AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional Exam Blueprint

Quick Facts

Cost

$300 USD

Duration

180 minutes

Questions

75 total (65 scored + 10 unscored)

Passing score

750 / 1000 (scaled)

Languages

English, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (BR), Simplified Chinese, Spanish (LATAM)

Delivery

Pearson VUE test center OR OnVUE online proctored

Validity

3 years

Retake wait

14 calendar days after a fail

Skills You'll Learn

Architect advanced AWS solutions for complex organizations with multi-account, multi-Region, and hybrid topologies. Design multi-account governance using Organizations, Control Tower, SCPs, and centralized logging. Build sophisticated networks using Transit Gateway, Direct Connect, VPN, and PrivateLink. Prescribe enterprise security controls - Identity Center, third-party IdPs, KMS, Security Hub, GuardDuty. Plan business continuity and DR with Elastic Disaster Recovery and multi-Region replication. Design migrations using Migration Hub, Application Migration Service, DMS, and 7Rs strategies. Modernize workloads with Lambda, Fargate, EKS, Aurora Serverless, and event-driven architectures. Optimize cost using Cost Explorer, Compute Optimizer, Savings Plans, and tagging strategies. Integrate generative AI controls - Bedrock Guardrails, AgentCore Identity, Step Functions oversight. Earn AWS's senior architect credential that auto-recertifies Solutions Architect Associate.

Exam Logistics

Question types: multiple choice and multiple response. No penalty for guessing.
Register via AWS Certification account; scheduling through Pearson VUE.
Recertify by passing the latest SAP-C02 before expiration.
Same exam cannot be retaken for 2 years after passing.

Prerequisites & Recommended Experience

Recommended: 2+ years using AWS to design and implement cloud solutions.
No required prior certifications.
Target candidate provides expert guidance across multiple applications in a complex organization.

Exam Domains with Weights

Domain 1: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity 26%

Network connectivity (VPC, Direct Connect, VPN, transitive routing, hybrid DNS).
Security controls (IAM Identity Center, KMS, ACM, Security Hub, GuardDuty).
Reliable / resilient architectures (RTO/RPO, DR patterns).
Multi-account environments (Organizations, Control Tower, governance).
Cost optimization (Trusted Advisor, Cost Explorer, RI/Savings Plans/Spot).

Domain 2: Design for New Solutions 29%

Deployment strategy (IaC, CI/CD, change management, Systems Manager).
Business continuity (Route 53 routing, replication, DR testing).
Security controls (Shield, WAF, GuardDuty, Security Hub, patch management).
Reliability (Multi-AZ/Region, Auto Scaling, SQS/SNS/Step Functions).
Performance objectives and cost optimization.

Domain 3: Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions 25%

Operational excellence (alerting, DR, CloudWatch, CI/CD blue/green).
Security improvements (Config rules, Secrets Manager, least privilege).
Performance, reliability, cost optimizations for existing workloads.

Domain 4: Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization 20%

Select workloads for migration (Migration Hub, 7Rs, TCO).
Migration approach (DataSync, Snow Family, App Migration Service, DMS).
New architectures for existing workloads.
Modernization (Lambda, ECS/EKS, Aurora Serverless, EventBridge).
Emerging topics: Bedrock Guardrails, AgentCore Identity, human oversight via Step Functions.

Official Prep Resources

AWS Skill Builder Exam Prep Plan Official Exam Guide (HTML) AWS Well-Architected Framework

Test what you've learned

Take a free GoLearnQuiz practice test. Sign in to save your score.

Beginner Warm-up and concepts Start Intermediate Real exam style Start Advanced Tough scenarios Start

Additional Helpful Details

Solutions Architect Professional auto-recertifies Solutions Architect Associate.
AWS recommends Builder Labs, Cloud Quest, and AWS Jam for hands-on prep.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional