Intermediate Level

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03)

Design scalable, resilient, and cost-optimised AWS architectures across compute, storage, databases, and networking — and pass the world's most popular cloud certification.

★ 4.8 (300 learners) 60 hrs total 14 modules 3 capstones

AWS EC2 S3 IAM VPC Lambda +7 more

Only 6 seats left · Next batch starts 8 Aug 2026

Download Curriculum

60 hrs: of content
14 modules: in curriculum
19 projects: hands-on builds
Intermediate: difficulty

Curriculum covers

Frameworks you'll master

13 tools & frameworks

AWS EC2 S3 IAM VPC Lambda RDS EKS ECS SageMaker Docker AWS Glue Step Functions

Course Curriculum

14 modules · 60 hours · 24 live sessions

AWS Fundamentals & IAM 2 sessions

Getting started with AWS
AWS Cloud Overview – Regions & AZ
Tour to the AWS Console & Services in AWS
IAM & AWS CLI
IAM Introduction: Users, Groups, Policies
IAM Policies
IAM MFA (Multi Factor Authentication)
AWS Access Keys, CLI & SDK
AWS Cloud Shell: Region Availability
IAM Roles for AWS Services
IAM Security Tools
IAM Best Practices
AWS SDK Overview
AWS Policy Simulator
IAM Roles & Policies Hands On
AWS EC2 Instance Metadata

Compute — EC2 Fundamentals 2 sessions

EC2 Fundamentals
AWS Budget Setup
EC2 Basics
Create an EC2 Instance with EC2 User Data to have a website hands on
EC2 Instance Types
Security Groups & Classic Ports Overview
SSH Overview
EC2 Instance Connect
EC2 Instance Roles
Spot Instances & Spot Fleet
EC2 Associate Level
EC2 Associate Level
Private Vs Public Vs Elastic IP
EC2 Placement Groups
Elastic Network Interfaces (ENI)
EC2 Hibernate

Storage — EBS, EFS & Instance Store 1 sessions

EC2 Instance Storage
EBS Overview
EBS Snapshots
AMI Overview
EC2 Instance Store
EBS Volume Types
EBS Multi Attach
EBS Encryption
Amazon EFS
EFS Vs EBS

High Availability — ELB & Auto Scaling 2 sessions

High Availability and Scalability: ELB & ASG
High Availability and Scalability
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) Overview
Classic Load Balancer (CLB)
Application Load Balancer (ALB)
Network Load Balancer (NLB)
Gateway Load Balancer (GWLB)
Elastic Load Balancer Sticky Sessions
Elastic Load Balancer Cross Zone Load Balancing
Elastic Load Balancer – SSL Certificates
Elastic Load Balancer Connection Draining
Auto Scaling Groups – Overview
Auto Scaling Groups Scaling Policies

Databases & Caching 2 sessions

AWS Fundamentals: RDS + Aurora + ElasticCache
Amazon RDS Overview
RDS Read Replicas vs Multi AZ
RDS Custom for Oracle & Microsoft SQL Server
Amazon Aurora
Amazon Aurora Advanced Concepts
RDS & Aurora – Backup & Monitoring
RDS Security
RDS Proxy
ElasticCache Overview
ElasticCache for Solution Architects
Choosing the right database
RDS
Aurora
ElasticCache
DynamoDB
S3
Document DB
Neptune
Keyspaces (for Apache Cassandra)
QLDB
Timestream

S3, Storage Extras & Content Delivery 2 sessions

Amazon S3 Introduction
S3 Overview
S3 Security: Bucket Policy
S3 Website Overview
S3 Versioning
S3 Replication
S3 Storage Classes Overview
Advanced Amazon S3
S3 Lifecycle Rules (with S3 Analytics)
S3 Requester Pays
S3 Event Notifications
S3 Performance
S3 Select & Glacier Select
S3 Batch Operations
S3 Storage Lens
Amazon S3 Security
S3 Encryption
S3 Default Encryption
S3 CORS
S3 MFA Delete
S3 Access Logs
S3 presigned URLs
Glacier Vault Lock & S3 Object Lock
S3 Access Points & Object Lambda
AWS Snow Family Overview
Architecture: Snowball into Glacier
Amazon FSx
Storage Gateway Overview
AWS Transfer Family
DataSync – Overview
All AWS Storage Options Compared
CloudFront & AWS Global Accelerator (Global Infrastructure)
CloudFront Overview
CloudFront with S3
CloudFront – ALB as an origin
CloudFront – Geo Restriction
CloudFront – Price Classes
CloudFront – Cache Invalidation
AWS Global Accelerator – Overview

Networking — VPC & Route 53 2 sessions

Route 53
What is a DNS?
Route 53 Overview
Route 53 Registering a domain
Route 53 – Creating our first record
Route 53 – EC2 Setup
Route 53 TTL
Route 53 CNAME Vs Alias
Routing Policy – Simple
Routing Policy – Weighted
Routing Policy – Latency
Route 53 Health Checks
Routing Policy – Failover
Routing Policy – Geolocation
Routing Policy – Geoproximity
Routing Policy – IP Based
Routing Policy – Multi Value
3rd Party Domains & Route 53
Route 53 Resolvers & Hybrid DNS
Networking VPC
VPC Introduction
CIDR, Private vs Public IP
Default VPC Overview
VPC Overview
Subnet Overview
Internet Gateways & Route Tables
Bastion Hosts
NAT Instances
NAT Gateways
NACL & Security Groups
VPC Peering
VPC Endpoints
VPC Flow Logs
VPC Flow Logs + Athena
Site to Site VPN, Virtual Private Gateway & Customer Gateway
Direct Connect & Direct Connect Gateway
Direct Connect + Site to Site VPN
Transit Gateway
VPC Traffic Mirroring
IPv6 for VPC
Egress Only Internet Gateway
Networking Costs in AWS
AWS Network Firewall

Serverless, Containers & Application Integration 2 sessions

Containers on AWS: ECS, Fargate, ECR & EKS
Docker Introduction
Amazon ECS
Amazon ECS – Auto Scaling
Amazon ECS – Solutions Architectures
Amazon ECR
Amazon EKS – Overview
AWS App Runner
Serverless Overviews from a Solution Architect Perspective
Serverless Introduction
Lambda Overview
Lambda Limits
Lambda@Edge & CloudFront Functions
Lambda in VPC
Amazon DynamoDB
Amazon DynamoDB – Advanced Features
API Gateway Overview
Step Functions
Amazon Cognito Overview
Decoupling applications: SQS, SNS, Kinesis, Active MQ
Introduction to Messaging
Amazon SQS Standard Queues Overview
SQS – Message Visibility Timeout
SQS – Long Polling
SQS – FIFO Queue
SQS + Auto Scaling Group (ASG)
Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)
SNS & SQS – Fan Out Pattern
Amazon Kinesis – Overview
Kinesis Data Streams Overview
Kinesis Data Firehouse Overview
Kinesis Data Analytics
Data Ordering for Kinesis Vs SQS FIFO
SQS vs SNS vs Kinesis
Amazon MQ

Data Analytics & Machine Learning 1 sessions

Data Analytics
Athena
Redshift
OpenSearch (ex: ElasticSearch)
EMR
Quicksight
Glue
Lake Formation
Kinesis Data Analytics
Amazon Managed Service for Apache Kafka
Amazon Managed Service for Apache Flink
MSK – Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka
Big Data Ingestion Pipeline
Machine Learning
Rekognition Overview
Transcribe Overview
Polly Overview
Translate Overview
Lex + Connect Overview
Comprehend Overview
Comprehend Medical Overview
SageMaker AI Overview
Forecast Overview
Kendra Overview
Personalize Overview
Textract Overview
Machine Learning Summary

Security, Monitoring & Governance 2 sessions

AWS Monitoring & Audit: CloudWatch, CloudTrail & Config
AWS Monitoring – Section Introduction
CloudWatch Metrics
CloudWatch Logs
CloudWatch Agent & CloudWatch Logs
CloudWatch Alarms
EventBridge Overview (Formerly CloudWatch Events)
CloudWatch Insights & Operational Visibility
CloudTrail Overview
CloudTrail – EventBridge Integration
AWS Config – Overview
CloudTrail Vs CloudWatch Vs Config
Identity and Access Management (IAM) – Advanced
Organizations – Overview
IAM – Advanced Policies
IAM – Resourcebased Policies Vs IAM Roles
IAM – Policy Evaluation Logic
Amazon Cognito Overview
AWS IAM Identity Center
AWS Directory Services
AWS Control Tower
AWS Security & Encryption: KMS, SSM Parameter Store, CloudHSM, Shield, WAF
AWS Security – Introduction
Encryption 101
KMS Overview
KMS – MultiRegion Keys
S3 Replication with Encryption
Encrypted AMI Sharing Process
SSM Parameter Store Overview
AWS Secrets Manager
AWS Certificate Manager (ACM)
Web Application Firewall (WAF)
Shield – DDoS Protection
Firewall Manager
DDoS Protection Best Practices
Amazon Guard Duty
Amazon Inspector
Amazon Macie

Solution Architectures & Design Patterns 2 sessions

Classic Solutions Architecture Discussion
Solutions Architecture Discussions Overview
WhatsTheTime.com
MyClothes.com
MyWordPress.com
Instantiating applications quickly
Beanstalk overview
Serverless Solution Architecture Discussions
Mobile Application: MyTodoList
Serverless Website: MyBlog.com
Microservices Architecture
Software updates distribution
Databases in AWS

Z1) Disaster Recovery & Migrations 1 sessions

Disaster Recovery in AWS
Database Migration Service (DMS)
RDS & Aurora Migrations
Onpremises Strategies with AWS
AWS Backup
Application Migration Service (MGN)
Transferring Large Datasets into AWS
VMWare Cloud on AWS

Z2) More Solution Architectures 1 sessions

Event Processing in AWS
Caching Strategies in AWS
Blocking an IP Address in AWS
High Performance Computing on AWS
EC2 Instance High Availability

Z3) More Solution Architectures 1 sessions

Cloud Formation
Amazon SES
Amazon Pinpoint
SSM Session Manager
SSM Other Services
AWS Cost Explorer
AWS Cost Anomaly Detection
AWS Outposts
Elastic Transcoder
AWS Batch
Amazon AppFlow

Download Full Curriculum

After this course, you will

Skills you carry to every job

Design highly available multi-tier architectures using EC2, ALB, ASG, RDS Multi-AZ, and Route 53
Select the optimal storage service (S3, EBS, EFS, FSx, Glacier) for each performance and cost requirement
Build serverless applications with Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, and Cognito
Implement secure network designs using VPC, NACLs, security groups, VPN, and Direct Connect
Choose the right database engine — RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, Redshift, or ElastiCache — for each workload
Apply the AWS Well-Architected Framework across all five pillars to real-world architectures
Optimise cloud costs using Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, Spot Instances, and right-sizing
Pass the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate SAA-C03 exam on first attempt

Hands-on learning

What you'll build

3 industry capstone projects · built from scratch · yours to keep

Highly Available Three-Tier Web Application

Architect and deploy a production-grade three-tier web application: EC2 Auto Scaling Group behind an Application Load Balancer (web tier), RDS Aurora Multi-AZ with read replicas (database tier), ElastiCache Redis (session/caching tier), S3 + CloudFront for static assets, and Route 53 latency routing across two regions. Implement least-privilege IAM roles throughout.

EC2 ALB ASG Aurora ElastiCache S3 CloudFront Route 53 IAM VPC

Serverless Event-Driven Microservices Platform

Design and deploy a serverless order management system: API Gateway REST API authenticated with Cognito, Lambda functions for business logic, DynamoDB for state, SQS queues for order processing, SNS for customer notifications, and Step Functions for order orchestration workflows. Monitor with X-Ray distributed tracing.

API Gateway Lambda DynamoDB SQS SNS Step Functions Cognito X-Ray CloudWatch

Disaster Recovery Architecture Design

Design and document a multi-region disaster recovery architecture for a critical financial application using an active-passive setup: Aurora Global Database for database replication, S3 Cross-Region Replication, Route 53 health checks with failover routing, and Application Migration Service (MGN) for EC2 continuous replication. Test and measure actual RTO and RPO.

Aurora Global Database S3 Route 53 CloudFormation Application Migration Service DMS EC2 IAM

Plus 16 guided mini-projects across the curriculum — Q&A bots, resume screeners, SQL helpers, and more.

Batch Schedule

⚡ Seats filling fast — only 6 remaining across all batches

Available Batches
Batch Type	Schedule	Duration	Next Start Date	Availability
Weekend	Sat & Sun, 10am–1pm	10 weeks	8 Aug 2026	Available
Weekday	Mon–Fri, 7–9pm	8 weeks	10 Aug 2026	Available
Fast-track	Mon–Sun, 6 hours/day	2 weeks	17 Aug 2026	Available

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the right certification to start my AWS journey?

The SAA-C03 is best taken after the Cloud Practitioner or equivalent foundational knowledge. It is the most popular AWS certification and the strongest foundation for specialising in solutions architecture, DevOps, or data engineering.

How long does preparation typically take?

Candidates with some cloud experience typically need 8–12 weeks studying 1–2 hours per day. The 60-hour course plus labs puts you well within reach of the passing mark.

How many questions are on the SAA-C03 exam?

65 questions (multiple choice and multiple response) in 130 minutes, with a passing score of 720 out of 1000. Questions emphasise architectural trade-offs and cost-optimisation over syntax recall.

Is networking — VPC, subnets, routing — covered in depth?

Yes. The Networking & VPC module covers CIDR design, public vs private subnets, Internet Gateway, NAT Gateway, Bastion Hosts, VPC Peering, PrivateLink, VPN, Direct Connect, Transit Gateway, and Network ACLs — with hands-on labs.

Does the course include Well-Architected Framework coverage?

Yes. Each of the five pillars — Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, and Cost Optimisation — is mapped to real AWS service decisions throughout the course, not just covered as a separate chapter.

What support is available during exam preparation?

Live weekly doubt-clearing sessions, a moderated student Q&A forum, two full-length practice exams with explanations, and a dedicated MindLeap study group on WhatsApp are all included.

Ready to Get Started?