4 Implementing visualization strategies Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
Selecting appropriate compute options for data processing (for
3.5 S5 Ch 11 - Elastic MapReduce (EMR)
example, Amazon EMR)
Ch 2 - Storage Services, S3 Storage
3.5 S6 Selecting appropriate configurations for ingestion
Class, Glacier
Ch 14 - Media Content Delivery
3.5 S7 Transforming data between formats (for example, .csv to .parquet)
Services

Domain 4: Design Cost-Optimized Architectures

Task Statement 4.1 - Design cost-optimized storage solutions.

Knowledge of:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Access options (for example, an S3 bucket with Requester Pays
4.1 K1 Ch 15 – Cost Optimization
object storage)
Ch 5 - Shared Tenancy
Ch 6 - Advanced EC2 Management
AWS cost management service features (for example, cost
4.1 K2 Ch 11 – Trusted Advisor,
allocation tags, multi-account billing)
Organizations
Ch 15 – Cost Optimization
AWS cost management tools with appropriate use cases (for Ch 11 – Trusted Advisor
4.1 K3 example, AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets, AWS Cost and Usage Ch 14 – AWS Cost Explorer
Report) Ch 15 – Cost Optimization
Ch 2 - Storage Services, Elastic
Block Store (EBS), Elastic File
AWS storage services with appropriate use cases (for example, System (EFS), Creating an EFS File
4.1 K4
Amazon FSx, Amazon EFS, Amazon S3, Amazon EBS) System Lab, Intro to Amazon FSx,
Hands on with FSx
Ch 4 – EBS and EC2
Ch 2 - S3 and Tape Gateway
4.1 K5 Backup strategies Ch 14 – AWS Backup
Ch 15 – General Best Practices
Ch 2 - Elastic Block Store (EBS),
Block storage options (for example, hard disk drive [HDD] volume
4.1 K6 Storage Performance
types, solid state drive [SSD] volume types)
Ch 4 – EBS and EC2
4.1 K7 Data lifecycles Ch 2 - S3 Enhanced Features
Hybrid storage options (for example, DataSync, Transfer Family, Ch 2 - Integrating On-Premises
4.1 K8
Storage Gateway) Storage
4.1 K9 Storage access patterns Ch 15 – Cost Optimization
4.1 K10 Storage tiering (for example, cold tiering for object storage) Ch 2 - S3 Enhanced Features
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 Storage types with associated characteristics (for example, object, Ch 2 - Elastic Block Store (EBS),
4.1 K11
file, block) Elastic File System (EFS)

Skills in:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Designing appropriate storage strategies (for example, batch
4.1 S1 Ch 2 - S3 Enhanced Features
uploads to Amazon S3 compared with individual uploads)
4.1 S2 Determining the correct storage size for a workload Ch 15 - Cost Optimization Scenario
Ch 2 - Storage Services, S3 Storage
Determining the lowest cost method of transferring data for a Class, S3 Advanced Features,
4.1 S3
workload to AWS storage Glacier, Storage Performance
Ch 15 – Cost Optimization
Ch 9 – Auto Scaling Overview, Auto
Scaling Groups, Termination
Policies, Auto Scaling Configuration
4.1 S4 Determining when storage auto scaling is required
Lab, Launch Methods
Ch 15 - Cost Optimization Scenario,
General Best Practices
4.1 S5 Managing S3 object lifecycles Ch 2 - S3 Enhanced Features
Ch 2 - S3 and Tape Gateway
4.1 S6 Selecting the appropriate backup and/or archival solution
Ch 15 - Cost Optimization Scenario
Selecting the appropriate service for data migration to storage Ch 2 - Storage Services, S3 Storage
4.1 S7
services Class, Glacier
4.1 S8 Selecting the appropriate storage tier Ch 2 - S3 Enhanced Features
4.1 S9 Selecting the correct data lifecycle for storage Ch 2 - S3 Enhanced Features
Ch 2 - Storage Services, S3 Storage
Class, S3 Advanced Features,
Glacier, Storage Performance,
4.1 S10 Selecting the most cost-effective storage service for a workload
Setting up a Glacier Vault Lab
Ch 5 – Shared Tenancy
Ch 15 - Cost Optimization Scenario

Task Statement 4.2 - Design cost-optimized compute solutions.

Knowledge of:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Ch 5 – Shared Tenancy
Ch 6 - Advanced EC2 Management
AWS cost management service features (for example, cost allocation
4.2 K1 Ch 11 – Trusted Advisor,
tags, multi-account billing)
Organizations
Ch 15 – Cost Optimization
Ch 11 – Trusted Advisor
AWS cost management tools with appropriate use cases (for
4.2 K2 Ch 14 – AWS Cost Explorer
example, Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets, AWS Cost and Usage Report)
Ch 15 – Cost Optimization
AWS global infrastructure (for example, Availability Zones, AWS
4.2 K3 Ch 15 – General Best Practices
Regions)
AWS purchasing options (for example, Spot Instances, Reserved Ch 5 – Shared Tenancy
4.2 K4
Instances, Savings Plans) Ch 15 – Cost Optimization
4.2 K5 Distributed compute strategies (for example, edge processing) Ch 11 - CloudFront
Hybrid compute options (for example, AWS Outposts, AWS Snowball Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
4.2 K6
Edge) Ch 2 - S3 Storage Class
4.2 K7 Instance types, families, and sizes (for example, memory optimized, Ch 4 - EC2 Instance Types
Version 1.0 SAA-C03 13 | PAGE
 compute optimized, virtualization) Ch 5 - Shared Tenancy, Dedicated
Hosts, AMI Virtualization
Ch 5 - Dedicated Hosts
Optimization of compute utilization (for example, containers,
4.2 K8 Ch 6 - Advanced EC2 Management
serverless computing, microservices)
Ch 15 – Performant Design
Ch 9 – Auto Scaling Overview, Auto
Scaling Groups, Termination
4.2 K9 Scaling strategies (for example, auto scaling, hibernation)
Policies, Auto Scaling Configuration
Lab, Launch Methods

Skills in:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Determining an appropriate load balancing strategy (for example,
4.2 S1 Application Load Balancer [Layer 7] compared with Network Load Ch 9 – Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)
Balancer [Layer 4] compared with Gateway Load Balancer)
Determining appropriate scaling methods and strategies for elastic
Ch 9 - Auto Scaling Groups, Auto
4.2 S2 workloads (for example, horizontal compared with vertical, EC2
Scaling Configuration Lab
hibernation)
Determining cost-effective AWS compute services with appropriate Ch 4 – EC2 Overview, EC2 Pricing
4.2 S3
use cases (for example, Lambda, Amazon EC2, Fargate) Ch 15 - Cost Optimization Scenario
Determining the required availability for different classes of
4.2 S4 workloads (for example, production workloads, non-production Ch 15 - Cost Optimization Scenario
workloads)
Ch 4 - EC2 Instance Types
4.2 S5 Selecting the appropriate instance family for a workload
Ch 15 – Secure Design Scenario
Ch 4 - EC2 Instance Types
4.2 S6 Selecting the appropriate instance size for a workload
Ch 15 – Secure Design Scenario

Task Statement 4.3 - Design cost-optimized database solutions.

Knowledge of:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
AWS cost management service features (for example, cost allocation Ch 11 – Trusted Advisor
4.3 K1
tags, multi-account billing) Ch 15 – Cost Optimization
Ch 11 – Trusted Advisor
AWS cost management tools with appropriate use cases (for
4.3 K2 Ch 14 – AWS Cost Explorer
example, Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets, AWS Cost and Usage Report)
Ch 15 – Cost Optimization
4.3 K3 Caching strategies Ch 14 - ElastiCache
4.3 K4 Data retention policies Ch 7 – Data Security Control
4.3 K5 Database capacity planning (for example, capacity units) Ch 12 - DynamoDB
4.3 K6 Database connections and proxies Ch 12 - Database Hosting Methods
Database engines with appropriate use cases (for example,
4.3 K7 Ch 12 - Aurora
heterogeneous migrations, homogeneous migrations)
Ch 12 - High Availability
Solutions, Scalability Solutions
4.3 K8 Database replication (for example, read replicas) Ch 13 - Configuration Lab
Ch 15 – Cost Optimization
Scenario
Database types and services (for example, relational compared with Ch 12 – Relational Databases,
4.3 K9
non-relational, Aurora, DynamoDB) Aurora, DynamoDB

Version 1.0 SAA-C03 14 | PAGE

Skills in:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Ch 12 – Redshift
Designing appropriate backup and retention policies (for example, Ch 13 – Backups Lab, Snapshots Lab
4.3 S1
snapshot frequency) Ch 15 – Cost Optimization
Scenario
Ch 12 – DynamoDB, most of chapter
Determining an appropriate database engine (for example, MySQL
4.3 S2 12
compared with PostgreSQL)
Ch 13 – MySQL Lab
Determining cost-effective AWS database services with appropriate Ch 12 – DynamoDB, Monitoring Lab
4.3 S3 use cases (for example, DynamoDB compared with Amazon RDS, Ch 15 – Cost Optimization
serverless) Scenario
Determining cost-effective AWS database types (for example, time
4.3 S4 Ch 12 - Redshift
series format, columnar format)
Migrating database schemas and data to different locations and/or Ch 12 - Database Hosting
4.3 S5
different database engines Methods, Scalability Solutions

Task Statement 4.4 - Design cost-optimized network architectures.

Knowledge of:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
AWS cost management service features (for example, cost allocation Ch 11 – Trusted Advisor
4.4 K1
tags, multi-account billing) Ch 15 – Cost Optimization
Ch 11 – Trusted Advisor
AWS cost management tools with appropriate use cases (for
4.4 K2 Ch 14 – AWS Cost Explorer
example, Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets, AWS Cost and Usage Report)
Ch 15 – Cost Optimization
4.4 K3 Load balancing concepts (for example, Application Load Balancer) Ch 9 – Load Balancer Concepts
NAT gateways (for example, NAT instance costs compared with NAT Ch 3 - Network Address Translation
4.4 K4
gateway costs) (NAT)
Ch 3 - Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)
Overview, Creating a VPC Lab,
Network connectivity (for example, private lines, dedicated lines,
4.4 K5 Endpoints, VPC Peering, Creating a
VPNs)
VPC Peering Connection Lab,
Gateways (VPGs and CGWs)
Ch 3 – Endpoints, VPC Peering,
Network routing, topology, and peering (for example, AWS Transit Creating a VPC Peering
4.4 K6
Gateway, VPC peering) Connection Lab
Ch 14 – AWS Transit Gateway
Ch 3 - Configuring DHCP Options
Lab, Endpoints, VPC Peering,
Creating a VPC Peering
4.4 K7 Network services with appropriate use cases (for example, DNS) Connection Lab, Gateways (VPGs
and CGWs)
Ch 10 – DNS, Configuring DNS Lab,
Configuring Route 53 Lab

Version 1.0 SAA-C03 15 | PAGE

Skills in:
Obj # Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Configuring appropriate NAT gateway types for a network (for
Ch 3 - Network Address Translation
4.4 S1 example, a single shared NAT gateway compared with NAT
(NAT)
gateways for each Availability Zone)
Ch 3 - Creating a VPC Lab,
Endpoints, VPC Peering, Creating a
Configuring appropriate network connections (for example, Direct
4.4 S2 VPC Peering Connection Lab,
Connect compared with VPN compared with internet)
Gateways (VPGs and CGWs)
Ch 6 - Connecting to Instances Lab
Configuring appropriate network routes to minimize network
transfer costs (for example, Region to Region, Availability Zone to
4.4 S3 Ch 3 - Endpoints
Availability Zone, private to public, Global Accelerator, VPC
endpoints)
Determining strategic needs for content delivery networks (CDNs)
4.4 S4 Ch 11 – CloudFront
and edge caching
Ch 10 – Flow Logs
4.4 S5 Reviewing existing workloads for network optimizations
Ch 15 – Cost Optimization
4.4 S6 Selecting an appropriate throttling strategy Ch 15 – Cost Optimization
Selecting the appropriate bandwidth allocation for a network device
4.4 S7 (for example, a single VPN compared with multiple VPNs, Direct Ch 3 - Creating a VPC Lab
Connect speed)

Version 1.0 SAA-C03 16 | PAGE

Appendix
Which key tools, technologies, and concepts might be covered on the exam?
The following is a non-exhaustive list of the tools and technologies that could appear on the exam. This list
is subject to change and is provided to help you understand the general scope of services, features, or
technologies on the exam. The general tools and technologies in this list appear in no particular order.
AWS services are grouped according to their primary functions. While some of these technologies will likely
be covered more than others on the exam, the order and placement of them in this list is no indication of
relative weight or importance:
NOTE: This appendix maps the services on the AWS SAA-C03 exam objectives to the video
chapters and episodes for your reference.

Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)

For more information, check out AWS’s info page
Compute
here.
Ch 4 - AWS Compute Optimizer
Ch 6 - Advanced EC2 Management
Ch 11 - Trusted Advisor
Ch 14 - AWS Cost Explorer
Cost management
Ch 15 - Cost Optimization, Cost Optimization
Scenario
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Chapters 12 and 13
Database For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Ch 6 - Advanced EC2 Management
Ch 13 – Restore Lab
Ch 14 – AWS Backup
Disaster recovery Ch 15 – Resilient Design Scenario, General Best
Practices
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
All throughout
Ch 15 - Performant Design, Performant Design
High performance Scenario
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
All throughout
Management and governance For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Ch 5 - Dedicated Hosts
Ch 6 - Advanced EC2 Management
Ch 15 – Performant Design, Resilient Design,
Microservices and component decoupling
General Best Practices
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Ch 2 - Storage Services, S3 Storage Class, Glacier
Migration and data transfer For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Version 1.0 SAA-C03 17 | PAGE
 Ch 3 and 10
Ch 14 – Desktop & App Streaming
Networking, connectivity, and content delivery
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
All throughout
Ch 15 – Resilient Design, Resilient Design Scenario
Resiliency
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Ch 7 and 8
Security For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Ch 11 – Lambda, API Gateways
Ch 15 – Performant Design
Serverless and event-driven design principles
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here and here.
Ch 2
Storage For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.

AWS services and features

Analytics:
Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Ch 14 - Analytics Engines
Amazon Athena For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Ch 1 – Services, Part 3
AWS Data Exchange For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Ch 14 - Analytics Engines
AWS Data Pipeline For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Ch 11 - Elastic MapReduce (EMR)
Amazon EMR For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Ch 14 - Analytics Engines
AWS Glue For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Ch 11 – Kinesis
Ch 11 - Kinesis Data Streams and Firehose
Amazon Kinesis Ch 11 - Kinesis Data Analytics
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Ch 1 – Services, Part 3
AWS Lake Formation For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka Not specifically covered. Find more information
(Amazon MSK) here.
Ch 14 - Analytics Engines
Amazon OpenSearch Service (Amazon
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
Elasticsearch Service)
here.
Ch 14 - Analytics Engines
Amazon QuickSight
For more information, check out AWS’s info page

Version 1.0 SAA-C03 18 | PAGE

 here.
Ch 12 – Redshift
Amazon Redshift For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.

Application Integration:
Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Amazon AppFlow Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.
AWS AppSync Ch 11 - Additional Application Services
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon EventBridge (Amazon CloudWatch Ch 10 – Flow Logs
Events) Ch 11 – CloudWatch
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon MQ Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.
Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) Ch 11 - Simple Notification Service (SNS)
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) Ch 11 - Simple Queue Service (SQS)
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Step Functions Ch 11 - Step Functions
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.

AWS Cost Management:

Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
AWS Budgets Ch 2 – Services, Part 3
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Cost and Usage Report Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.
AWS Cost Explorer Ch 14 - AWS Cost Explorer
Savings Plans Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.

Compute:
Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Ch 6 - AWS Batch
AWS Batch For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Ch 4 - EC2 Overview, EC2 Instance Types, EC2
Pricing, EBS and EC2
Ch 5 - Launching an EC2 Linux Instance Lab,
Configuring an EC2 Linux Instance Lab, Setting up
Amazon EC2 an EC2 Windows Instance Lab, Dedicated Hosts,
Dedicated Instances
Ch 6 - Instance Management, Advanced EC2
Management
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
Version 1.0 SAA-C03 19 | PAGE
 here.
Ch 9 - Auto Scaling Overview, Auto Scaling Groups,
Termination Policies, Auto Scaling Configuration
Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling Lab, Launch Methods
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Ch 6 - Elastic Beanstalk Environment
AWS Elastic Beanstalk For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Not specifically covered. Find more information
AWS Outposts
here.
Not specifically covered. Find more information
AWS Serverless Application Repository
here.
Not specifically covered. Find more information
VMware Cloud on AWS
here.
Not specifically covered. Find more information
AWS Wavelength
here.

Containers:
Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Amazon Elastic Container Registry (Amazon ECR) Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.
Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) Ch 6 - Elastic Container Service (ECS)
Amazon ECS Anywhere Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.
Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.
Amazon EKS Anywhere Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.
Amazon EKS Distro Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.

Database:
Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Ch 12 – Aurora
Amazon Aurora For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Ch 12 – Aurora
Amazon Aurora Serverless For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
Amazon DocumentDB (with MongoDB
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
compatibility)
here.
Ch 12 – DynamoDB
Amazon DynamoDB For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Ch 14 – ElastiCache
Amazon ElastiCache For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Not specifically covered. Find more information
Amazon Keyspaces (for Apache Cassandra)
here.
Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
Amazon Neptune For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Version 1.0 SAA-C03 20 | PAGE
 Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (Amazon
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
QLDB)
here.
Ch 13 - Configuration Lab, Backups Lab, Restore
Lab, Snapshot Lab, Monitoring Lab
Amazon RDS
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Ch 12 – Redshift
Amazon Redshift For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
Amazon Timestream For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.

Developer Tools:
Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
AWS X-Ray Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.

Front-End Web and Mobile:

Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
AWS Amplify Ch 11 - Additional Application Services
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon API Gateway Ch 11 - API Gateway
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Device Farm Ch 11 - Additional Application Services
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon Pinpoint Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.

Machine Learning:
Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Amazon Comprehend Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.
Amazon Forecast Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.
Amazon Fraud Detector Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.
Amazon Kendra Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.
Amazon Lex Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.
Amazon Polly Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.
Amazon Rekognition Ch 14 – Media Content Delivery
Amazon SageMaker Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.
Amazon Textract Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.
Amazon Transcribe Ch 14 – Media Content Delivery

Version 1.0 SAA-C03 21 | PAGE

 For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon Translate Ch 14 – Media Content Delivery
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.

Management and Governance:

Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
AWS Auto Scaling Ch 9 - Auto Scaling Overview, Auto Scaling Groups,
Termination Policies, Auto Scaling Configuration
Lab, Launch Methods
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS CloudFormation Ch 11 – CloudFormation, CloudFormation
Properties
Ch 15 – General Best Practices
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS CloudTrail Ch 8 – CloudTrail
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon CloudWatch Ch 10 – Flow Logs
Ch 11 – CloudWatch
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) Ch 2 - Storage Access Security Lab
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Compute Optimizer Ch 4 - AWS Compute Optimizer
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Config Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.
AWS Control Tower Ch 8 - AWS Control Tower
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS License Manager Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon Managed Grafana Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon Managed Service for Prometheus Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Management Console Ch 2 - Storage Access Security Lab
Ch 14 – Security Services Lab
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Organizations Ch 11 – Organizations
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.

Version 1.0 SAA-C03 22 | PAGE

 AWS Personal Health Dashboard Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Proton Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Service Catalog Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.
AWS Systems Manager Not specifically covered. Find more information
here.
AWS Trusted Advisor Ch 11 - Trusted Advisor
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Well-Architected Tool Ch 11 – Reference Architectures
Ch 15 – The Operational Excellence Process
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.

Media Services:
Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Amazon Elastic Transcoder Ch 14 – Media Content Delivery
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon Kinesis Video Streams Ch 11 – Kinesis
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.

Migration and Transfer:

Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
AWS Application Discovery Service Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Application Migration Service (CloudEndure Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
Migration) For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS DataSync Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Migration Hub Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Server Migration Service (AWS SMS) Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Snow Family Ch 1 – S3 Storage Class
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Transfer Family Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
Version 1.0 SAA-C03 23 | PAGE
 here.

Networking and Content Delivery:

Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
Amazon CloudFront Ch 7 – Root User
Ch 11 – CloudFront
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Direct Connect Ch 3 - Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) Overview, VPN
Configuration Options
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) Ch 9 - Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Global Accelerator Ch 1 – Services, Part 3
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS PrivateLink Ch 2 - EFS and PrivateLink
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon Route 53 Ch 10 - Configuring Route 53 Lab
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Transit Gateway Ch 14 - AWS Transit Gateway
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon VPC Ch 3 - Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) Overview,
Creating a VPC Lab, Configuring DHCP Options
Lab, VPC Peering, Creating a VPC Peering
Connection Lab
Ch 10 – Configuring DNS Lab
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS VPN Ch 3 - VPN Configuration Options
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.

Security, Identity, and Compliance:

Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
AWS Artifact For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Audit Manager Services, Part 3
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) Ch 3 - VPN Configuration Options
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS CloudHSM Ch 1 - Services, Part 2
Ch 14 - Security Services Lab
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.

Version 1.0 SAA-C03 24 | PAGE

 Amazon Cognito Ch 8 - Additional Security Services
Ch 11 – Cognito
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon Detective Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Directory Service Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Firewall Manager Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon GuardDuty Ch 7 - AWS Security Hub
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) Ch 7 - Identity and Access Management (IAM)
Overview (also most of Ch 7 and 8)
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon Inspector Ch 7 - AWS Security Hub
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
Ch 14 - Security Services Lab
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon Macie Ch 7 - AWS Security Hub
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Network Firewall Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Resource Access Manager (AWS RAM) Ch 1 - Services, Part 3
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Secrets Manager Ch 8 - Key Security Services
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Security Hub Ch 7 - AWS Security Hub
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Shield Ch 8 - Key Security Services
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Single Sign-On Ch 8 - Key Security Services
Ch 11 – Cognito
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS WAF Ch 11 - Web Application Firewall (WAF)
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.

Version 1.0 SAA-C03 25 | PAGE

Serverless:
Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
AWS AppSync Ch 11 - Additional Application Services
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Fargate Ch 6 - Elastic Container Service (ECS)
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Lambda Ch 11 – Lambda
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.

Storage:
Service/Feature Covered Episode(s)
AWS Backup Ch 14 - AWS Backup
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) Ch 2 - Elastic Block Store (EBS), Creating EBS
Volumes Lab
Ch 4 - EBS and EC2
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) Ch 2 - Elastic File System (EFS), Creating an EFS
File System Lab, EFS and PrivateLink
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon FSx (for all types) Ch 2 - Intro to Amazon FSx, Hands on with FSx
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon S3 Ch 2 - Storage Services, S3 Storage Class, S3
Terminology, S3 Advanced Features, Creating S3
Buckets Lab, S3 Bucket Properties , S3 Managing
Objects Lab, S3 and Tape Gateway, S3 Enhanced
Features
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
Amazon S3 Glacier Ch 2 – Glacier, Setting up a Glacier Vault Lab
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.
AWS Storage Gateway Ch 2 - Integrating On-Premises Storage
For more information, check out AWS’s info page
here.

Version 1.0 SAA-C03 26 | PAGE

Out-of-scope AWS services and features
The following is a non-exhaustive list of AWS services and features that are not covered on the exam.
These services and features do not represent every AWS offering that is excluded from the exam content.

Analytics:
• Amazon CloudSearch

Application Integration:
• Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow (Amazon MWAA)

AR and VR:
• Amazon Sumerian

Blockchain:
• Amazon Managed Blockchain

Compute:
• Amazon Lightsail

Database:
• Amazon RDS on VMware

Developer Tools:
• AWS Cloud9
• AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK)
• AWS CloudShell
• AWS CodeArtifact
• AWS CodeBuild
• AWS CodeCommit
• AWS CodeDeploy
• Amazon CodeGuru
• AWS CodeStar
• Amazon Corretto
• AWS Fault Injection Simulator (AWS FIS)
• AWS Tools and SDKs

Front-End Web and Mobile:

• Amazon Location Service

Game Tech:
• Amazon GameLift
• Amazon Lumberyard

Internet of Things:
• All services

Version 1.0 SAA-C03 27 | PAGE

Machine Learning:
• Apache MXNet on AWS
• Amazon Augmented AI (Amazon A2I)
• AWS DeepComposer
• AWS Deep Learning AMIs (DLAMI)
• AWS Deep Learning Containers
• AWS DeepLens
• AWS DeepRacer
• Amazon DevOps Guru
• Amazon Elastic Inference
• Amazon HealthLake
• AWS Inferentia
• Amazon Lookout for Equipment
• Amazon Lookout for Metrics
• Amazon Lookout for Vision
• Amazon Monitron
• AWS Panorama
• Amazon Personalize
• PyTorch on AWS
• Amazon SageMaker Data Wrangler
• Amazon SageMaker Ground Truth
• TensorFlow on AWS

Management and Governance:

• AWS Chatbot
• AWS Console Mobile Application
• AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry
• AWS OpsWorks

Media Services:
• AWS Elemental Appliances and Software
• AWS Elemental MediaConnect
• AWS Elemental MediaConvert
• AWS Elemental MediaLive
• AWS Elemental MediaPackage
• AWS Elemental MediaStore
• AWS Elemental MediaTailor
• Amazon Interactive Video Service (Amazon IVS)

Migration and Transfer:

• Migration Evaluator (formerly TSO Logic)

Networking and Content Delivery:

• AWS App Mesh
• AWS Cloud Map

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Quantum Technologies:
• Amazon Braket

Robotics:
• AWS RoboMaker

Satellite:
• AWS Ground Station

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