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AWS · SAP-C02 Professional architect exam

1. SAP-C02 as the Current AWS Architect Professional Exam

The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional (SAP-C02) exam is the current version of AWS’s flagship architect certification. It validates that candidates can design, deploy and optimize complex solutions on AWS for large-scale and enterprise environments.

Compared with associate-level exams, SAP-C02 puts much more emphasis on multi-account setups, governance, hybrid networking, migrations and cost optimization at scale.

2. 2025 Focus: Multi-Account and Governance

One of the strongest themes in the SAP-C02 blueprint is multi-account governance. Real enterprises rarely run everything in a single account. Instead, they rely on:

  • AWS Organizations and AWS Control Tower for landing zones and account baselines.
  • Service control policies (SCPs) for central guardrails and restrictions.
  • Centralized logging, monitoring and security services across multiple accounts and regions.

For the exam, you must be able to choose the right account strategy, define OU structures, and explain how to centralize shared services (DNS, logging, security tooling) without creating operational bottlenecks.

3. Hybrid Networking and Connectivity Design

Another major focus area for SAP-C02 is networking at scale:

  • Designing VPCs, subnets and routing for large environments.
  • Choosing between AWS Direct Connect, VPN and Transit Gateway for hybrid connectivity.
  • Securing and monitoring traffic using Network Firewall, NACLs, security groups and inspection VPCs.

Many exam scenarios combine on-premises data centers, multiple VPCs and shared services, forcing you to balance performance, security and cost.

4. Migration and Modernization Scenarios

Large-scale migration is another core theme of the SAP-C02 exam. You are expected to:

  • Choose between re-hosting, re-platforming, refactoring and other migration strategies.
  • Understand tools such as AWS Application Migration Service, Database Migration Service (DMS) and Snow services.
  • Design migration waves, cutover strategies and rollback approaches.

Many questions ask you to design a migration path that minimizes downtime while also reducing risk and respecting compliance constraints.

5. Cost Optimization and Resilience Together

In 2025, cost optimization is not optional. The SAP-C02 exam expects you to combine:

  • Right sizing, Savings Plans and Reserved Instances.
  • Storage tiering (S3 storage classes, EBS GP vs IO classes, archival strategies).
  • Autoscaling and demand-based architectures.

At the same time, solutions must remain resilient and highly available. The exam often tests your ability to select architectures that are both cost-optimized and compliant with RPO/RTO targets, sometimes across multiple regions.

6. How to Prepare for AWS SAP-C02

A good SAP-C02 study plan usually includes:

  • Thorough review of the official SAP-C02 exam guide and sample questions.
  • Hands-on labs that build multi-account setups, hybrid connectivity and DR scenarios.
  • One main in-depth course or book to structure your understanding.
  • An AWS SAP-C02 question bank to simulate case-study and scenario-based questions.

Rather than memorizing services in isolation, you should think in terms of architectural patterns and trade-offs.

Article Details

  • Certification: AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional
  • Exam Code: SAP-C02
  • Focus: Multi-account, networking, migrations, cost optimization

SAP-C02 Practice

Prepare for complex AWS architecture scenarios with realistic SAP-C02-style questions that cover governance, networking, resilience and cost optimization together.

View AWS SAP-C02 Question Bank