The architect-level credential path across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and TOGAF — which certifications to sequence, and the experience that must sit beneath them.
Nobody is hired as a solutions architect because of a certificate — but very few people get the interview without one. That is the honest tension at the heart of this career move. The architect role is a judgement job: weighing cost against resilience, choosing between managed services and control, translating business constraints into technical designs and defending those designs to sceptical engineers and non-technical stakeholders alike. Certifications cannot teach judgement, but the architect-level exams from AWS, Microsoft and The Open Group are deliberately built to test it — which is why they remain the most reliable way for an engineer to make an architect ambition legible to employers.
This guide maps the credential path from working engineer to solutions architect across the four tracks that matter: AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and TOGAF. It is about stepping up to architecture; if what you want is the hands-on cloud engineering track itself, that ladder is laid out separately in our cloud engineer certification path.
Short answer: pick the cloud your target employers run, earn its associate-level architect credential first (AWS Solutions Architect – Associate, or AZ-104 on the Microsoft side), spend one to two years designing real systems, then take the professional/expert-level exam (SAP-C02 or AZ-305). Add TOGAF only when your ambitions point at enterprise architecture in large organisations. No certificate substitutes for having designed something real — the exams at the top of these tracks assume production experience and punish its absence.
Before spending money on exams, be clear about the role you are aiming at, because three different jobs share the title:
Most engineers reading this are aiming at the first or second. The path below serves all three, but the TOGAF section is only worth your time for the third — or for consultancies that ask for it by name.
AWS's architect ladder is the most widely pursued in the industry, and AWS reported more than 1.42 million active AWS certifications as of January 2025 — a scale that cuts both ways: strong employer recognition, but the associate credential alone no longer differentiates you.
The current version as of August 2026 is SAA-C03 (no SAA-C04 has been announced — ignore rumours). It is a 65-question, 130-minute, multiple-choice/multiple-response exam costing US$150 (local pricing varies), with a scaled passing score of 720. AWS sets no formal prerequisites but recommends at least a year of hands-on AWS design experience, and the exam reflects that: questions are scenario-based, asking which design best satisfies stated cost, availability or security constraints.
Treat SAA as the entry ticket to the architect conversation, not the destination. Once you have covered the domains, a timed set of AWS Solutions Architect Associate practice questions will tell you whether you are reasoning through scenarios or pattern-matching keywords — the exam is designed to punish the latter.
The professional exam is where the architect signal really lives: 75 questions in 180 minutes, US$300, passing score 750 scaled. Again there are no formal prerequisites — AWS recommends two-plus years designing on AWS — but the questions assume you have lived with the consequences of designs: multi-account strategies, migration sequencing, hybrid connectivity, cost trade-offs at organisational scale.
Two pieces of AWS mechanics worth exploiting. All AWS certifications last three years, and passing SAP-C02 automatically renews your Solutions Architect – Associate and Cloud Practitioner — so a well-timed Professional attempt resets your whole AWS transcript. And any active AWS certification earns a 50% discount voucher for your next exam, which takes meaningful money off the $300 Professional fee if you sequence Associate → Professional inside three years. When you get to the readiness stage, full-length SAP-C02 practice tests under exam timing are close to essential — 180 minutes of dense scenario reading is a stamina problem as much as a knowledge problem.
Microsoft structures its architect path differently from AWS in one decisive way: Azure Solutions Architect Expert has a hard prerequisite. To earn the certification you must hold Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) and pass exam AZ-305 (Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions). Passing AZ-305 alone awards nothing. AZ-305 is one of only two Microsoft certifications with a mandatory certification prerequisite, so the Azure path is genuinely a two-exam sequence:
Microsoft prices exams by country (US associate/expert exams are commonly cited around US$165 — confirm on Microsoft Learn), passing is 700 on a 1,000-point scaled score (not 70%), and role-based certifications expire after one year but renew free via an open-book online assessment. That free annual renewal makes the Azure track the cheapest of the four to maintain, whatever it costs to earn. Keep AZ-104 current — it is the foundation your expert credential rests on.
If you already hold AZ-104 and are weighing the architect route against DevOps or security, that specific three-way decision is worked through in what certification to take after Azure Administrator.
Google Cloud's architect credential is the Professional Cloud Architect, sitting above the Associate Cloud Engineer (US$125 per common trackers, though one source lists $200 — confirm on cloud.google.com). Google Cloud certifications are valid for three years. The Professional Cloud Architect's current exam format and fee were not independently verified for this article, so take those details from Google's official certification page rather than third-party summaries.
Strategically, the GCP track makes sense when your target employers are GCP shops — data-heavy businesses and digital natives feature prominently — or when you are adding a second cloud to an existing AWS or Azure architect profile. As a first architect credential in a market where most enterprises run AWS or Azure, it narrows your options rather than widening them.
The Open Group's TOGAF Enterprise Architecture certification program, based on the TOGAF Standard, 10th Edition, replaced the old TOGAF 9.2 exams. It has two levels — Foundation (Part 1) and Practitioner (Part 2) — plus a bridge exam for TOGAF 9 Certified holders. On The Open Group's current retail fee schedule, Part 1 and Part 2 cost US$405 each, while the combined Part 1 + 2 exam is US$610 — a US$200 saving if you commit to both at once. Fees vary by region; question counts and durations should be taken from the official exam datasheet.
Where TOGAF fits: it certifies a method for enterprise architecture — governance, architecture development, stakeholder management — rather than any platform's services. Large enterprises, government bodies and consultancies ask for it; product companies rarely do. The pragmatic guidance:
| Factor | AWS (SAA → SAP-C02) | Azure (AZ-104 → AZ-305) | Google Cloud (ACE → PCA) | TOGAF EA (Part 1 + 2) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prerequisites | None formal (experience recommended) | AZ-104 mandatory for the Expert cert | None formal | Foundation before Practitioner (or combined exam) |
| Cost (list, USD) | $150 + $300 | Country-based (~$165 cited per exam) | ACE ~$125; PCA — see official page | $405 + $405, or $610 combined |
| Difficulty driver | Long scenario questions, breadth of services | Design trade-offs on the Azure estate | Platform design (verify current format) | Method and terminology precision |
| Validity / renewal | 3 years; SAP renews SAA and CLF | 1 year; free open-book online renewal | 3 years | Certification levels; check Open Group policy |
| Best for | Broadest market recognition | Microsoft-centred enterprises | GCP shops; second-cloud add-on | Enterprise architecture, consultancies, public sector |
| Career story | Cloud/pre-sales architect | Cloud architect in Azure estates | Cloud architect in GCP estates | Enterprise architect |
There is no universal winner here: the right track is the one your target employers run, and the table exists to match tracks to circumstances, not to rank them.
Architect exams at the professional tier assume you have designed real systems, and interviews will probe for it harder than any exam does. A realistic bridge for a mid-level engineer looks like this:
A worked example: a platform engineer with four years on Azure, comfortable with networking and IaC but new to formal design work, could take AZ-104 this quarter (much of it validates existing skills), spend the next two quarters owning two design documents and their reviews, then sit AZ-305 — reaching Azure Solutions Architect Expert in roughly a year with genuine designs to discuss in interviews. The same engineer buying AZ-305 study time before doing any design work would hold the same badge and fail the same interviews.
If you are on AWS: SAA-C03 within three months, one to two years of deliberate design work, then SAP-C02 with the 50% voucher. If you are on Azure: AZ-104, then AZ-305 once design work is part of your role — two exams to an Expert credential. On GCP, run Associate Cloud Engineer into Professional Cloud Architect on the same rhythm. Add TOGAF when — and only when — enterprise architecture is genuinely the next rung. For how this architect track slots into the wider multi-provider landscape of cloud credentials, see our comparison of the best cloud computing certifications; and wherever you start, browse the certification exams directory to find sample questions for the exam you have chosen.
The credential path is well marked. The differentiator is what you design between the exams.
Exam facts in this guide were checked against official certification-provider pages on . Fees, exam codes and policies change — confirm on the provider’s own site before you book.
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