Course outcomes

By the end, learners will be able to:

• Design secure, resilient, high-performing, cost-optimized architectures on AWS.

• Choose the right AWS services for common business scenarios.

• Read a scenario and identify the best architecture (exam style).

• Pass SAA-C03 with confidence through hands-on labs + practice exams. 

Target audience & prereqs

Audience: beginners to intermediate cloud/IT folks, developers, sysadmins, DevOps, freshers with infra basics.
Assumed prereqs: basic networking (IP, subnets, DNS), Linux/Windows comfort, basic database ideas. AWS recommends ~1 year hands-on exposure but it’s not mandatory if labs are done seriously. 

Duration & format

8 weeks (recommended)

• 3 live sessions/week (90 min) or self-paced equivalent

• 2 lab blocks/week (60–90 min)

• Weekly quiz + one mini-project every 2 weeks

• Final capstone + 2 full mock exams

Week 0 — Onboarding + AWS Foundations

Goal: get everyone comfortable with AWS basics & the console.

Topics

• AWS global infrastructure: Regions, AZs, edge locations

• Shared responsibility model

• IAM overview (users, groups, roles, policies)

• AWS pricing basics + Free Tier

• How to read SAA questions (elimination + keywords)

Labs

• Create AWS account + budget alerts

• IAM user + MFA + least-privilege policy

• Explore CloudShell + CLI setup

Assessment

• Diagnostic quiz (not graded)

Week 1 — Identity, Security & Networking (Domain 1 core)

Goal: master access control + secure network design. (Heaviest domain.) 

Topics

• IAM deep dive: policy evaluation logic, permission boundaries

• IAM Identity Center (SSO), federation concepts

• VPC fundamentals: CIDR, subnets, route tables, IGW, NAT

• Security groups vs NACLs

• VPC endpoints (Gateway vs Interface)

• AWS Organizations, SCPs, Control Tower (associate level)

Labs

• Build a 2-tier VPC (public + private)

• Add NAT Gateway + private EC2 outbound

• Create VPC endpoints for S3/DynamoDB

• Cross-account role assumption

Quiz

• 25–30 exam-style questions

Week 2 — Data Protection & Monitoring (Domain 1 continued)

Goal: secure data and understand detection/response.

Topics

• Encryption: KMS, CMKs, envelope encryption

• S3 security: bucket policies, ACLs, OAC/OAI

• Secrets Manager vs Parameter Store

• AWS Shield, WAF basics

• Logging & monitoring: CloudTrail, Config, CloudWatch, GuardDuty, Macie

• Backup & recovery services overview

Labs

• Encrypt S3 with KMS + enforce TLS & SSE-KMS policy

• Enable CloudTrail + send to S3 + metric filter alert

• Store secrets + rotate (demo)

Mini-project 1

• “Secure static website hosting with least privilege + logging”

Week 3 — Resilient Architectures I (Domain 2)

Goal: design scalable & loosely-coupled systems. 

Topics

• Elastic Load Balancing (ALB/NLB/GWLB)

• Auto Scaling (ASG, scaling policies)

• Decoupling with SQS, SNS, EventBridge

• Serverless patterns: Lambda + API Gateway

• Containers overview: ECS, EKS, Fargate (exam depth)

• Caching: CloudFront, ElastiCache basics

Labs

• ALB + ASG web tier with scaling

• SNS → SQS fanout pattern

• Simple serverless REST API

Quiz

• Domain 2 scenario questions

Week 4 — Resilient Architectures II + DR

Goal: HA across AZ/Regions, DR strategies.

Topics

• RDS Multi-AZ, read replicas

• Aurora concepts (writer/reader endpoints)

• Route 53 routing policies (simple/weighted/latency/failover/geolocation)

• DR strategies: backup-restore, pilot light, warm standby, active-active

• Storage durability concepts

Labs

• RDS Multi-AZ deploy + failover test

• Route 53 failover demo with health checks

• S3 CRR setup

Mini-project 2

• “Multi-AZ highly available web app with decoupled backend”

Week 5 — High-Performing Architectures I (Domain 3)

Goal: pick storage for performance + scale. 

Topics

• S3 tiers, lifecycle, performance, multipart upload

• EBS types (gp3/io2/st1/sc1), throughput vs IOPS

• EFS vs FSx (Lustre/Windows/ONTAP) – when/why

• Storage Gateway, Snow family (light exam coverage)

Labs

• Tune EBS volume performance for EC2

• EFS shared storage with multiple instances

• S3 lifecycle + intelligent tiering

Quiz

• Storage choice matrix questions

Week 6 — High-Performing Architectures II (Compute + DB)

Goal: optimize compute & databases for workload fit.

Topics

• EC2 instance families & placement strategies

• Lambda performance tuning (memory/CPU, concurrency)

• Databases: DynamoDB, RDS, Aurora, Redshift, ElastiCache

• DDB capacity (on-demand vs provisioned), partitions, GSIs, DAX

• Performance troubleshooting patterns

Labs

• EC2 placement group + benchmark

• DynamoDB + GSI + autoscaling

• CloudFront caching for dynamic site

Mini-project 3

• “High-throughput ingestion pipeline (API → Lambda → DynamoDB → S3)”

Week 7 — Cost-Optimized Architectures (Domain 4)

Goal: design for cost without sacrificing requirements. 

Topics

• Pricing models: On-Demand, RI, Savings Plans, Spot

• S3 cost levers (tiers, lifecycle, compression)

• Right-sizing compute

• Cost visibility: Cost Explorer, Budgets, CUR basics

• Architectural cost patterns (serverless vs EC2, Aurora vs RDS, CloudFront to reduce origin)

Labs

• Spot + ASG mixed instances

• S3 lifecycle → Glacier Deep Archive

• Create budget alarms + cost dashboard

Quiz

• Cost trade-off scenarios

Week 8 — Final Review + Exam Readiness

Goal: stitch domains together + practice like the real exam.

Activities

• Full Well-Architected review of sample systems

• “Service-selection speed rounds” (what service & why)

• 2 × full-length mock exams (65 Q, 130 min) 

• ---

  Detailed review + weak-area remediation plan

Capstone

• Design a complete AWS solution for a case study with:

  • secure access + network design

  • HA + DR

  • performance choices

  • cost optimisation

• Present architecture diagram + justification.

Architecture patterns “must-know”

• 3-tier VPC

• public/private subnet patterns

• ALB + ASG + RDS Multi-AZ

• event-driven fanout (SNS→SQS)

• serverless web + API

• hybrid connectivity (VPN vs Direct Connect)

• multi-region DR patterns 

Exam strategy sessions

• Keyword spotting: “least operational overhead”, “highest availability”, “lowest cost”

• Elimination framework

• Time management (≈2 min/question) 

• Common traps:

  • confusing read replica vs Multi-AZ

  • choosing EFS where S3 fits

  • overusing NAT instead of VPC endpoints

  • missing “shared responsibility” boundaries

Practice plan (for learners)

• Weekdays: 60–90 min lesson + 30 min review

• Weekends: 1 lab + 1 mini test

• Final 10 days: only mocks + revision notes

Evaluation scheme

• Weekly quizzes (30%)

• Mini-projects (30%)

• Capstone (20%)

• Final mock average (20%)

Passing benchmark: 75%+ on mocks before scheduling real exam. 

Recommended resources (official + safe)

• Official SAA-C03 Exam Guide (domains/tasks) 

• AWS Skill Builder SAA learning plan

• AWS Well-Architected Framework pillars