Course orientation: how this course works and how the exam is built

How the course is built

There are eleven modules. Modules 2 to 10 follow the same rhythm:

1. Lessons. Short pages, one topic each. Every lesson opens with why the topic matters, includes at least one Try it block you can run with the AWS CLI or Python (read-only or Free Tier), and ends with Exam tips.
2. A lab. Numbered steps with complete commands, a “Check your work” list, and a “Clean up” section. Labs tell you at the top what, if anything, they bill for.
3. A checkpoint. Ten new scenario questions that span the whole module. They are not repeats of the lesson questions, so they test whether the ideas transfer.

Module 1 (this page and the sandbox lab) gets your account safe to learn in. Module 11 closes the course with a capstone project, a three-tier architecture you deploy from a CloudFormation template and then try to break, an exam strategy lesson, and a full practice exam of 65 questions weighted like the real one.

Every page ends with its own questions. Answer them all and check them: get at least 7 in 10 right and the page is passed, and the next one opens. You can try as often as you like, and after three tries the answers and explanations are shown.

Module 1 is open to everyone. To go further, sign in with your email address: there is no password, just a one-time link. Your progress is then saved to your account, so it follows you to any device, and the outline beside each lesson shows what you have passed and what is still locked.

How the exam is built

These facts come from AWS’s SAA-C03 exam guide. Read it again before you book, because AWS revises exams.

• Question types. Multiple choice has one correct answer and three distractors. Multiple response has two or more correct answers among five or more options, and the question tells you how many to choose.
• Scored and unscored. 50 questions count toward your score. Another 15 are unscored questions AWS is trialling. You cannot tell which is which, so treat every question as if it counts.
• No penalty for guessing. An unanswered question is scored as wrong. Never leave one blank.
• Scaled score. Results are reported from 100 to 1,000 and the minimum passing score is 720. Scaling evens out differences between exam forms, so 720 is not the same as 72% correct.
• Compensatory scoring. You pass on the overall score, not per domain.
• Domain weights. Design secure architectures 30%, design resilient architectures 26%, design high-performing architectures 24%, design cost-optimized architectures 20%.

The AWS Certification exam page lists the time allowed, delivery options and the current fee. You book and sit the exam yourself through AWS Certification. Pontelon does not run exams or sell vouchers, and this course is independent of AWS.

Phrases that point to a service

Scenarios rarely name the service they want. They describe a need in words that, with practice, point straight at one. Start a list of your own as you go; these are the commonest. Each is taught properly in the module named.

The exam strategy lesson at the end of the course adds the other half: the qualifiers, such as most cost-effective or least operational overhead, that decide between two answers that both work.

A study plan you can follow

The plan is a sequence, not a timetable. Go at the pace your week allows.

1. Do module 1 first, fully. The sandbox lab sets up multi-factor authentication, short-lived CLI credentials and a budget alert. Every later lab assumes the sandbox profile exists.
2. For each module: read the lessons and run every Try it block, do the lab including the clean-up, then take the checkpoint without notes.
3. Log your misses. For each wrong checkpoint answer, write one line: the requirement you missed and why your chosen answer lost. Patterns show up fast, such as always choosing the option that works but costs more.
4. Close gaps before moving on. Revisit the lesson the checkpoint points to. Later modules assume earlier ones; networking gaps resurface in compute, storage and cost.
5. Build the capstone after module 10. It is the best rehearsal for reading a scenario as a set of design decisions.
6. Sit the practice exam in one go, without notes, then use its review table to map every miss back to a lesson.
7. Read the exam guide’s in-scope services list one last time. Any service you cannot place in a sentence is worth an hour.

What changed recently

AWS changes faster than exams do, and older study material can teach things that are no longer true. This edition covers these changes in the lessons where they belong; each one is checked against AWS’s own announcements or documentation.

Later modules flag their own recent changes in a “What changed recently” note. Exam questions can lag behind such changes, so learn both the current behaviour and the principle the exam is testing.

aws --version
python3 -c "import boto3; print('boto3', boto3.__version__)"
aws configure list-profiles