To find the surface area of a combination of solids, we require breaking the complex solid into simpler shapes. Like, if we have a cone placed on top of a hemisphere, we first calculate the surface area of the cone(excluding its base) and then calculate the surface area of the hemisphere. Once we have the surface areas of the individual solids, we can simply add them together to find the total surface area. We have to carefully exclude any overlapping areas, like the base of the cone that touches the hemisphere, to avoid double-counting.