AWS exam changes / Solutions Architect – Professional
SAP-C02 vs SAP-C03: what changes in the AWS Solutions Architect – Professional exam
SAP-C03 replaces SAP-C02. The last day to take SAP-C02 is November 16, 2026, and SAP-C03 starts on November 17, 2026.
Last updated .
Key dates
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| SAP-C03 exam guide published and registration opens (done) | |
| Last day to take SAP-C02 | |
| First day to take SAP-C03 |
What changes in SAP-C03
SAP-C03 keeps the same length, time and price, but reorganizes the exam into five domains, adds generative AI and AI agents, and lowers the passing score from 750 to 720. AWS says most of the reorganization moves existing skills rather than dropping them.
| SAP-C02 | SAP-C03 | |
|---|---|---|
| Questions | 75 (65 scored) | 75 (65 scored) |
| Time | 180 minutes | 180 minutes |
| Price | $300 | $300 |
| Passing score | 750 | 720 |
| Domains | 4 | 5 |
| Question types | Multiple choice, multiple response | Multiple choice, multiple response |
Domains and weightings
The domains are now organized by theme (design, security, cost, resilience, operations) rather than by the kind of project.
| SAP-C02 | SAP-C03 |
|---|---|
| 1. Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity (26%) | 1. Architecture Design and Implementation Built for the Cloud (25%) |
| 2. Design for New Solutions (29%) | 2. Security, Compliance, and Governance (25%) |
| 3. Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions (25%) | 3. Cost-Optimized Architecture Design (15%) |
| 4. Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization (20%) | 4. Resilience, Migration, and Business Continuity (15%) |
| No domain 5 | 5. Operational Excellence and Automation (20%) |
New topics
- Generative AI and agents: Amazon Bedrock integrations, AI agent architectures (Bedrock AgentCore, Bedrock Knowledge Bases), retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and SageMaker AI inference endpoints.
- Responsible AI controls: Bedrock Guardrails for content filtering, AgentCore Identity for agent access, and human approval steps with Step Functions.
- AI costs and monitoring: pricing tiers, batching and caching for AI workloads, cross-Region inference routing, and monitoring model and agent performance, latency and drift.
- Security: application sign-in with Cognito, OAuth 2.0 and EKS Pod Identity; IAM Roles Anywhere for hybrid workloads; post-quantum cryptography with AWS KMS; data residency, AWS Artifact and threat modeling.
- Architecture: serverless data pipelines, durable multi-step workflows, service mesh, WebSocket and pub/sub, multi-tenant isolation, IPv6 and dual-stack networks, data lakes and lakehouses, and hybrid compute (EKS Anywhere, ECS Anywhere, Outposts, Local Zones).
- Operations: image and artifact scanning and signing (Amazon Inspector, Amazon ECR), multi-account and multi-Region pipelines, container monitoring with Container Insights, CloudWatch Synthetics and RUM, multi-cluster container disaster recovery, and safe automated remediation (circuit breakers, rate limits, backoff, runbooks).
Removed from the task statements
- Application upgrade paths and delegating to AWS (SAP-C02 Task 2.1).
- Security of migration tools (SAP-C02 Task 4.2).
AWS notes these may still come up as part of other skills.
Services added and removed
Now in scope: Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager, Amazon MemoryDB, Amazon Security Lake, Amazon Verified Permissions, Amazon VPC Lattice, AWS Application Auto Scaling, AWS CDK, AWS Clean Rooms, AWS Cloud WAN, AWS CodeCommit, AWS Cost Categories, AWS Data Transfer Terminal, AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry, AWS Fault Injection Service, AWS Local Zones, AWS Resilience Hub, AWS Transform, AWS Verified Access and Reserved Instances.
No longer in scope: all AWS IoT services, AppStream 2.0 and WorkSpaces, Elastic Transcoder and Kinesis Video Streams, plus CodeGuru, Lightsail, Managed Blockchain, Pinpoint, SES, Amplify, App Runner, AWS Batch, CodeArtifact, Data Exchange, Device Farm, Health Dashboard, License Manager, Proton, Service Catalog and Wavelength. Individual AI services such as Comprehend, Kendra, Lex, Polly, Rekognition, Textract, Transcribe and Translate are now covered under Amazon Bedrock and SageMaker AI rather than listed one by one.
What to study differently
Our reading of AWS’s changes, not AWS’s wording.
- Learn how to design with Amazon Bedrock: RAG with Knowledge Bases, agents with AgentCore, and Guardrails. This is the biggest new area.
- Cost is now its own domain (15%). Expect more questions on pricing models, data transfer costs, tagging and chargeback.
- Containers come up across domains: EKS and ECS for disaster recovery, monitoring and hybrid deployments.
- You can spend less time on IoT, end-user computing, media services and the individual AI services that are now out of scope.
The SAP-C03 exam guide
75 questions (65 scored, 10 unscored) in 180 minutes, $300, passing score 720 out of 1,000. Multiple choice and multiple response.
Architecture Design and Implementation Built for the Cloud (25%)
- Design architectures built for the cloud
- Integrate AI and ML services into architectures
- Design hybrid cloud integration patterns
- Design network architectures
- Design data, storage, and database architectures
Security, Compliance, and Governance (25%)
- Design identity security architectures
- Design solutions to implement encryption and key management strategies
- Design multi-account governance and compliance solutions
- Design architectures to meet compliance requirements
- Design security and responsible AI controls
Cost-Optimized Architecture Design (15%)
- Design architectures based on AWS pricing models
- Optimize data transfer and network costs
- Design cost allocation and visibility solutions
- Optimize storage and database costs
Resilience, Migration, and Business Continuity (15%)
- Design migration strategies by using AWS frameworks
- Design disaster recovery architectures
- Design solutions to meet business continuity and resiliency requirements
Operational Excellence and Automation (20%)
- Design infrastructure as code
- Design CI/CD and DevSecOps pipelines
- Design observability and monitoring solutions
- Design operational automation and resilient systems
Source: AWS SAP-C03 exam guide.
The SAP-C02 exam guide
75 questions (65 scored, 10 unscored) in 180 minutes, $300, passing score 750 out of 1,000. Multiple choice and multiple response.
Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity (26%)
- Architect network connectivity strategies
- Prescribe security controls
- Design reliable and resilient architectures
- Design a multi-account AWS environment
- Determine cost optimization and visibility strategies
Design for New Solutions (29%)
- Design a deployment strategy to meet business requirements
- Design a solution to ensure business continuity
- Determine security controls based on requirements
- Design a strategy to meet reliability requirements
- Design a solution to meet performance objectives
- Determine a cost optimization strategy to meet solution goals and objectives
Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions (25%)
- Determine a strategy to improve overall operational excellence
- Determine a strategy to improve security
- Determine a strategy to improve performance
- Determine a strategy to improve reliability
- Identify opportunities for cost optimizations
Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization (20%)
- Select existing workloads and processes for potential migration
- Determine the optimal migration approach for existing workloads
- Determine a new architecture for existing workloads
- Determine opportunities for modernization and enhancements
Source: AWS SAP-C02 exam guide.
Which version should you take?
- Ready by November 16, 2026: take SAP-C02. Its exam guide and most study material match it.
- Sitting on or after November 17: you’ll take SAP-C03. Add the new topics above to your plan, especially generative AI and agents.
- Either version earns the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional certification.
Source for the changes: AWS: Comparison of SAP-C02 and SAP-C03.
Practicing on ExamPark
The free Solutions Architect – Professional practice exam follows the SAP-C03 exam guide, with all five domains, including the new generative AI and cost topics. TheSAP-C03 study guide covers every topic in the guide.