Here's the full SAA-C03 cost picture — the AWS fees you'll pay, plus how to keep your total down by passing on the first attempt.
| Item | Fee (USD) |
|---|---|
| Exam fee | $150 |
| Retake | Full exam fee (14-day wait after a failed attempt) |
| Recertification | Every 3 years — 50% voucher for the renewal exam |
The exam fee is $150 USD (regional pricing may differ — verify on aws.amazon.com). A 50% recertification voucher applies when you renew, and you must wait 14 days before retaking a failed attempt.
The biggest hidden cost of any certification is the retake — fail once and you pay the exam fee again, plus weeks of lost momentum. The cheapest way to sit SAA-C03 once is to walk in genuinely ready.
That's where affordable practice pays for itself: ExamDeck is $15 for lifetime SAA-C03 access (or $19/month All-Access across every exam) — a fraction of the exam fee — with original questions, an explanation for every option, and a readiness report that tells you when you're ready to book.
6 free questions · per-area readiness · no dumps · no ads.
Start free →Yes — as of September 2026 aws.amazon.com lists SAA-C03 (exam guide v1.1) with no retirement notice. Blog posts predicting an 'SAA-C04' date are not confirmed by AWS; check the official exam page before you book.
Cloud Practitioner tests whether you know what AWS services are for; SAA-C03 tests whether you can choose between them under constraints — security, resilience, performance and cost. Expect long scenarios and several plausible options.
No — SAA-C03 is a written exam (multiple choice and multiple response). Hands-on experience matters because the scenarios describe real configurations, but you are never asked to build anything during the exam.
65 questions (50 scored plus 15 unscored pilot items) in 130 minutes, at a Pearson VUE test centre or online with a proctor.
The passing score is 720 on a scaled score of 100–1,000 (roughly 72%). Aim for a consistent 80–85% on realistic practice exams before booking.
AWS does not publish official pass rates, so any exact percentage quoted online is unverified. The readiness signal that actually predicts passing: consistently holding 80–85% on realistic, full-length practice exams before you book.
No prerequisites and no required lower-level certification — you can book SAA-C03 directly. AWS's target candidate has at least 1 year of hands-on experience designing cloud solutions that use AWS services.
The exam fee is $150 USD (regional pricing may differ — verify on aws.amazon.com). A 50% recertification voucher applies when you renew, and you must wait 14 days before retaking a failed attempt.
For most candidates, commonly reported 80–120 hours, less with daily hands-on AWS work (AWS publishes no official figure). What matters most is practising questions and analysing why each option is right or wrong — not just reading.
valid for 3 years; renew by passing the latest version of SAA or a Professional-level AWS exam (50% voucher), or maintain for 1 year at a time through AWS Skill Builder.
No — every question is original, written to test the concepts and reviewed before it ships, with an explanation linked to the source for every option. Dumps are stale, often wrong, and against AWS's policies.