AWS Solution Architect – Associate Cheat Sheet Ultimate Quick Revision Guide for Certification

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🌐 Introduction

This cheat sheet is a quick revision guide for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate exam, covering core AWS services, use cases, and key concepts you must remember.

It’s designed to help you revise faster, retain better, and connect concepts with real-world use cases.

📄 Source: Converted from your PDF

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🌍 1. AWS Global Infrastructure

• Regions → Geographical areas with multiple data centers 👉 Use Case: Deploy applications closer to users for low latency

• Availability Zones (AZs) → Isolated data centers within a region 👉 Use Case: High availability using Multi-AZ deployments

• Edge Locations → CDN points of presence 👉 Use Case: Deliver content globally with low latency

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⚙️ 2. Compute Services

🖥️ Amazon EC2

• Resizable compute capacity

Instance Types:

• General Purpose → Balanced workloads (t2, t3)

• Compute Optimized → CPU intensive (c5)

• Memory Optimized → RAM heavy (r5)

• Storage Optimized → High I/O (i3)

Pricing Models:

• On-Demand

• Reserved Instances

• Spot Instances

• Dedicated Hosts

Key Features:

• Security Groups

• Elastic IP

• Auto Scaling

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⚡ AWS Lambda

• Serverless compute 👉 Use Case: Event-driven workloads (e.g., S3 triggers)

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🚀 Elastic Beanstalk

• PaaS for application deployment 👉 Use Case: Deploy apps without managing infra

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💾 3. Storage Services

🪣 Amazon S3

• Object storage (high durability)

Features:

• Buckets

• Versioning

• Lifecycle Policies

• Encryption

Storage Classes:

• Standard

• Intelligent-Tiering

• Standard-IA

• Glacier

👉 Use Case: Store static website assets

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💽 Amazon EBS

• Block storage for EC2

Types:

• gp2/gp3 → General purpose

• io1/io2 → High performance

• st1 → Throughput optimized

• sc1 → Cold storage

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📂 Amazon EFS

• Scalable shared file storage

👉 Use Case: Multiple EC2 instances accessing same data

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🗄️ 4. Database Services

🛢️ Amazon RDS

• Managed relational database

Features:

• Multi-AZ → High availability

• Read Replicas → Scaling reads

• Automated backups

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⚡ Amazon DynamoDB

• NoSQL database

Features:

• Single-digit ms latency

• DAX (in-memory cache)

👉 Use Case: Session storage

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📊 Amazon Redshift

• Data warehouse

👉 Use Case: Analytics on large datasets

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🌐 5. Networking Services

🏗️ Amazon VPC

• Isolated network

Components:

• Subnets

• Route Tables

• Internet Gateway

• NAT Gateway

👉 Use Case: Secure application networking

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🌍 Amazon Route 53

• DNS service

Routing Policies:

• Simple

• Weighted

• Latency

• Failover

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⚡ Amazon CloudFront

• CDN service

👉 Use Case: Low-latency content delivery

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🔐 6. Security & Identity Services

👤 AWS IAM

• Manage access

Components:

• Users

• Groups

• Roles

• Policies

Best Practices:

• Least privilege

• Enable MFA

• Use roles instead of credentials

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🔑 AWS KMS

• Manage encryption keys

👉 Use Case: Encrypt S3, RDS data

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📊 7. Monitoring & Management

📈 Amazon CloudWatch

• Metrics, Logs, Alarms

👉 Use Case: Monitor EC2 performance

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📝 AWS CloudTrail

• Audit logs

👉 Use Case: Track API activity

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🏗️ AWS CloudFormation

• Infrastructure as Code

👉 Use Case: Automate deployments

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🔧 8. Additional Services

⚡ AWS ElastiCache

• In-memory caching

👉 Use Case: Improve app performance

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📩 AWS SQS

• Message queue

👉 Use Case: Decouple microservices

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📢 AWS SNS

• Pub/Sub notifications

👉 Use Case: Alerts via email/SMS

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🎯 Exam Tips

• Practice hands-on in AWS Console

• Review AWS whitepapers & FAQs

• Take mock exams

• Focus on architecture patterns + use cases

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📝 Exam Details

• Duration: 120 minutes

• Questions: ~60

• Passing Score: 720 / 1000

• Format: MCQs + Multiple response

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🧠 Final Thoughts

This cheat sheet is your last-minute revision weapon.

Focus on:

• Use cases (most important)

• Service differences (e.g., S3 vs EBS vs EFS)

• Architecture patterns (HA, DR, scalability)

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