AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate
(SAA-C03) Practice Exam 2025 /2026
Latest 200 Questions & Verified Answers |
Instant PDF Download.
Exam Overview (SAA-C03)
The SAA-C03 exam measures your ability to design solutions based
on the AWS Well-Architected Framework. It covers four domains:
1. Design Resilient Architectures (26%): Multi-tier systems, high
availability, and disaster recovery.
2. Design High-Performing Architectures (24%): Scaling, storage
performance, and caching.
3. Design Secure Applications and Architectures (30%): IAM,
encryption, and network security.
4. Design Cost-Optimized Architectures (20%): Selecting the right
instances and storage tiers.
1. A company needs to store data that is infrequently accessed
but must be available immediately when requested. The data
must be stored across multiple Availability Zones. Which S3
storage class is most cost-effective?
A. S3 Standard
B. S3 Standard-IA
C. S3 One Zone-IA
D. S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval
Answer: B
Explanation Name: Cost-Optimized Storage
Explanation: S3 Standard-IA (Infrequent Access) is designed for data
,that is accessed less frequently but requires rapid access when
needed. S3 One Zone-IA is cheaper but only stores data in one AZ,
which does not meet the "multiple AZ" requirement.
2. An application running on EC2 instances in a private subnet
needs to access an S3 bucket. Security policy prohibits the
traffic from traversing the public internet. What should a
solutions architect implement?
A. NAT Gateway
B. Internet Gateway
C. Gateway VPC Endpoint
D. Interface VPC Endpoint
Answer: C
Explanation Name: Secure Network Connectivity
Explanation: A Gateway VPC Endpoint provides a private connection
to S3 and DynamoDB without needing an IGW or NAT Gateway. It
keeps all traffic within the AWS network and is more cost-effective
than Interface Endpoints for S3.
3. A company's application is hosted on EC2 instances behind an
Application Load Balancer (ALB). Traffic surges are causing the
application to crash. Which solution provides the best scaling
and high availability?
A. Increase the instance size of the existing EC2 instances.
B. Use an Auto Scaling group to add instances based on CPU
utilization.
C. Add a second ALB in a different region.
D. Use a Network Load Balancer (NLB) instead of an ALB.
Answer: B
Explanation Name: Scalability and Elasticity
Explanation: Auto Scaling allows the system to horizontally scale by
adding or removing instances automatically based on demand,
ensuring high availability and performance during surges.
4. A database requires a sub-millisecond response time for
frequently accessed read-heavy data. Which service should be
added to the architecture?
A. Amazon RDS Read Replicas
B. Amazon ElastiCache
,C. Amazon Redshift
D. Amazon Aurora
Answer: B
Explanation Name: Performance Optimization via Caching
Explanation: Amazon ElastiCache (Redis or Memcached) is an in-
memory data store that provides sub-millisecond latency. It is used to
cache frequent queries to offload the primary database.
5. A solutions architect needs to migrate a 50 TB on-premises
dataset to S3. The company has a slow internet connection (10
Mbps). What is the fastest and most cost-effective way to migrate
the data?
A. Upload data directly via the S3 console.
B. Use AWS DataSync over the existing internet.
C. Use an AWS Snowball Edge device.
D. Use AWS Direct Connect.
Answer: C
Explanation Name: Large Scale Data Migration
Explanation: With a 10 Mbps connection, 50 TB would take months to
upload over the internet. AWS Snowball Edge is a physical device
used to transfer large volumes of data (terabytes to petabytes) offline.
6. Which AWS service provides a simple way to connect multiple
VPCs and on-premises networks through a central hub?
A. VPC Peering
B. AWS Direct Connect
C. AWS Transit Gateway
D. AWS Site-to-Site VPN
Answer: C
Explanation Name: Network Orchestration
Explanation: AWS Transit Gateway acts as a cloud router, simplifying
network topology by allowing you to connect thousands of VPCs and
on-premises networks to a single gateway.
7. An application uses an Amazon RDS MySQL database. The
database is struggling with a high volume of read requests. How
can the architect scale the database to handle the load?
A. Enable Multi-AZ deployment.
B. Create RDS Read Replicas.
, C. Move the database to an EC2 instance.
D. Increase the size of the EBS volume.
Answer: B
Explanation Name: Database Read Scalability
Explanation: Read Replicas are used to offload read traffic from the
primary DB. Multi-AZ is for high availability and disaster recovery, not
for scaling read performance.
8. A company wants to host a static website on AWS with the
lowest cost and high availability. What is the recommended
architecture?
A. EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group.
B. Amazon S3 bucket with CloudFront.
C. Elastic Beanstalk.
D. AWS Lambda with API Gateway.
Answer: B
Explanation Name: Static Content Delivery
Explanation: Hosting a static site on S3 is extremely cheap and highly
available. Adding CloudFront provides global distribution and low
latency.
9. A business-critical application requires a Recovery Time
Objective (RTO) of less than 15 minutes. Which Disaster
Recovery (DR) strategy should be used?
A. Backup and Restore
B. Pilot Light
C. Warm Standby
D. Multi-Site Active-Active
Answer: D
Explanation Name: Disaster Recovery (DR) Patterns
Explanation: Multi-Site Active-Active provides the lowest RTO (near
zero) because the application is running in two regions
simultaneously. Warm Standby and Pilot Light have higher RTOs.
10. Which AWS service can be used to track who made a specific
API call to terminate an EC2 instance?
A. Amazon CloudWatch
B. AWS Config
C. AWS CloudTrail
(SAA-C03) Practice Exam 2025 /2026
Latest 200 Questions & Verified Answers |
Instant PDF Download.
Exam Overview (SAA-C03)
The SAA-C03 exam measures your ability to design solutions based
on the AWS Well-Architected Framework. It covers four domains:
1. Design Resilient Architectures (26%): Multi-tier systems, high
availability, and disaster recovery.
2. Design High-Performing Architectures (24%): Scaling, storage
performance, and caching.
3. Design Secure Applications and Architectures (30%): IAM,
encryption, and network security.
4. Design Cost-Optimized Architectures (20%): Selecting the right
instances and storage tiers.
1. A company needs to store data that is infrequently accessed
but must be available immediately when requested. The data
must be stored across multiple Availability Zones. Which S3
storage class is most cost-effective?
A. S3 Standard
B. S3 Standard-IA
C. S3 One Zone-IA
D. S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval
Answer: B
Explanation Name: Cost-Optimized Storage
Explanation: S3 Standard-IA (Infrequent Access) is designed for data
,that is accessed less frequently but requires rapid access when
needed. S3 One Zone-IA is cheaper but only stores data in one AZ,
which does not meet the "multiple AZ" requirement.
2. An application running on EC2 instances in a private subnet
needs to access an S3 bucket. Security policy prohibits the
traffic from traversing the public internet. What should a
solutions architect implement?
A. NAT Gateway
B. Internet Gateway
C. Gateway VPC Endpoint
D. Interface VPC Endpoint
Answer: C
Explanation Name: Secure Network Connectivity
Explanation: A Gateway VPC Endpoint provides a private connection
to S3 and DynamoDB without needing an IGW or NAT Gateway. It
keeps all traffic within the AWS network and is more cost-effective
than Interface Endpoints for S3.
3. A company's application is hosted on EC2 instances behind an
Application Load Balancer (ALB). Traffic surges are causing the
application to crash. Which solution provides the best scaling
and high availability?
A. Increase the instance size of the existing EC2 instances.
B. Use an Auto Scaling group to add instances based on CPU
utilization.
C. Add a second ALB in a different region.
D. Use a Network Load Balancer (NLB) instead of an ALB.
Answer: B
Explanation Name: Scalability and Elasticity
Explanation: Auto Scaling allows the system to horizontally scale by
adding or removing instances automatically based on demand,
ensuring high availability and performance during surges.
4. A database requires a sub-millisecond response time for
frequently accessed read-heavy data. Which service should be
added to the architecture?
A. Amazon RDS Read Replicas
B. Amazon ElastiCache
,C. Amazon Redshift
D. Amazon Aurora
Answer: B
Explanation Name: Performance Optimization via Caching
Explanation: Amazon ElastiCache (Redis or Memcached) is an in-
memory data store that provides sub-millisecond latency. It is used to
cache frequent queries to offload the primary database.
5. A solutions architect needs to migrate a 50 TB on-premises
dataset to S3. The company has a slow internet connection (10
Mbps). What is the fastest and most cost-effective way to migrate
the data?
A. Upload data directly via the S3 console.
B. Use AWS DataSync over the existing internet.
C. Use an AWS Snowball Edge device.
D. Use AWS Direct Connect.
Answer: C
Explanation Name: Large Scale Data Migration
Explanation: With a 10 Mbps connection, 50 TB would take months to
upload over the internet. AWS Snowball Edge is a physical device
used to transfer large volumes of data (terabytes to petabytes) offline.
6. Which AWS service provides a simple way to connect multiple
VPCs and on-premises networks through a central hub?
A. VPC Peering
B. AWS Direct Connect
C. AWS Transit Gateway
D. AWS Site-to-Site VPN
Answer: C
Explanation Name: Network Orchestration
Explanation: AWS Transit Gateway acts as a cloud router, simplifying
network topology by allowing you to connect thousands of VPCs and
on-premises networks to a single gateway.
7. An application uses an Amazon RDS MySQL database. The
database is struggling with a high volume of read requests. How
can the architect scale the database to handle the load?
A. Enable Multi-AZ deployment.
B. Create RDS Read Replicas.
, C. Move the database to an EC2 instance.
D. Increase the size of the EBS volume.
Answer: B
Explanation Name: Database Read Scalability
Explanation: Read Replicas are used to offload read traffic from the
primary DB. Multi-AZ is for high availability and disaster recovery, not
for scaling read performance.
8. A company wants to host a static website on AWS with the
lowest cost and high availability. What is the recommended
architecture?
A. EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group.
B. Amazon S3 bucket with CloudFront.
C. Elastic Beanstalk.
D. AWS Lambda with API Gateway.
Answer: B
Explanation Name: Static Content Delivery
Explanation: Hosting a static site on S3 is extremely cheap and highly
available. Adding CloudFront provides global distribution and low
latency.
9. A business-critical application requires a Recovery Time
Objective (RTO) of less than 15 minutes. Which Disaster
Recovery (DR) strategy should be used?
A. Backup and Restore
B. Pilot Light
C. Warm Standby
D. Multi-Site Active-Active
Answer: D
Explanation Name: Disaster Recovery (DR) Patterns
Explanation: Multi-Site Active-Active provides the lowest RTO (near
zero) because the application is running in two regions
simultaneously. Warm Standby and Pilot Light have higher RTOs.
10. Which AWS service can be used to track who made a specific
API call to terminate an EC2 instance?
A. Amazon CloudWatch
B. AWS Config
C. AWS CloudTrail
