AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional Cheat Sheet

  1. Home
  2. AWS
  3. AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional Cheat Sheet
AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional Cheat Sheet

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.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional cheat sheet

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 26%

1.1 Explain  Architect network connectivity strategies.

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 (AWS Documentation: Regions and Zones)
  • Learn to troubleshoot traffic flows by using AWS tools (AWS Documentation: Logging IP traffic using VPC Flow Logs)
  • Learn to utilize service endpoints for service integrations (AWS Documentation: AWS service endpoints)

1.2 Explain security controls

Skills Evaluated

1.3 Explain to design reliable and resilient architectures.

  • Recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs) (AWS Documentation: Recovery objectives)
  • Disaster recovery strategies (for example, using AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery [CloudEndure Disaster Recovery], pilot light, warm standby, and multi-site) (AWS Documentation: Disaster recovery options in the cloud)
  • Data backup and restoration (AWS Documentation: Restoring a backup)

Skills Evaluated

1.4 Explain Design a multi-account AWS environment.

Skills Evaluated 

  • Learn to evaluate the most appropriate account structure for organizational requirements (AWS Documentation: Organizing Your AWS Environment Using Multiple Accounts)
  • 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 Documentation: Analyzing your costs with AWS Cost Explorer)
  • AWS purchasing options (for example, Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, Spot Instances) (AWS Documentation: Instance purchasing options)
  • AWS right-sizing visibility tools (for example, AWS Compute Optimizer, Amazon S3 Storage Lens)

Skills Evaluated

Domain 2: Understand to Design for New Solutions 29%

2.1 Explain to design a deployment strategy to meet business requirements

Skills Evaluated

  • Learn to determine an application or upgrade path for new services and features (AWS Documentation: Perform an automated upgrade)
  • Learn to select services to develop deployment strategies and implement appropriate rollback mechanisms (AWS Documentation: Deployment strategies)
  • Learn to adopt managed services as needed to reduce infrastructure provisioning and patching overhead (AWS Documentation: What is AWS Managed Services?)
  • Learn to make advanced technologies accessible by delegating complex development and deployment tasks to AWS (AWS Documentation: Design principles)

2.2 Explain to Design a solution to ensure business continuity.

Skills Evaluated

2.3 Explain to determine security controls based on requirements.

Skills Evaluated

  • Learn to specify IAM users and IAM roles that adhere to the principle of least privilege access (AWS Documentation: Security best practices in IAM)
  • Learn to specify inbound and outbound network flows by using security group rules and network ACL rules (AWS Documentation: Control traffic to subnets using network ACLs)
  • Learn to develop attack mitigation strategies for large-scale web applications (AWS Documentation: Mitigation techniques)
  • Learn to develop encryption strategies for data at rest and data in transit (AWS Documentation: Encrypting 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 Documentation: Global infrastructure)
  • AWS storage services and replication strategies (for example Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, Amazon ElastiCache) Multi-AZ and multi-Region architectures (AWS Documentation: Disaster recovery options in the cloud)
  • Auto scaling policies and events (AWS Documentation: Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling)
  • Application integration (for example, Amazon Simple Notification Service [Amazon SNS], Amazon Simple Queue Service [Amazon SQS], AWS Step Functions) (AWS Documentation: Application integration)
  • Service quotas and limits 

Skills Evaluated

2.5 Explain Design a solution to meet performance objectives.

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 (AWS Documentation: Adopting a consistent design decision approach)
  • Learn to apply design patterns to meet performance objectives with caching, buffering, and replicas (AWS Documentation: Performance Design Patterns for Amazon S3)
  • Learn to develop a process methodology for selecting purpose-built services for required tasks
  • Learn to design a right-sizing strategy (AWS Documentation: Tips for Right Sizing)

2.6 Explain and determine a cost optimization strategy to meet solution goals and objectives.

Skills Evaluated

  • Learn to identify opportunities to select and right size infrastructure for cost-effective resources (AWS Documentation: Identifying Opportunities to Right Size)
  • Learn to identify appropriate pricing models
  • Learn to perform data transfer modeling and selecting services to reduce data transfer costs (AWS Documentation: Perform data transfer modeling)
  • Learn to develop a strategy and implementing controls for expenditure and usage awareness

Domain 3: Understand to Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions 25%

3.1 Explain determine a strategy to improve overall operational excellence

Skills Evaluated

  • Learn to determine the most appropriate logging and monitoring strategy (AWS Documentation: Designing and implementing logging and monitoring with Amazon CloudWatch)
  • 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 (AWS Documentation: AWS Systems Manager 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.

Skills Evaluated

3.3 Explain determine a strategy to improve performance.

  • High-performing systems architectures (for example, auto scaling, instance fleets, and placement groups) (AWS Documentation: Placement groups)
  • Global service offerings (for example, AWS Global Accelerator, Amazon CloudFront, and edge computing services)
  • Monitoring tool sets and services (for example, CloudWatch) (AWS Documentation: What is Amazon 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 (AWS Documentation: GuardDuty EC2 finding types)
  • Learn to propose opportunities for the adoption of new technologies and managed services (AWS Documentation: Design principles)
  • Learn to assess solutions and applying right sizing based on requirements (AWS Documentation: Tips for Right Sizing)
  • Learn to identify and examining performance bottlenecks

3.4 Explain determine a strategy to improve reliability

Skills Evaluated

  • Learn to understand application growth and usage trends (AWS Documentation: Amazon EC2 usage reports)
  • 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 (AWS Documentation: What is Elastic Disaster Recovery?)

3.5 Identify opportunities for cost optimizations.

  • Cost-conscious architecture choices (for example, utilizing Spot Instances, scaling policies, and right-sizing resources) (AWS Documentation: Spot Instances)
  • Price model adoptions (for example, Reserved Instances, Savings Plans) (AWS Documentation: Savings Plans)
  • Networking and data transfer costs (AWS Documentation: Understanding data transfer charges)
  • Cost management, alerting, and reporting

Skills Evaluated

  • Learn to analyze usage reports to identify underutilized and overutilized resources (AWS Documentation: Amazon EC2 usage reports)
  • Learn to utilize AWS solutions to identify unused resources (AWS Documentation: Identify your unused resources)
  • Learn to design billing alarms based on expected usage patterns
  • Learn to investigate AWS Cost and Usage Reports at a granular level (AWS Documentation: What are AWS Cost and Usage Reports?)
  • Learn to utilize tagging for cost allocation and reporting

Domain 4: Explain to accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization 20%

4.1 Explain to select existing workloads and processes for potential migration.

Skills Evaluated

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) (AWS Documentation: AWS managed migration tools)
  • Application migration tools (for example, AWS Application Discovery Service, AWS Application Migration Service [CloudEndure Migration], AWS Server Migration Service [AWS SMS]) (AWS Documentation: Migration and transfer)
  • 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) (AWS Documentation: Single sign-on)
  • 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) (AWS Documentation: AWS Control Tower and AWS Organizations)

Skills Evaluated

  • Learn to select the appropriate database transfer mechanism (AWS Documentation: Data Migration Mechanism)
  • Learn to select the appropriate application transfer mechanism
  • Learn to select the appropriate data transfer service and migration strategy (AWS Documentation: About the migration strategies)
  • Learn to apply the appropriate security methods to migration tools
  • Learn to select the appropriate governance model (AWS Documentation: Management and governance)

4.3 Explain to determine a new architecture for existing workloads.

  • Compute services (for example, Amazon EC2, AWS Elastic Beanstalk) (AWS Documentation: Compute services)
  •  Containers (for example, Amazon Elastic Container Service [Amazon ECS], Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service [Amazon EKS], AWS Fargate, Amazon Elastic Container Registry [Amazon ECR]) (AWS Documentation: Choosing an AWS container service)
  • AWS storage services (for example, Amazon Elastic Block Store [Amazon EBS], Amazon Elastic File System [Amazon EFS], Amazon FSx, Amazon S3, Volume Gateway) (AWS Documentation: Storage)
  • Databases (for example, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon OpenSearch Service [Amazon Elasticsearch Service], Amazon RDS, self-managed databases on Amazon EC2) (AWS Documentation: Databases)

Skills Evaluated

4.4 Explain to determine opportunities for modernization and enhancements.

  • Serverless compute offerings (for example, AWS Lambda) (AWS Documentation: What is AWS Lambda?)
  • Containers (for example, Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS, AWS Fargate) (AWS Documentation: Amazon ECS on AWS Fargate)
  • AWS storage services (for example, Amazon S3, Amazon EFS)
  • Purpose-built databases (for example, DynamoDB, Amazon Aurora Serverless, ElastiCache) (AWS Documentation: Databases)
  • 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 (AWS Documentation: Decouple by using a standalone API)
  • Learn to identify opportunities for serverless solutions
  • Learn to select the appropriate service for containers (AWS Documentation: Choosing an AWS container service)
  • Learn to identify opportunities for purpose-built databases
  • Learn to select the appropriate application integration service (AWS Documentation: Application integration)

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 Solutions Architect Professional (SAP-C01) - Learning Path
IMAGE SOURCE: Amazon

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 

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.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional practice tests

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.
Upgrade your skill level by becoming AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional
Menu