The easiest method to begin studying for the AWS test is to make a roadmap with all the information and resources, then begin it gradually. In connection with this, the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional Cheat Sheet is made to give you a methodical manner to revise effectively. We all know that AWS certifications help you validate your skills and expertise. The AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional exam is a certification that validates your expertise in cloud technology and technical skills. With this in mind, this cheat sheet is a valuable resource to support your preparation efforts.
However, we all know that AWS Certification helps you to build credibility and confidence by validating cloud expertise with industry-recognized credentials and organizations. And, AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional exam measures your skills to perform a role of Solutions Architect Professional role. Regarding the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional exam, passing it will confirm your advanced technical skills and practical experience in designing distributed applications and systems on the AWS platform.
Let’s take a look at the skills validated in the exam.
AWS skills Validation
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional certification, provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS), signifies a high level of proficiency in designing and implementing resilient, scalable, and fault-tolerant systems on the AWS platform. This certification is designed for professionals with a deep grasp of AWS services and extensive experience in crafting and deploying intricate, production-ready applications on the AWS cloud infrastructure. The AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional (SAP-C01) exam validates the following skills:
- Firstly, designing and deploying dynamically scalable, highly available, fault-tolerant, and reliable applications on AWS
- Secondly, selecting the appropriate AWS services in designing and deploying an application based on the given requirements
- Thirdly, migrating complex, multi-tier applications on AWS
- Then, designing and deploying enterprise-wide scalable operations on AWS
- Lastly, implementing cost-control strategies
However, we know that every exam has some knowledge requirements, same goes for AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional exam. There is requirement of experience and knowledge for this exam. Let’s check it.
AWS Exam: General IT Knowledge and Experience
AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional Prerequisites are as follows:
- Firstly, a prerequisite of 2 or more years of hands-on experience in designing and implementing cloud architecture specifically on AWS is required. Additionally, the capability to assess cloud application needs and provide architectural recommendations for application deployment and provisioning on AWS is essential.
- Secondly, you should possess the ability to offer best practice guidance concerning architectural design across various enterprise applications and projects.
- Thirdly, familiarity with scripting languages and experience in both Windows and Linux environments is expected.
- Fourthly, you should be well-versed in AWS tools and interfaces including AWS CLI, AWS APIs, AWS CloudFormation templates, the AWS Billing Console, and the AWS Management Console.
- Furthermore, you must be capable of explaining and applying the five pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework.
- Moreover, your skillset should encompass the ability to align business objectives with application and architecture requirements.
- Lastly, you should be adept at designing hybrid architectures utilizing key AWS technologies such as VPN and AWS Direct Connect, as well as architecting a continuous integration and deployment process.
Cheat Sheet for AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional exam is globally recognized and can significantly enhance your resume by validating your expertise and proficiency. Therefore, preparing for this exam requires dedication, passion, effort, and time. However, with the right training resources and tools, you can effectively study and successfully pass the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional test. Now, let’s review all the essential materials to facilitate your efficient revision.
Understanding Exam Topics
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional exam objectives provide comprehensive information about the exam’s methodologies, components, resources, and its overall description. Additionally, a thorough examination of the exam concepts will allow you to align yourself more closely with the primary objectives of the exam. As a result, you will also be able to review and mark the sections and topics you find difficult for studying later. However, the topics that are included in this AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional Course are provided below:
Domain 1: Understanding to Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
1.1 Explain Architect network connectivity strategies.
- AWS global infrastructure
- AWS networking concepts (for example, Amazon VPC, AWS Direct Connect, AWS VPN, transitive routing, AWS container services)
- Hybrid DNS concepts (for example, Amazon Route 53 Resolver, on-premises DNS integration)
- Network segmentation (for example, subnetting, IP addressing, connectivity among VPCs)
- Network traffic monitoring
Skills Evaluated
- Learn to evaluate connectivity options for multiple VPCs
- Learn to evaluate connectivity options for on-premises, co-location, and cloud integration
- Learn to select AWS Regions and Availability Zones based on network and latency requirements
- Learn to troubleshoot traffic flows by using AWS tools
- Learn to utilize service endpoints for service integrations
1.2 Explain security controls
- AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) and AWS Single Sign-On
- Route tables, security groups, and network ACLs
- Encryption keys and certificate management (for example, AWS Key Management Service [AWS KMS], AWS Certificate Manager [ACM])
- AWS security, identity, and compliance tools (for example, AWS CloudTrail, AWS Identity and Access Management Access Analyzer, AWS Security Hub, Amazon Inspector)
Skills Evaluated
- Learn to evaluate cross-account access management
- Learn to integrate with third-party identity providers
- Learn to deploy encryption strategies for data at rest and data in transit
- Learn to develop a strategy for centralized security event notifications and auditing
1.3 Explain to design reliable and resilient architectures.
- Recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs)
- Disaster recovery strategies (for example, using AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery [CloudEndure Disaster Recovery], pilot light, warm standby, and multi-site)
- Data backup and restoration
Skills Evaluated
- Learn to design disaster recovery solutions based on RTO and RPO requirements
- Learn to implement architectures to automatically recover from failure
- Learn to develop the optimal architecture by considering scale-up and scale-out options
- Learn to design an effective backup and restoration strategy
1.4 Explain Design a multi-account AWS environment.
- AWS Organizations and AWS Control Tower
- Multi-account event notifications
- AWS resource sharing across environments
Skills Evaluated
- Learn to evaluate the most appropriate account structure for organizational requirements
- Learn to recommend a strategy for central logging and event notifications
- Learn to develop a multi-account governance model
1.5 Explain to determine cost optimization and visibility strategies.
- AWS cost and usage monitoring tools (for example, AWS Trusted Advisor, AWS Pricing Calculator, AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets)
- AWS purchasing options (for example, Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, Spot Instances)
- AWS right-sizing visibility tools (for example, AWS Compute Optimizer, Amazon S3 Storage Lens)
Skills Evaluated
- Learn to monitor cost and usage with AWS tools
- Learn to develop an effective tagging strategy that maps costs to business units
- Learn to understand how purchasing options affect cost and performance
Domain 2: Understand to Design for New Solutions
2.1 Explain to design a deployment strategy to meet business requirements
- Infrastructure as code (IaC) (for example, AWS CloudFormation)
- Continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD)
- Change management processes
- Configuration management tools (for example, AWS Systems Manager)
Skills Evaluated
- Learn to determine an application or upgrade path for new services and features
- Learn to select services to develop deployment strategies and implement appropriate rollback mechanisms
- Learn to adopt managed services as needed to reduce infrastructure provisioning and patching overhead
- Learn to make advanced technologies accessible by delegating complex development and deployment tasks to AWS
2.2 Explain to Design a solution to ensure business continuity.
- AWS global infrastructure
- AWS networking concepts (for example, Route 53, routing methods)
- RTOs and RPOs
- Disaster recovery scenarios (for example, backup and restore, pilot light, warm standby, multi-site)
- Disaster recovery solutions on AWS
Skills Evaluated
- Learn to configure disaster recovery solutions
- Learn to configure data and database replication
- Learn to perform disaster recovery testing
- Learn to architect a backup solution that is automated, is cost-effective, and supports business continuity across multiple Availability Zones and/or AWS Regions
- Learn to design an architecture that provides application and infrastructure availability in the event of a disruption
- Learn to leverage processes and components for centralized monitoring to proactively recover from system failures
2.3 Explain to determine security controls based on requirements.
- IAM
- Route tables, security groups, and network ACLs
- Encryption options for data at rest and data in transit
- AWS service endpoints
- Credential management services
- AWS managed security services (for example, AWS Shield, AWS WAF, Amazon GuardDuty, AWS Security Hub)
Skills Evaluated
- Learn to specify IAM users and IAM roles that adhere to the principle of least privilege access
- Learn to specify inbound and outbound network flows by using security group rules and network ACL rules
- Learn to develop attack mitigation strategies for large-scale web applications
- Learn to develop encryption strategies for data at rest and data in transit
- Lean to specify service endpoints for service integrations
- Learn to develop strategies for patch management to remain compliant with organizational standards
2.4 Explain to design a strategy to meet reliability requirements.
- AWS global infrastructure
- AWS storage services and replication strategies (for example Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, Amazon ElastiCache) Multi-AZ and multi-Region architectures
- Auto scaling policies and events
- Application integration (for example, Amazon Simple Notification Service [Amazon SNS], Amazon Simple Queue Service [Amazon SQS], AWS Step Functions)
- Service quotas and limits
Skills Evaluated
- Learn to design highly available application environments based on business requirements
- Learn to leverage advanced techniques to design for failure and ensure seamless system recoverability
- Learn to implement loosely coupled dependencies
- Learn to operate and maintaining high-availability architectures (for example, application failovers, database failovers)
- Learn to leverage AWS managed services for high availability
- Learn to implement DNS routing policies (for example, Route 53 latency-based routing, geolocation routing, simple routing)
2.5 Explain Design a solution to meet performance objectives.
- Performance monitoring technologies
- Storage options on AWS
- Instance families and use cases
- Purpose-built databases
Skills Evaluated
- Learn to design large-scale application architectures for a variety of access patterns
- Learn to design an elastic architecture based on business objectives
- Learn to apply design patterns to meet performance objectives with caching, buffering, and replicas
- Learn to develop a process methodology for selecting purpose-built services for required tasks
- Learn to design a right-sizing strategy
2.6 Explain and determine a cost optimization strategy to meet solution goals and objectives.
- AWS cost and usage monitoring tools (for example, Cost Explorer, Trusted Advisor, AWS Pricing Calculator)
- Pricing models (for example, Reserved Instances, Savings Plans)
- Storage tiering
- Data transfer costs
- AWS managed service offerings
Skills Evaluated
- Learn to identify opportunities to select and right size infrastructure for cost-effective resources
- Learn to identify appropriate pricing models
- Learn to perform data transfer modeling and selecting services to reduce data transfer costs
- Learn to develop a strategy and implementing controls for expenditure and usage awareness
Domain 3: Understand to Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions
3.1 Explain determine a strategy to improve overall operational excellence
- Alerting and automatic remediation strategies
- Disaster recovery planning
- Monitoring and logging solutions (for example, Amazon CloudWatch)
- CI/CD pipelines and deployment strategies (for example, blue/green, all-at-once, rolling)
- Configuration management tools (for example, Systems Manager)
Skills Evaluated
- Learn to determine the most appropriate logging and monitoring strategy
- Learn to evaluate current deployment processes for improvement opportunities
- Learn to prioritize opportunities for automation within a solution stack
- Learn to recommende the appropriate AWS solution to enable configuration management automation
- Learn to engineer failure scenario activities to support and exercise an understanding of recovery actions
3.2 Explain to determine a strategy to improve security.
- Data retention, data sensitivity, and data regulatory requirements
- Automated monitoring and remediation strategies (for example, AWS Config rules)
- Secrets management (for example, Systems Manager, AWS Secrets Manager)
- Principle of least privilege access
- Security-specific AWS solutions
- Patching practices
- Backup practices and methods
Skills Evaluated
- Learn to evaluate a strategy for the secure management of secrets and credentials
- Learn to auditi an environment for least privilege access
- Learn to review implemented solutions to ensure security at every layer
- Learn to review comprehensive traceability of users and services
- Learn to prioritize automated responses to the detection of vulnerabilities
- Learn to design and implementing a patch and update process
- Learn to design and implementing a backup process
- Learn to employ remediation techniques
3.3 Explain determine a strategy to improve performance.
- High-performing systems architectures (for example, auto scaling, instance fleets, and placement groups)
- Global service offerings (for example, AWS Global Accelerator, Amazon CloudFront, and edge computing services)
- Monitoring tool sets and services (for example, CloudWatch)
- Service level agreements (SLAs) and key performance indicators (KPIs)
Skills Evaluated
- Learn to translate business requirements to measurable metrics
- Learn to test potential remediation solutions and making recommendations
- Learn to propose opportunities for the adoption of new technologies and managed services
- Learn to assess solutions and applying right sizing based on requirements
- Learn to identify and examining performance bottlenecks
34 Explain determine a strategy to improve reliability
- AWS global infrastructure
- Data replication methods
- Scaling methodologies (for example, load balancing, auto scaling)
- High availability and resiliency
- Disaster recovery methods and tools
- Service quotas and limits
Skills Evaluated
- Learn to understand application growth and usage trends
- Learn to evaluate existing architecture to determine areas that are not sufficiently reliable
- Learn to remediate single points of failure
- Learn to enable data replication, self-healing, and elastic features and services
3.5 Identify opportunities for cost optimizations.
- Cost-conscious architecture choices (for example, utilizing Spot Instances, scaling policies, and right-sizing resources)
- Price model adoptions (for example, Reserved Instances, Savings Plans)
- Networking and data transfer costs
- Cost management, alerting, and reporting
Skills Evaluated
- Learn to analyze usage reports to identify underutilized and overutilized resources
- Learn to utilize AWS solutions to identify unused resources
- Learn to design billing alarms based on expected usage patterns
- Learn to investigate AWS Cost and Usage Reports at a granular level
- Learn to utilize tagging for cost allocation and reporting
Domain 4: Explain to accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization
4.1 Explain to select existing workloads and processes for potential migration.
- Migration assessment and tracking tools (for example, AWS Migration Hub)
- Portfolio assessment
- Asset planning
- Prioritization and migration of workloads (for example, wave planning)
Skills Evaluated
- Learn to complete an application migration assessment
- Learn to evaluate applications according to the seven common migration strategies (7Rs)
- Learn to evaluate total cost of ownership (TCO)
4.2 Explain to determine the optimal migration approach for existing workloads.
- Data migration options and tools (for example, AWS DataSync, AWS Transfer Family, AWS Snow Family, S3 Transfer Acceleration)
- Application migration tools (for example, AWS Application Discovery Service, AWS Application Migration Service [CloudEndure Migration], AWS Server Migration Service [AWS SMS])
- AWS networking services and DNS (for example, Direct Connect, AWS Site-to-Site VPN, Route 53)
- Identity services (for example, AWS SSO, AWS Directory Service)
- Database migration tools (for example, AWS Database Migration Service [AWS DMS], AWS Schema Conversion Tool [AWS SCT])
- Governance tools (for example, AWS Control Tower, Organizations)
Skills Evaluated
- Learn to select the appropriate database transfer mechanism
- Learn to select the appropriate application transfer mechanism
- Learn to select the appropriate data transfer service and migration strategy
- Learn to apply the appropriate security methods to migration tools
- Learn to select the appropriate governance model
4.3 Explain to determine a new architecture for existing workloads.
- Compute services (for example, Amazon EC2, AWS Elastic Beanstalk)
- Containers (for example, Amazon Elastic Container Service [Amazon ECS], Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service [Amazon EKS], AWS Fargate, Amazon Elastic Container Registry [Amazon ECR])
- AWS storage services (for example, Amazon Elastic Block Store [Amazon EBS], Amazon Elastic File System [Amazon EFS], Amazon FSx, Amazon S3, Volume Gateway)
- Databases (for example, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon OpenSearch Service [Amazon Elasticsearch Service], Amazon RDS, self-managed databases on Amazon EC2)
Skills Evaluated
- Learn to select the appropriate compute platform
- Learn to select the appropriate container hosting platform
- Learn to select the appropriate storage service
- Learn to select the appropriate database platform
4.4 Explain to determine opportunities for modernization and enhancements.
- Serverless compute offerings (for example, AWS Lambda)
- Containers (for example, Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS, AWS Fargate)
- AWS storage services (for example, Amazon S3, Amazon EFS)
- Purpose-built databases (for example, DynamoDB, Amazon Aurora Serverless, ElastiCache)
- Integration service (for example, Amazon SQS, Amazon SNS, Amazon EventBridge [Amazon CloudWatch Events], Step Functions)
Skills Evaluated
- Learn to identify opportunities to decouple application components
- Learn to identify opportunities for serverless solutions
- Learn to select the appropriate service for containers
- Learn to identify opportunities for purpose-built databases
- Learn to select the appropriate application integration service
AWS Exam Official Page
Going through the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional exam page will help you stay up to date with the latest changes and modifications for the exam. However, AWS provides a well-elaborate study guide, prepared and validated by AWS experts. Moreover, there are various other resources provided on the page to help you in preparing. There you can check and download the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional Study Guide that covers all the exam objectives and enables you to receive hands-on expertise based on the situations.
AWS Learning Path
AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional Training
For helping you in preparing for AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional, AWS offers various training programs for AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional Exam. This include:
Advanced Architecting on AWS
In this course, you will be able to build on concepts introduced in Architecting on AWS. You’ll acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to construct solutions that integrate data services, governance, and security within the AWS platform. Additionally, you’ll explore specialized AWS services such as AWS Direct Connect and AWS Storage Gateway, which play a pivotal role in supporting hybrid architecture.
Exam Readiness training by AWS
Exam Readiness training focuses on teaching about interpreting exam questions and allocating your study time. However, the Exam Readiness: AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional course is offered in multiple formats:
- Firstly, Classroom training. This is for learning and engaging in a physical or virtual classroom with an AWS-accredited instructor
- Secondly, Free digital training. This is for learning when and where it’s convenient for you
- Lastly, Free webinars. This is for a presentation from an AWS-accredited instructor followed by live Q&A
AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional White Papers
AWS team offers several whitepapers, in order to enhance your technical knowledge. However, these whitepapers are produced exclusively by the AWS team, analysts, and other AWS partners. Here is a list of some highly recommended whitepapers by AWS
- Firstly, Architecting for the Cloud: AWS Best Practices
- Secondly, AWS Security Best Practices
- Thirdly, Amazon Web Services: Overview of Security Processes
- Then, AWS Well-Architected Framework
- Next, Development and Test on AWS
- After that, Backup and Recovery Approaches Using AWS
- Amazon Virtual Private Cloud Connectivity Options
- Lastly, How AWS Pricing Works
Evaluate yourself with Practice Tests
Utilizing AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional Practice Exams is crucial in your exam preparation journey. These practice exams serve as valuable tools for self-assessment, allowing you to identify your strengths and weaknesses. Effective time management is vital during the actual exam, and practicing with these tests will enhance your answering skills, ultimately saving you valuable time. It’s advisable to initiate practice tests after completing each specific topic, as this approach provides a beneficial revision opportunity.
Exam Tips:
Here are some tips for preparing for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional exam:
- Study the AWS official documentation: Familiarize yourself with the AWS official documentation, including the AWS Well-Architected Framework, AWS whitepapers, and case studies, as they provide a wealth of information and insights into how to design and deploy scalable and secure applications on the AWS cloud.
- Get hands-on experience: The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional exam is a hands-on, performance-based exam, so it is important to gain practical experience working with AWS services. Set up a personal AWS account and start experimenting with different services to gain hands-on experience.
- Focus on high-level concepts: The exam focuses on high-level concepts, rather than specific details. Focus on understanding the key concepts and the relationships between services, rather than memorizing specific details.
- Use flashcards: Flashcards are a useful tool for memorizing key terms, definitions, and concepts. Create flashcards for the key concepts covered in the exam and review them regularly to reinforce your understanding.
- Collaborate with others: Join online communities, such as the AWS Certified community on LinkedIn, to connect with other individuals preparing for the exam. Collaborating with others can help you learn from their experiences and get answers to questions you may have.
- Get a good night’s sleep before the exam: A good night’s sleep can help you feel refreshed and focused during the exam. Make sure you get plenty of rest the night before the exam to give yourself the best chance of success.
