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AWS · SOA-C03 · Intermediate

AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer - Associate

Validates ability to deploy, manage, and operate workloads on AWS. 65+ AI-generated practice questions with explanations. Free trial, pass guarantee.

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65 Questions
130min Time Limit
720/ 1000 Pass Score
$150 Exam Fee

Overview

About the exam

The AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate validates the ability to deploy, manage, and operate workloads on AWS. It covers provisioning and maintaining systems, implementing operational controls, automating processes, monitoring with CloudWatch, managing security and compliance, and implementing networking and content delivery.

This certification is designed for systems administrators and operations professionals with at least one year of hands-on AWS experience. It is unique among AWS certifications for including exam lab questions that test practical skills in a live AWS console environment alongside traditional multiple-choice questions.

Exam Domains

What's on the exam

The exam consists of 65 questions (50 scored, 15 unscored) over 180 minutes, combining multiple-choice, multiple-response, and hands-on exam lab questions. Labs require completing tasks in a live AWS console environment and account for roughly 20% of the score. Time management is critical — complete multiple-choice questions efficiently to reserve enough time for labs.

Monitoring, Logging, Analysis, Remediation, and Performance Optimization 22%
Reliability and Business Continuity 22%
Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation 22%
Security and Compliance 16%
Networking and Content Delivery 18%

Format

What to expect

multiple choice
65%
multiple response
35%

Watch out

Where candidates struggle

This is the only AWS associate exam with hands-on lab questions. Candidates who study only theory without practicing in the AWS console struggle significantly with the practical lab component.

  1. 01
    Lab Time Management — Spending too much time on multiple-choice questions and not reserving enough time for the hands-on lab tasks that carry significant weight.
  2. 02
    CloudWatch Gaps — Not knowing the difference between CloudWatch Metrics, Alarms, Logs, and Dashboards leads to wrong answers on monitoring and alerting questions.
  3. 03
    Automation Confusion — Mixing up Systems Manager, CloudFormation, and OpsWorks capabilities and when to use each for infrastructure automation tasks.
  4. 04
    Backup Strategies — Confusing EBS snapshots, AMI creation, AWS Backup policies, and cross-region replication strategies for disaster recovery scenarios.
  5. 05
    Console Inexperience — Lacking hands-on familiarity with the AWS console interface makes lab questions much harder under time pressure.

Details

Exam logistics

Delivered via Pearson VUE online or at testing centers. Available in English, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese. The certification is valid for 3 years with renewal through recertification exams.

Delivery Pearson VUE testing center or online proctored exam, includes hands-on exam lab component
Retake policy 14-day waiting period between exam attempts, no limit on total number of attempts
Validity 3 years
Career outcomes Systems administrator, cloud operations engineer, DevOps engineer, site reliability engineer, and platform engineer roles managing production AWS environments
Renewal Pass a recertification exam before the 3-year expiration date, or earn a higher-level AWS certification to automatically renew
Study time ~55 hours
Official guide View on vendor site

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