AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate Exam Guide
At a glance
- Questions
- 65
- Time limit
- 2h 10m
- Passing score
- 720/1000 (scaled score, range 100–1,000)
- Exam fee
- $150
- Governing body
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate validates your ability to design secure, resilient, high-performing, and cost-optimized cloud solutions on AWS. Targeted at professionals with at least 1 year of hands-on AWS experience, this certification demonstrates your competency in architecting scalable applications aligned with the AWS Well-Architected Framework.
The exam covers four content domains: Design Secure Architectures (30%), Design Resilient Architectures (26%), Design High-Performing Architectures (24%), and Design Cost-Optimized Architectures (20%). You'll demonstrate knowledge across security best practices, fault tolerance, performance optimization, and efficient resource allocation—the pillars of cloud architecture.
The cost to take the exam is 150 USD. This fee grants you one exam attempt and includes access to Pearson VUE's testing platform for either online or testing-center delivery.
The exam contains 65 questions in multiple choice or multiple response format, with 50 scored questions and 15 unscored pilot questions. You are given 130 minutes to complete the exam. Results are reported as a scaled score from 100 to 1,000, with a minimum passing score of 720. The certification is valid for 3 years.
Frequently asked questions
How many questions are on the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate exam, and how much time do I get?
The exam contains 65 questions, delivered in either multiple choice or multiple response format, and you're given 130 minutes to complete it. That works out to exactly two minutes per question, so pacing matters — flag long scenario questions and come back to them rather than stalling. Also note that only 50 of the 65 questions affect your score; the other 15 are unscored questions that don't count, but you won't be told which ones they are, so treat every question as if it counts.
What score do you need to pass the AWS Solutions Architect – Associate exam?
Results are reported as a scaled score from 100 to 1,000, and the minimum passing score is 720. Because the score is scaled rather than a raw percentage, there's no fixed number of questions you must answer correctly. Only the 50 scored questions determine your result — the 15 unscored questions have no effect on it — and since there's no way to identify which is which, the right strategy is simply to answer everything; leaving a question blank can never help you.
How much does the exam cost, and how long does the certification stay valid?
The exam costs 150 USD, and the certification is valid for 3 years. You can renew by passing the latest version of the exam, which grants 3 more years of validity — but your certification must still be active when you renew. One planning detail catches people out: the extension is calculated from the date you complete the recertification action, not from your current expiration date. That means recertifying very early effectively shortens your total certified time, so it's smarter to schedule your renewal in the months just before expiration rather than long in advance.
What topics does the AWS SAA exam cover, and how should I prioritize my study time?
The exam has four content domains: Design Secure Architectures (30% of scored content), Design Resilient Architectures (26%), Design High-Performing Architectures (24%), and Design Cost-Optimized Architectures (20%). The exam validates your ability to design solutions based on the AWS Well-Architected Framework, so studying the framework's pillars maps directly onto exam content. Security is the single largest domain, so it deserves proportionally more of your preparation time than any other area. AWS also says the target candidate should have at least 1 year of hands-on experience designing cloud solutions that use AWS services — if you're short of that, budget extra time for hands-on practice rather than reading alone.