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SAP-C02 Overview — Format, Domains & Who Should Take It

What to expect on AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Professional (SAP-C02): exam format and timing, domain coverage and weights, recommended background, question styles, and an efficient study plan.

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Exam at a glance

  • Exam name: AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Professional (SAP-C02)
  • Questions: 75 total (multiple-choice and multiple-response)
  • Time: 180 minutes
  • Delivery: Pearson VUE testing center or online proctored exam
  • Result: Scaled score (100–1000); minimum passing score: 750
  • Cost: 300 USD
  • Languages offered: English, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Simplified Chinese, Spanish (Latin America)

Tip: SAP-C02 is long-scenario and constraint-heavy. Practice reading for requirements like least ops, highest availability, data residency, RTO/RPO, and multi-account governance.

Domain breakdown (weights)

  • Domain 1: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity (26%)
  • Domain 2: Design for New Solutions (29%)
  • Domain 3: Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions (25%)
  • Domain 4: Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization (20%)

What SAP-C02 emphasizes (professional level)

Compared to associate exams, SAP-C02 leans hard into complex organizations and realistic trade-offs:

  • Multi-account strategy: AWS Organizations, SCPs/guardrails, shared services, delegated admin, centralized logging/security
  • Hybrid + multi-VPC networking: Direct Connect/VPN, Transit Gateway/Cloud WAN, DNS resolution (Route 53 Resolver), private access (endpoints/PrivateLink)
  • Resilience at scale: multi-AZ and multi-Region patterns, DR strategy selection, dependency thinking, blast-radius control
  • Security controls as architecture: identity boundaries, encryption/KMS strategy, auditability, detection/response automation
  • Migration and modernization: portfolio selection, 6Rs, wave planning, new target architectures
  • Performance and cost optimization: end-to-end optimization with clear business constraints

Who should take SAP-C02

This certification is best for candidates who already design and review AWS architectures in production.

Recommended background (per AWS guidance):

  • 2+ years of experience using AWS services to design and implement cloud solutions
  • Ability to evaluate requirements, make architectural recommendations, and provide guidance across multiple workloads/projects within a complex organization

Question styles you’ll see

  • Long scenarios: Multiple paragraphs, multiple constraints, lots of “plausible” options.
  • Multi-answer reasoning: Multiple-response questions where you must pick the best two answers.
  • Architecture and governance decisions: Not “what is X?” but “which design fits these constraints with the least operational overhead?”

Strategy: Read the last sentence first to capture the constraint (for example: most cost-effective, least operational effort, lowest latency, meets RTO/RPO).

Study plan (efficient, blueprint-aligned)

  1. Work the Syllabus domain-by-domain and drill after each task.
  2. Keep a “miss log” of patterns (for example: TGW vs peering vs PrivateLink, SCP vs IAM vs key policy, DR strategy selection).
  3. Do weekly mixed sets, then shift to full-length mocks late in your prep.
  4. Use the Cheatsheet as your “default + trade-off” reference while practicing.
  5. Final week: 2–3 full mocks, review every miss, and re-drill weak tasks.

Next steps

Syllabus