AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate Preparation

Program facts

Study fee

Free

subjects

4

lessons

24

Estimated time

24 hours

Content last reviewed

24 October 2026

Access period

30 days

Study language

Arabic and English

About the program

The program covers all four SAA-C03 domains: secure, resilient, high-performing and cost-optimized architecture. It teaches learners to identify workload requirements, choose a suitable AWS design, and test the decision against a changed condition. Twenty-four lessons progress from identity, networking and encryption to recovery, storage, compute, databases, streaming and cost. Each lesson includes a worked exercise and explained questions, followed by a separate internal completion assessment and readiness mock. Neither is the official AWS examination or a promise of exam success.

Practical relevance

Learners produce an access-policy table, a private network path, capacity calculations, recovery comparisons and cost decisions, checking outcomes against the scenario rather than memorizing isolated service names.

Why this program

Architecture scenarios often contain several plausible services. This program explains why one design fits a specified condition and why it may fail when RPO, read pattern or permission boundaries change. Every lesson maps to a current AWS exam-guide task and relevant service documentation.

Career relevance

Solutions and cloud engineers can practice explaining identity, availability, data, capacity and cost decisions against testable requirements. Training does not grant a job or title; it develops reasoning useful in AWS design reviews.

What you will learn

• Analyze secure identity, encryption and connectivity
• Choose availability and recovery patterns against RPO and RTO
• Compare storage, compute, database, network and streaming performance
• Model storage, compute, database and transfer costs

Who it is for

• Designed for solutions architects, cloud engineers and developers who have practiced AWS fundamentals and want to prepare for Solutions Architect – Associate. It suits learners who can describe a workload and want to justify a choice among alternatives, and those seeking bilingual review and original training cases before the external examination.

Curriculum

1. Subject 1 Open for free

   Design Secure Architectures

   The module starts with principal identity and permission boundaries in a secure cross-account design. Learners distinguish role trust, role permissions, resource policies, and SCP ceilings. They then trace requests through a public entry point to private application and database tiers without opening unnecessary ports. A second case evaluates S3 gateway endpoints and WAF at the appropriate HTTP layer while retaining application validation. The final lesson protects data in transit, at rest, and during recovery: an encrypted copy alone does not prove that a recovery account can decrypt and restore it. Worked cases and exercises produce access tables or network diagrams with both allowed and denied tests. AWS documentation supports service behavior; regional names and figures are fictional training inputs.

   6 lessons · 5.5 hours

   1. Secure cross-account access 48 min
   2. Private networking and application protection 50 min
   3. Encryption, keys, and data restore 48 min
   4. Permission sets and account assignments 46 min
   5. Separating HTTP and network protection 46 min
   6. Protected version retention and recovery 46 min
2. Subject 2

   Design Resilient Architectures

   This module addresses continuity when a component, Availability Zone, or entire Region fails. Learners first decouple request acceptance from consumer speed, calculate queue backlog and drain time, and use an atomic outbox to close the commit-to-send gap with duplicate-safe processing. They then test whether ALB and application targets across two zones are enough when the database or egress path remains zonal. The final case separates RPO from RTO on a measured timeline and compares backup, pilot light, and warm standby against the scenario's limits. Each exercise yields a failure table or recovery sequence, including a check for acknowledged user data. A diagram showing two zones is only the beginning of the evidence.

   6 lessons · 5.5 hours

   1. Decoupling and duplicate-safe processing 48 min
   2. Availability across zones 48 min
   3. Recovery against RPO and RTO 48 min
   4. Event replay and duplicate boundaries 46 min
   5. Health-based DNS failover and standby independence 46 min
   6. Cross-Region replication gap and promotion decision 46 min
3. Subject 3

   Design High-Performing Architectures

   Five performance decisions drive this module. For storage, learners choose S3 objects, EBS blocks, or EFS files from application operations, sharing semantics, and zone boundaries. For compute, they estimate tasks from measured per-task throughput, then check warm-up and backend limits before scaling. For databases, they distinguish reads requiring the latest commit from reads that tolerate replica lag or cache staleness. For networking, they trace public and personalized content through CloudFront and calculate remaining origin demand. For streams, they compare Kinesis arrivals with consumer throughput, retention, and replay needs. Exercises produce choice matrices, calculations, and counterchecks. No service name or nominal capacity number is treated as a latency guarantee without workload measurements.

   7 lessons · 6.5 hours

   1. Choosing object, block, and file storage 48 min
   2. Compute scaling and warm-up 46 min
   3. Database choice and read freshness 46 min
   4. Network performance and edge caching 46 min
   5. Event ingestion and replay 46 min
   6. Diagnosing EFS throughput mode and limits 46 min
   7. Aurora reader endpoint and data freshness 46 min
4. Subject 4

   Design Cost-Optimized Architectures

   The module reduces cost without breaking a service requirement. For storage, learners compare an S3 object's whole life: size, time in class, retrieval, and minimum-duration charges, including small-object behavior. For compute, they separate a steady baseline from a short peak and interruptible batch before comparing Savings Plans, On-Demand, and Spot. For databases, they inspect allocated versus used space, peak connections, backups, and DynamoDB on-demand against measured provisioned demand. For networking, they trace S3 bytes through NAT or an endpoint and across Availability Zones. Each exercise yields a calculation table or alternative traffic path. Fictional quantities are used to teach trade-offs; no current price is inferred without the official regional pricing inputs.

   5 lessons · 4.5 hours

   1. Storage classes and lifecycle 46 min
   2. Compute purchase for baseline and peaks 46 min
   3. Database cost optimization 46 min
   4. Data transfer and connectivity cost 48 min
   5. Private S3 routing and NAT cost 46 min

Subjects unlock in sequence as you progress.

Strengths

• Coverage of all fourteen SAA-C03 tasks
• Worked cases and independent exercises
• Trade-offs and counterfactuals
• Readiness mock separate from internal completion

Evidence basis

Official AWS exam guide and primary service documentation, checked 23 October 2026.

How the route works

Professional Certification Preparation programs help learners prepare for a recognized external certification through structured knowledge, review, practice questions, and readiness assessments. Arab Platform for Professional Studies (ARPS) does not administer the certification owner's official exam.

Structured self-paced study aligned to the current external certification scope, with knowledge review, practice questions, readiness checks, and internal mock assessments.

• Focused preparation for a specific external certification.
• Content aligned to the current official exam scope when available.
• Practice questions and internal readiness assessments.
• Clear separation between Arab Platform for Professional Studies (ARPS) preparation and the official external exam.

Assessment

The route includes an internal assessment for Arab Platform for Professional Studies (ARPS) completion eligibility and separate mock/readiness assessments that are not the external official exam.

Assessment attempts: 2 per assessment, 7 days apart

The pass mark is announced before the program is published.

Certificate

The Arab Platform for Professional Studies (ARPS) credential confirms completion of the preparation program only; the target professional certification requires passing the external issuer's examination under its rules.

Every certificate has a public verification code. Verify a certificate

Verification example: a real issued certificate

Disclaimer: An internal completion certificate, if issued, is not an AWS certification.

Program questions