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Solutions Architect roadmap

You design scalable, secure systems on AWS. Build your foundation, then earn the core design certification (SAA) to strengthen your job prospects, and go deeper with the professional-level certification (SAP) for large-scale, complex architectures.

In a design role, you need to be able to explain not just “what to choose” but “why you chose it.” Without first learning the service landscape through CLF, all four options in an SAA scenario question can look plausible. SAA mostly covers design within a single account and a single Region; SAP adds multi-account design, hybrid connectivity and migration on top of that. If you skip SAA and go straight to SAP, there will be stretches where you cannot even read the premise of the question.

Certifications: 3
Curriculum length: 34 weeks · 170 days
Total exam fees: $550

Solutions Architect certification exams at a glance

Exam	Questions · Time	Passing score	Exam fee	Recommended level
CLF-C02	65 questions · 90 min	700 / 1000	$100	Foundational · No prior knowledge required
SAA-C03	65 questions · 130 min	720 / 1000	$150	Intermediate · 1-2 years of relevant hands-on experience recommended
SAP-C02	75 questions · 180 min	750 / 1000	$300	Advanced · 2+ years of hands-on experience recommended

How to study for the Solutions Architect certifications

SAA is not an exam about memorizing service names; it asks you to pick the combination that fits a set of requirements. For each service, be able to say in one line whether you use it for cost, availability or performance.
Foundational services such as VPC, IAM, S3, EC2 and RDS sit underneath most of the questions. If you skip the networking and storage weeks at the start, the architecture questions later on will all stall you.
SAP extends the scope of SAA to multiple accounts and multiple Regions. It is more efficient to take it after passing SAA and gaining experience with Organizations, hybrid networking and migration.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to start with CLF to become a solutions architect?: It is not required. If you already have hands-on AWS experience, you can start with SAA. If the cloud is new to you, learning the terminology and billing structure with CLF first will cut down your SAA study time.
What is the difference between SAA and SAP?: SAA tests whether you can design a single workload to fit its requirements; SAP tests whether you can make judgments across multiple accounts and organization-level design, migration and cost optimization. The question stems are long and every answer candidate looks plausible, so time management is the key.
Can someone without a related degree earn a solutions architect certification?: Yes. However, if your grasp of networking (subnets, routing) and security (IAM policies) is weak, your wrong answers will pile up there. Reading those weeks slowly and checking why you got a practice question wrong in its explanation works well.
How long does it take to finish the Solutions Architect roadmap?: In the order CLF-C02 → SAA-C03 → SAP-C02, that comes to 34 weeks (170 days in total) of the CertNote curriculum. We based this on reading one day's lesson per day; if you have hands-on experience, you can move quickly through the weeks you already know. The exam fees add up to $550 in total.

The notes for every certification are free in every week. Prepare in order to fit your target role. Exam fees are based on the official AWS exam guides; exchange rates and taxes at the time of payment are extra.

Solutions Architect certification exams at a glance

Exam	Questions · Time	Passing score	Exam fee	Recommended level
CLF-C02	65 questions · 90 min	700 / 1000	$100	Foundational · No prior knowledge required
SAA-C03	65 questions · 130 min	720 / 1000	$150	Intermediate · 1-2 years of relevant hands-on experience recommended
SAP-C02	75 questions · 180 min	750 / 1000	$300	Advanced · 2+ years of hands-on experience recommended

How to study for the Solutions Architect certifications

SAA is not an exam about memorizing service names; it asks you to pick the combination that fits a set of requirements. For each service, be able to say in one line whether you use it for cost, availability or performance.

Foundational services such as VPC, IAM, S3, EC2 and RDS sit underneath most of the questions. If you skip the networking and storage weeks at the start, the architecture questions later on will all stall you.

SAP extends the scope of SAA to multiple accounts and multiple Regions. It is more efficient to take it after passing SAA and gaining experience with Organizations, hybrid networking and migration.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to start with CLF to become a solutions architect?

It is not required. If you already have hands-on AWS experience, you can start with SAA. If the cloud is new to you, learning the terminology and billing structure with CLF first will cut down your SAA study time.

What is the difference between SAA and SAP?

SAA tests whether you can design a single workload to fit its requirements; SAP tests whether you can make judgments across multiple accounts and organization-level design, migration and cost optimization. The question stems are long and every answer candidate looks plausible, so time management is the key.

Can someone without a related degree earn a solutions architect certification?

Yes. However, if your grasp of networking (subnets, routing) and security (IAM policies) is weak, your wrong answers will pile up there. Reading those weeks slowly and checking why you got a practice question wrong in its explanation works well.

How long does it take to finish the Solutions Architect roadmap?

In the order CLF-C02 → SAA-C03 → SAP-C02, that comes to 34 weeks (170 days in total) of the CertNote curriculum. We based this on reading one day's lesson per day; if you have hands-on experience, you can move quickly through the weeks you already know. The exam fees add up to $550 in total.