{"id":212,"date":"2020-03-15T14:56:12","date_gmt":"2020-03-15T14:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reviewnprep.com\/blog\/?p=212"},"modified":"2021-03-27T15:12:25","modified_gmt":"2021-03-27T15:12:25","slug":"new-aws-associate-solution-architect-exam-guide-aws-saa-c02","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reviewnprep.com\/blog\/new-aws-associate-solution-architect-exam-guide-aws-saa-c02\/","title":{"rendered":"New AWS Associate Solution Architect Exam Guide: AWS SAA-C02"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With so many features and functionalities added at such a\nrapid pace by AWS, it is only fair that the certification exams are updated as\nwell. There are two changes for existing certification and a new certification\nthat is coming out soon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. AWS Certified Solutions Architect \u2013 Associate has a new version SAA-C02 – Begins March 23, 2020<\/strong><\/li>
  2. AWS Certified Data Analytics – Specialty (formerly AWS Certified Big Data – Specialty) has a new version DAS-C01 – Begins April 13, 2020<\/strong><\/li>
  3. AWS Certified Database \u2013 Specialty is a new exam – Begins April 6, 2020 <\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    In this blog, we will stress on AWS Certified Solutions Architect. The registration for this exam began on February 25, 2020 and the first day to take this exam is March 23, 2020. This means the last day to take C01 is March 22, 2020<\/s><\/strong>. AWS has updated the last day to take C01 to June 30, 2020<\/strong>. There are already a lot of materials and practice tests<\/a> available online for the older exam and the course providers have already started making the changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    No changes to the format of the exam<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    1. Still a pass or fail exam.<\/li>
    2. Nothing is changing in terms of \u201cRecommended AWS Knowledge\u201d needed for this certification. At high level, AWS still recommends one year of hands-on experience designing available, cost-effective, fault-tolerant, and scalable distributed systems on AWS <\/strong>for this cert.<\/li>
    3. There are still multiple choice and multiple response questions.<\/li>
    4. Unanswered questions are scored as incorrect; there is no penalty for guessing.<\/li>
    5. The number of questions is likely to be the same at 65 however, some folks had 75 in the beta exam.<\/li>
    6. Some questions are unscored; these do not affect your overall score and are there gather statistical information.<\/li>
    7. Results for the examination are reported as a score from 100-1,000, with a minimum passing score of 720 and there is no requirement to pass the individual section, only the overall examination.<\/li>
    8. Folks that took beta exams mentioned that most questions are 1-2 lines of scenario followed by the actual question itself. Also noted that the wording was improved from the previous exam and the questions were less ambiguous, which is good news for the students.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Side by side changes to the topics covered for the exam<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Let us first draw side by side comparison of the changes in\nthe exam format: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      SAA-C02 (New Exam) <\/strong><\/td> SAA-C01 (Old Exam) <\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
      Design Resilient Architectures (30%)<\/strong>
      – Design a multi-tier architecture solution
      – Design highly available and\/or fault-tolerant architectures
      – Design decoupling mechanisms using AWS services
      – Choose appropriate resilient storage   <\/td>      		Design Resilient Architectures (34%)<\/strong>
      – Choose reliable\/resilient storage
      – Determine how to design decoupling mechanisms using AWS services
      – Determine how to design a multi-tier architecture solution
      – Determine how to design high availability and\/or fault tolerant architectures. <\/td><\/tr>
      Design High-Performing Architectures (28%)<\/strong>
      – Identify elastic and scalable compute solutions for a workload
      – Select high-performing and scalable storage solutions for a workload
      – Select high-performing networking solutions for a workload
      – Choose high-performing database solutions for a workload <\/td>      		Define Performant Architectures (24%)<\/strong>
      – Choose performant storage and databases
      – Apply caching to improve performance
      – Design solutions for elasticity and scalability.  




      <\/td><\/tr>
      Design Secure Applications and Architectures (24%)<\/strong>
      – Design secure access to AWS resources
      – Design secure application tiers
      – Select appropriate data security options

      <\/td>      		Specify Secure Applications and Architectures (26%)<\/strong>
      – Determine how to secure application tiers
      – Determine how to secure data
      – Define the networking infrastructure for a single VPC application.   <\/td><\/tr>
      Design Cost-Optimized Architectures (18%) <\/strong>
      – Identify cost-effective storage solutions
      – Identify cost-effective compute and database services
      – Design cost-optimized network architectures <\/td>      		Design Cost-Optimized Architectures (10%)<\/strong>
      – Determine how to design cost-optimized storage
      – Determine how to design cost-optimized compute.   <\/td><\/tr>
      \n  <\/strong>\n <\/td>Define Operationally-Excellent Architectures (6%)<\/strong>
      – Choose design features in solutions that enable operational excellence  <\/strong> <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      Clearly, the new exam C02 is much more streamlined. AWS has\nchanged the verbiage within the topics covered. Instead of saying determine,\nthey have started using the word design. This makes sense that as an architect\nyou would be designing the applications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Below is the summary of important points to note: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      1. Domain 1: Design Resilient Architectures nothing has changed except for the fact that weightage of this section has gone down by 4%.<\/strong><\/li>
      2. Domain 2: Design High-Performing Architectures, the weightage has been increased by 4% to 28%. <\/strong>