AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional (SAP-C02)
Design, deploy, and evaluate complex multi-tier enterprise cloud architectures, multi-account governance, hybrid connectivity, massive cloud migrations, cost optimization, and business continuity on AWS.
Official Exam Specification & Quick Facts
Question Difficulty Breakdown
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Exam Guidelines & Simulation Rules
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
The SAP-C02 exam consists of 75 long, complex scenario questions over 180 minutes. Registration costs $300 USD, with a passing scaled score of 750/1000 (75%).
Domains include: (1) Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity (~26%), (2) Design for New Solutions (~29%), (3) Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions (~25%), and (4) Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization (~20%).
AWS Control Tower sets up a secure, multi-account AWS environment based on AWS best-practice blueprints, enforcing preventive and detective guardrails via Service Control Policies (SCPs) and AWS Config rules.
High resiliency requires two Direct Connect connections to two distinct Direct Connect locations (different data centers), combined with redundant virtual interfaces (VIFs) and BGP dynamic routing.
VPC Peering requires full-mesh point-to-point connections ($O(N^2)$ complexity) and is non-transitive. AWS Transit Gateway acts as a centralized regional hub, simplifying hub-and-spoke interconnectivity across thousands of VPCs.
AWS MGN uses continuous block-level data replication from on-premises source servers to an AWS staging area, allowing non-disruptive cutover testing and final cutover with minutes of downtime.
Active-Active provides instantaneous RTO and near-zero RPO by serving traffic globally from all regions, but requires complex distributed data synchronization (e.g. DynamoDB Global Tables). Active-Passive routes traffic to a standby region upon failover.
SCPs specify the maximum allowable permissions for IAM identities in member accounts, ensuring that even root users in member accounts cannot perform prohibited actions (like disabling CloudTrail or deploying unapproved regions).
Aurora Serverless v2 scales database compute capacity (ACUs) in fine-grained increments in fractions of a second based on real-time load, ideal for variable, unpredictable enterprise workloads with spiky traffic.
AWS RAM allows sharing subnets, transit gateways, and licenses across accounts; PrivateLink exposes services securely to other VPCs/accounts over AWS private backbone without public IPs or VPC peering.
The SAP-C02 certification is valid for three years from the date earned and can be renewed by retaking the SAP-C02 exam.
Widely recognized as one of the most prestigious cloud credentials globally, AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professionals earn average US salaries between $165,000 and $225,000+.