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A multinational firm must enforce centralized governance: consolidated billing, a shared landing-zone network, and service control guardrails across hundreds of Alibaba Cloud accounts. Which capability provides multi-account organization and policy enforcement?

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B
C
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2026 Statistics

Key Facts: SAE-C01 Exam

$280

Exam Fee (USD)

Alibaba Cloud

120 min

Exam Duration

Alibaba Cloud

~80/100

Passing Score

Alibaba Cloud

~100

Approximate Questions

Alibaba Cloud

Expert

Certification Level

Alibaba Cloud

Replaced ACE Cloud Computing Expert

Successor Exam

Alibaba Cloud

The Alibaba Cloud Certified Expert - Solutions Architect (SAE-C01) is an expert-level exam delivered at Pearson VUE test centers, with roughly 100 questions, about 120 minutes, a passing mark of approximately 80 out of 100, and a fee of $280 USD. It is the current exam that replaced the retired ACE Cloud Computing Expert certification. Alibaba Cloud does not publish a public pass-rate percentage for this exam, and several logistics such as the exact retake-wait policy and precise question count are not officially detailed, so confirm current specifics at registration.

Sample SAE-C01 Practice Questions

Try these sample questions to test your SAE-C01 exam readiness. Each question includes a detailed explanation. Start the interactive quiz above for the full 100+ question experience with AI tutoring.

1An enterprise must run an active-active web application across the China (Hangzhou) and Singapore regions with sub-second failover and consistent low latency for a global user base. Which Alibaba Cloud service routes users over the optimized backbone using anycast IP addresses and provides cross-region failover at the network ingress?
A.Global Accelerator (GA) with endpoint groups in each region
B.Server Load Balancer (SLB) with cross-zone balancing only
C.Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN) Transit Router
D.Express Connect physical connection
Explanation: Global Accelerator (GA) provides static anycast IP addresses and routes user traffic across Alibaba Cloud's optimized global backbone to endpoint groups in multiple regions. By placing an endpoint group in each region, GA delivers low-latency proximity routing and automatic cross-region failover for active-active designs. It operates at the global ingress layer above regional load balancers.
2A solutions architect is designing a workload that must survive the loss of an entire availability zone with no data loss for transactional data. Which deployment pattern best meets a zero RPO requirement within a single region?
A.Deploy ECS in one zone and take daily snapshots to OSS
B.Deploy ApsaraDB RDS in a multi-zone (high-availability) configuration with synchronous replication across zones
C.Deploy a single-zone PolarDB cluster with read replicas in the same zone
D.Deploy ECS across two zones with asynchronous database replication
Explanation: An RDS multi-zone high-availability instance keeps a primary and standby in separate availability zones with synchronous replication, so a committed transaction exists in both zones before acknowledgment. This achieves a zero RPO for the database and automatic failover if the primary zone fails. Asynchronous replication or single-zone designs cannot guarantee zero data loss on zone failure.
3A company wants to interconnect VPCs in five regions plus an on-premises data center into a single mesh with automatic route propagation and bandwidth management between regions. Which Alibaba Cloud service is purpose-built for this?
A.VPC Peering between each pair of VPCs
B.Multiple VPN Gateways with static routes
C.Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN) with Transit Routers and bandwidth plans
D.Server Load Balancer in each region
Explanation: Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN) connects VPCs, VBRs (for on-premises), and other network instances across regions into a global mesh with automatic route learning through Transit Routers. Cross-region bandwidth is managed with CEN bandwidth plans. This avoids the O(n squared) complexity of building full-mesh peering manually.
4Which Alibaba Cloud service performs heterogeneous database migration and continuous data synchronization between an on-premises Oracle database and ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL with minimal downtime?
A.Object Storage Service (OSS)
B.Cloud Backup (HBR)
C.Data Lake Analytics (DLA)
D.Data Transmission Service (DTS)
Explanation: Data Transmission Service (DTS) supports schema migration, full data migration, and incremental change synchronization between heterogeneous engines such as Oracle and MySQL. The incremental sync phase lets the source stay live until cutover, enabling near-zero-downtime migrations. DTS also powers ongoing replication and data integration pipelines.
5An architect needs infrastructure as code to provision and version entire Alibaba Cloud environments (VPCs, ECS, RDS, SLB) declaratively with stack lifecycle management. Which native service should be used?
A.Resource Orchestration Service (ROS)
B.CloudMonitor
C.Operation Orchestration Service for ad hoc scripts only
D.Auto Scaling
Explanation: Resource Orchestration Service (ROS) is Alibaba Cloud's native infrastructure-as-code service. You define resources in a JSON or YAML template and ROS provisions, updates, and deletes them as a managed stack, supporting versioning and repeatable deployments. ROS is also Terraform-compatible for hybrid IaC workflows.
6A multinational firm must enforce centralized governance: consolidated billing, a shared landing-zone network, and service control guardrails across hundreds of Alibaba Cloud accounts. Which capability provides multi-account organization and policy enforcement?
A.RAM users within a single account
B.Resource Directory with Control Policies and a Resource Account structure
C.Security Group rules applied per account
D.ActionTrail enabled in each account independently
Explanation: Resource Directory lets an enterprise organize many Alibaba Cloud accounts into folders under a management account, with consolidated billing and Control Policies that act as guardrails on what member accounts can do. This is the foundation of an enterprise landing zone and multi-account governance. RAM alone governs identities within a single account.
7An OSS bucket stores large media files. The architect wants objects automatically transitioned to Infrequent Access after 30 days, to Archive after 90 days, and deleted after 365 days. What feature accomplishes this without custom code?
A.Cross-region replication
B.Versioning
C.OSS lifecycle rules
D.Server-side encryption with KMS
Explanation: OSS lifecycle rules automatically transition objects between storage classes (Standard, Infrequent Access, Archive, Cold Archive) and expire them based on age or last-access time. Defining tiered transitions and an expiration action implements cost optimization with no application changes. This is a core large-scale storage cost-management technique.
8A read-heavy SaaS application experiences hot read traffic on a MySQL primary. The architect needs to scale reads transparently and balance them across replicas without changing the application's single endpoint. Which ApsaraDB RDS capability fits best?
A.Manually create replicas and have developers code routing logic
B.Migrate to a single-node deployment
C.Increase the primary instance class only
D.Enable a read/write splitting endpoint that distributes reads across read-only instances
Explanation: ApsaraDB RDS provides a read/write splitting (database proxy) endpoint that automatically routes write statements to the primary and distributes read statements across read-only instances by weight. The application uses one connection string, so no routing logic is coded. This scales read throughput elastically while keeping writes consistent.
9A company needs petabyte-scale interactive analytics and real-time OLAP dashboards over data ingested from RDS and Kafka. Which Alibaba Cloud database service is purpose-built for this analytical workload?
A.AnalyticDB (ADB)
B.ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL
C.Tablestore for wide-column key-value access
D.ApsaraDB for Redis
Explanation: AnalyticDB (ADB) is Alibaba Cloud's massively parallel data warehouse for real-time, high-concurrency OLAP and interactive analytics at petabyte scale. It ingests from sources such as RDS and Kafka and serves low-latency aggregations for BI dashboards. RDS is optimized for OLTP, not large analytical scans.
10An event-driven image-processing pipeline must run code only when files are uploaded to OSS, scale automatically to thousands of concurrent invocations, and incur no cost when idle. Which service should the architect choose?
A.ECS instances behind an SLB
B.Function Compute triggered by OSS events
C.A fixed-size ACK node pool
D.Elastic Container Instance running continuously
Explanation: Function Compute is Alibaba Cloud's serverless compute service that runs code in response to events such as OSS object creation, scales automatically to handle concurrency, and bills only for actual execution time and resources. This makes it ideal for bursty, event-driven processing with no idle cost. Servers would otherwise sit idle and incur charges.

About the SAE-C01 Exam

The Alibaba Cloud Certified Expert - Solutions Architect (SAE-C01) exam validates expert-level skills in designing, deploying, and operating complex, highly available, and cost-optimized architectures on Alibaba Cloud. Coverage spans security and governance, cloud-native and serverless services, multi-region public cloud architectures, networking, databases, hybrid cloud connectivity and migration, storage, and compute. SAE-C01 is the current expert exam that replaced the retired ACE Cloud Computing Expert certification.

Questions

100 scored questions

Time Limit

120 minutes

Passing Score

Approximately 80/100

Exam Fee

$280 (Alibaba Cloud)

SAE-C01 Exam Content Outline

20-25%

Security services

Design identity and access with RAM users, roles, and STS, organize accounts with Resource Directory and Control Policies, protect data with KMS, managed HSM, and OSS WORM, and defend workloads with Cloud Firewall, WAF, and Security Center while meeting governance and compliance requirements.

15-20%

Cloud-native services

Architect container platforms with Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK) and Elastic Container Instance (ECI), build event-driven serverless workloads on Function Compute, publish and govern APIs with API Gateway, decouple with RocketMQ, run canary releases with Service Mesh (ASM), and automate infrastructure with Resource Orchestration Service (ROS).

12-16%

Public cloud architectures

Design highly available, multi-region, and active-active systems, set and meet RPO and RTO targets for disaster recovery, use PolarDB Global Database Network for cross-region resilience, and apply availability-zone and region patterns for fault tolerance.

10-14%

Networking services

Build VPC and vSwitch designs, interconnect regions and on-premises with Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN) and Transit Routers, accelerate global traffic with Global Accelerator and Global Traffic Manager, distribute load with ALB and NLB, control egress with NAT Gateway, and deliver content with CDN.

10-14%

Database services

Choose between ApsaraDB RDS with high availability and read/write splitting, PolarDB compute-storage separation, AnalyticDB for OLAP, and ApsaraDB for Redis global cache, and migrate heterogeneous databases with near-zero downtime using Data Transmission Service (DTS).

8-12%

Hybrid cloud

Connect data centers with Express Connect and Virtual Border Routers or VPN Gateway, migrate servers with Server Migration Center, move bulk data with offline Data Transport, and manage hybrid fleets centrally with Cloud Assistant.

6-9%

Storage services

Optimize OSS with storage classes, lifecycle rules, and Cold Archive for low-cost retention, provide concurrent shared access with Apsara File Storage NAS, and select Enhanced SSD (ESSD) performance levels for demanding block-storage workloads.

6-9%

Compute services

Select ECS instance types and pricing models, scale elastically with Auto Scaling and availability-preserving minimums, and reduce cost on steady workloads with subscription and savings-plan commitments instead of pay-as-you-go.

How to Pass the SAE-C01 Exam

What You Need to Know

  • Passing score: Approximately 80/100
  • Exam length: 100 questions
  • Time limit: 120 minutes
  • Exam fee: $280

Keys to Passing

  • Complete 500+ practice questions
  • Score 80%+ consistently before scheduling
  • Focus on highest-weighted sections
  • Use our AI tutor for tough concepts

SAE-C01 Study Tips from Top Performers

1Spend the most study time on security and governance: RAM roles and STS, Resource Directory Control Policies, KMS and managed HSM, OSS WORM, Cloud Firewall, WAF, and Security Center, since security is the heaviest area in this bank.
2Master multi-region and active-active patterns, including Global Accelerator, Global Traffic Manager, CEN Transit Routers, and PolarDB Global Database Network, with clear RPO and RTO reasoning.
3Know the cloud-native stack: when to choose ACK with ECI virtual nodes, Function Compute, API Gateway, RocketMQ, Service Mesh canary routing, and ROS for infrastructure as code.
4Compare database options precisely: RDS multi-zone HA and read/write splitting, PolarDB compute-storage separation, AnalyticDB for OLAP, Redis global cache, and DTS for heterogeneous migration.
5Understand storage and cost trade-offs: OSS storage classes and lifecycle rules, Cold Archive economics, NAS for shared files, ESSD performance levels, and subscription versus pay-as-you-go for steady compute.
6Practice hybrid connectivity and migration: Express Connect with VBRs, VPN Gateway, Server Migration Center, offline Data Transport for large datasets, and Cloud Assistant for unified operations.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the verified exam facts for the Alibaba Cloud Expert Solutions Architect (SAE-C01)?

It is an expert-level exam delivered at Pearson VUE test centers with roughly 100 questions, about 120 minutes, a passing mark of approximately 80 out of 100, and a fee of $280 USD. It replaced the retired ACE Cloud Computing Expert certification.

Does Alibaba Cloud publish a pass rate for this exam?

No. Alibaba Cloud does not publish a public exam-level pass-rate percentage for the Expert Solutions Architect exam. Treat any specific percentage you see elsewhere as unofficial.

What did the SAE-C01 exam replace?

SAE-C01 is the current expert solutions architect exam that replaced the retired ACE (Alibaba Cloud Certified Expert) Cloud Computing Expert certification.

What domains are weighted most heavily on the exam?

This practice bank weights security services most heavily, followed by cloud-native services and multi-region public cloud architectures, with additional coverage of networking, databases, hybrid cloud, storage, and compute. Confirm the current official domain weights at registration.

What experience does Alibaba Cloud recommend before this exam?

Alibaba Cloud recommends substantial hands-on experience designing, deploying, and operating large-scale Alibaba Cloud architectures, commonly after earning a professional (ACP) level credential.

Where and how is the exam delivered?

The exam is a proctored test delivered at Pearson VUE test centers. Confirm scheduling, retake rules, and current logistics through the Alibaba Cloud certification catalog when you register.