1. Exam Overview
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional (SAP-C02) exam validates advanced skills in designing and implementing complex cloud solutions on AWS.
It is intended for engineers or solutions architects with at least two years of hands-on experience designing and deploying systems on AWS.
📘 Official Exam Guide (PDF): AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional Exam Guide
🌐 Official Certification Page: AWS Certification – Solutions Architect Professional
🧩 Practice Questions: Cloud Pass SAP-C02 Practice Page
Exam Quick Facts
- Format: ~65–75 questions (multiple-choice and multiple-response)
- Time: ~180 minutes
- Passing Score: scaled score around 750/1000
- Recommended Background: multi-account organizations, complex architecture design experience, etc.
2. Key Characteristics and Changes
- The SAP-C02 version reflects the latest AWS services, large-scale architectures, and organization-level design requirements.
- The exam domains are structured as follows:
- Domain 1: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity (~26%)
- Domain 2: Design for New Solutions (~29%)
- Domain 3: Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions (~25%)
- Domain 4: Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization (~20%)
- Instead of just listing features, the exam emphasizes the flow of business requirements → architecture design → execution and continuous improvement.
- Rather than memorization, the focus is on service integration, cost–performance–security trade-offs, and organizational design.
3. Study Strategy and Preparation
(1) Understand the Architecture Design Flow
Study mainly through design scenarios that involve large organizations, multi-account setups, and complex infrastructure. For example:
- Using AWS Organizations for multi-account management and consolidated billing
- Designing hybrid architectures that integrate on-premises environments with AWS and replicate workloads across Regions
- Balancing high availability, disaster recovery (RTO/RPO), and cost efficiency
(2) Service-Centric Study
The following services are especially important and frequently tested:
- AWS Organizations, AWS Service Catalog, IAM Identity Center
- AWS Direct Connect, AWS Transit Gateway, VPC Peering / PrivateLink
- AWS CloudFormation, AWS CDK, and (indirectly) tools like Terraform
- Amazon Kinesis, Amazon MSK, Amazon Redshift, Amazon Aurora, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon S3/Glacier, AWS Lake Formation
- Amazon CloudWatch, AWS X-Ray, DevOps-related services, AWS Cost Explorer
(3) Practice-Driven Learning
Solve scenario-based questions similar to the real exam and analyze why a given architecture is the best choice.
👉 Cloud Pass SAP-C02 Practice Page
Create an error log or “wrong-answer notebook” and repeatedly review weak areas to strengthen your understanding.
(4) Use Official Docs and Whitepapers
In addition to the official exam guide PDF, read AWS-recommended whitepapers to build intuition for architectural patterns, including:
- “AWS Well-Architected Framework”
- “Security Pillar” (of the Well-Architected Framework)
- “Migrating AWS Resources to a New Region” and related migration best practices
4. Core AWS Services to Review
| Area | Services | Key Study Points |
|---|---|---|
| Organization & Account Management | AWS Organizations, IAM Identity Center, SCP | Account structure, permission boundaries, consolidated billing |
| Networking | AWS Transit Gateway, AWS Direct Connect, AWS PrivateLink | Multi-VPC design, on-premises connectivity, cross-Region patterns |
| Application Architecture | EC2, ECS/EKS, Lambda, API Gateway | Serverless vs containers, scalability and resilience |
| Databases & Storage | Redshift, Aurora, DynamoDB, S3, Glacier | Workload-based DB selection, partitioning, cost management |
| Operations & Monitoring | CloudWatch, X-Ray, EventBridge, Config | Tracing, alerts, logging, governance |
| Migration & Optimization | DMS, SMS, Cost Explorer, Savings Plans | Migration strategies, cost optimization and commitment options |
5. Common Exam Scenario Examples
- Designing Active-Active, multi-Region architectures for a global enterprise
- Building guardrails to prevent overspending and resource misuse in a multi-account environment
- Planning a hybrid migration strategy from on-premises data centers to AWS
- Solving application performance issues by refactoring to serverless and adding caching layers
- Designing encryption, access control, and audit logging for highly regulated industries
6. Recommended Study Roadmap
| Week | Goal | Study Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Understand the exam domains & guide | Read the official exam guide PDF, review domain weights |
| Week 2 | Focus on organization, networking, and account management | AWS Organizations, IAM, VPC, Transit Gateway |
| Week 3 | Focus on application, databases, and storage | Redshift, DynamoDB, S3/Glacier, application design patterns |
| Week 4 | Focus on operations, migration, and optimization | CloudWatch, EventBridge, DMS, cost management |
| Week 5 | Intensive practice | Repeated practice exams, wrong-answer review, time management |
7. Final Tips
- Study until you can clearly explain “Why this architecture?” in each scenario.
- Use repeated practice to get used to the style and difficulty of real exam questions.
- Develop scenario-based thinking around trade-offs, organizational complexity, and migration paths.
- On exam day, manage your time carefully, read questions for hidden hints, and make sure you are well-rested.
Start Now
- Official AWS Exam Guide (PDF)
- AWS Certification – Solutions Architect Professional
- Cloud Pass SAP-C02 Practice Page
Cloud Pass provides up-to-date, exam-style questions and in-depth explanations to help you prepare effectively and pass the AWS Solutions Architect Professional exam with confidence.