The short version
This sheet gives you the SAP-C03 facts that AWS has published, the five domains, pairs of AWS services people mix up, and rules of thumb for long scenario questions. It is a memory aid, not a full syllabus. AWS published the exam guide, with weightings and task statements, on October 27, 2026. Use the guide as the authority.
Exam facts at a glance
| Item | Published fact |
|---|---|
| Level | Professional |
| Questions | 75 (65 scored, 10 unscored), multiple choice and multiple response |
| Time | 180 minutes |
| Delivery | Pearson VUE test center or online proctored |
| Registration opens | October 27, 2026 |
| Delivery starts | November 17, 2026 |
| Retake wait | 14 calendar days, no attempt limit |
| Validity | 3 years |
| Passing scaled score | 720, according to the SAP-C03 exam guide (scale 100 to 1,000) |
Domain 1: Architecture design and implementation built for the cloud (25%)
Confusable pairs
- Step Functions Standard is for long-running, auditable workflows. Express is for high-volume, short ones.
- VPC Lattice connects services across VPCs and accounts at the application layer. Transit Gateway routes network traffic between networks.
- Kinesis Data Streams gives you consumers you control. Data Firehose delivers streaming data to a destination with little code.
- ECS Service Connect and VPC Lattice both help services find each other. Service Connect stays inside ECS.
Decision rules
- “Least operations work” points to managed or serverless options.
- “Many tenants, isolated” points to a tenant isolation design, not one shared role.
- For generative AI questions, look for Amazon Bedrock, retrieval (RAG) and guardrails as building blocks.
Domain 2: Security, compliance, governance (25%)
Confusable pairs
- An SCP limits what accounts in an organization can do. It never grants access.
- An identity policy grants permissions to a user or role. A permission boundary caps them.
- A key policy decides who can use a KMS key. IAM policies alone are not enough without it.
Decision rules
- “Applies to every account, including future ones” points to Organizations.
- “Cross-account access” needs permission on both sides.
- Encryption in transit and at rest are separate requirements. Check which one the scenario names.
Domain 3: Cost-optimized architecture design (15%)
Confusable pairs
- Savings Plans are a spending commitment for a discount. A capacity reservation holds capacity. A discount alone does not secure capacity.
- Gateway endpoints for S3 and DynamoDB are cheaper than a NAT gateway for that traffic. Interface endpoints cost differently.
Decision rules
- Interruptible, flexible work points to Spot.
- Steady baseline usage points to a commitment.
- Rarely read data points to a colder storage class with a lifecycle rule.
Domain 4: Resilience, migration, business continuity (15%)
Confusable pairs
- RTO is how long you can be down. RPO is how much data you can lose.
- Pilot light keeps a minimal core running. Warm standby runs a scaled-down full copy. Active-active serves traffic from both.
- AWS Fault Injection Service tests failures on purpose. Resilience Hub assesses a design against targets.
Decision rules
- Pick the cheapest strategy that still meets the stated RTO and RPO.
- “Tolerate a Region failure” needs a second Region, not just more Availability Zones.
Domain 5: Operational excellence and automation (20%)
Decision rules
- Repeatable and auditable points to infrastructure as code and pipelines.
- Multi-account rollout points to a central pipeline with controlled targets.
- Alerts on user experience point to synthetic or real-user monitoring, not only host metrics.
Common traps
- Choosing a design that works but ignores one stated constraint, such as data residency.
- Choosing the strongest option when a cheaper one meets the target.
- Missing the words “Choose two”. Each pick counts.
- Spending five minutes on one long question. Flag it and move on. For method, see exam question types.
Last-day checklist
- Re-read the exam guide’s domain list and your weak notes, nothing new.
- Check your ID and the appointment rules in the exam day guide.
- Plan your pace: roughly 2 minutes 24 seconds per question on average.
- Sleep. Cramming new service details the night before rarely helps.
Limits of this sheet
It covers selected ideas and may miss exam topics. The service names here are general AWS knowledge plus the new skills AWS announced, not the exam guide. Check the vendor guide for scope.
More guides for SAP-C03
- SAP-C03 Exam Format, Scoring and Retakes
- SAP-C03 Study Plan: 4 and 8 Week Schedules
- Is the SAP-C03 Exam Hard? An Honest Look
- SAP-C03 Prerequisites and Skills Check
- SAP-C03 Renewal and Retakes Explained
- Is SAP-C03 Worth It? An Honest Look
- DVA-C03 vs SAP-C03: Which AWS Exam First?
Next step
Test these ideas on scenarios in the SAP-C03 sample questions, and read the domains explained for more depth. The SAP-C03 practice exams give you timed practice, and the overview links everything.