You can see it againUnder pressure people bring back shapes and positions long after the wording has gone.
Picture superiority · Shepard 1967, Standing 1973
AWSAWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate
The AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate certification validates your ability to implement data pipelines, manage data stores, and ensure data quality on AWS. Designed for data engineers with 2–3 years of experience, it demonstrates hands-on skills in ingesting, transforming, and orchestrating data while applying security and governance best practices. Earning this credential proves you can build and operate reliable, cost-effective data solutions on the world's leading cloud platform.
Exam formatMultiple choice and multiple response
Duration130 minutes
DeliveryPearson VUE
Passing score720 out of 1000
Free questions452
Content last reviewed 30 July 2026 · Up to date
The certification
What DEA-C01 proves, and what it asks of you
What this certification covers, who it is written for, and what the exam itself looks like on the day.
4domains
17objectives
162concepts
USD 150exam fee
What it is
What this certification is
What it validates, who it is written for, and the experience it assumes.
About this certification
The AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate (DEA-C01) exam validates your ability to implement data pipelines and to monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize cost and performance issues in accordance with best practices. It covers the full data lifecycle—from ingesting and transforming data to designing data models, managing data lifecycles, and ensuring data quality. The exam also tests your understanding of data security, governance, and logging, ensuring you can build solutions that are both effective and compliant.
This certification is ideal for data engineers who work with AWS services daily. It confirms that you can apply programming concepts to orchestrate pipelines, choose the right data stores, and operationalize data workflows. By earning this credential, you demonstrate practical, job-ready skills that are in high demand, helping you advance your career in data engineering and related roles.
Who it’s for
This certification is for data engineers, data architects, and other data professionals who design, build, and maintain data pipelines and data stores on AWS. The ideal candidate has the equivalent of 2–3 years of experience in data engineering and at least 1–2 years of hands-on experience with AWS services. You should be comfortable with ETL/ELT processes, data modeling, and using AWS services for data ingestion, transformation, and storage. You should also understand the effects of data volume, variety, and velocity on solution design, and be able to apply security and governance best practices to protect data throughout its lifecycle.
Recommended experience
The target candidate should have the equivalent of 2–3 years of experience in data engineering and at least 1–2 years of hands-on experience with AWS services. Setup and maintenance of ETL pipelines from ingestion to destination; Application of high-level but language-agnostic programming concepts as required by the pipeline; Use of Git commands for source control; Use of data lakes to store data; General concepts for networking, storage, and compute; General concepts of vectors; Understanding of AWS services for encryption, governance, protection, and logging of data; Ability to compare AWS services to understand cost, performance, and functional differences; How to structure and run SQL queries on AWS services; How to analyze data, verify data quality, and ensure data consistency using AWS services
The syllabus
What you’ll learn
Every domain and objective AWS measures, with the weight they carry on the exam.
The official AWS exam outline · checked 30 July 2026 · See the source
Content Domain 1: Data Ingestion and Transformation
- Task 1.1: Perform data ingestion
- Task 1.2: Transform and process data
- Task 1.3: Orchestrate data pipelines
- Task 1.4: Apply programming concepts
Content Domain 2: Data Store Management
- Task 2.1: Choose a data store
- Task 2.2: Understand data cataloging systems
- Task 2.3: Manage the lifecycle of data
- Task 2.4: Design data models and schema evolution
Content Domain 3: Data Operations and Support
- Task 3.1: Automate data processing by using AWS services
- Task 3.2: Analyze data by using AWS services
- Task 3.3: Maintain and monitor data pipelines
- Task 3.4: Ensure data quality
Content Domain 4: Data Security and Governance
- Task 4.1: Apply authentication mechanisms
- Task 4.2: Apply authorization mechanisms
- Task 4.3: Ensure data encryption and masking
- Task 4.4: Prepare logs for audit
- Task 4.5: Understand data privacy and governance
On the day
The exam itself
Everything AWS publishes about sitting it, and nothing we inferred.
Prerequisites
No mandatory prerequisites — this certification has no required predecessor exam or credential.
Exam codeDEA-C01
CertificationAWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate
Exam formatMultiple choice and multiple response
Duration130 minutes
Questions65 questions
Passing score720 out of 1000
DeliveryPearson VUE
LanguagesEnglish, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese
PricingUSD 150
Certification levelAssociate
After you pass
Where this credential goes next
The path AWS lays out, how the credential is kept, and where to book.
Step-by-step path to AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate
Credential earnedAWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate Associate level certification Renewal and maintenance
This certification is valid for 3 years. Before your certification expires, you can recertify by passing the latest version of this exam. Stay current with the latest technologies and maintain your certification.
Learn more about renewal requirements Lifecycle status
This certification is currently active and available. AWS maintains this certification to validate current skills and industry relevance.
Exam status: ActiveMaintained by AWS
Exam registration
Register for the exam through Pearson VUE, AWS’s authorized testing partner.
Schedule your examVisit the official AWS certification page for exam policies and requirements.
View the official pageYour coach
And when you are serious, your coach Pip takes over
Your coach in the app reads what you have answered with the book closed and tells you one thing to do tonight. It will not count an answer you gave with the page open, and it will tell you when you are not ready.
See how the coach worksBefore you book
Questions people ask
How does the AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate relate to the retired AWS Certified Data Analytics - Specialty?
The Data Engineer - Associate is a newer, role-based certification focused on data engineering tasks, while the Data Analytics - Specialty was a specialty certification. The Associate-level exam covers a broader set of data engineering skills, including ingestion, transformation, and operations, and is designed for practitioners in data engineering roles.
Do I need to earn a lower-level AWS certification before taking the DEA-C01 exam?
No. AWS does not require any prerequisites for this exam. You can take the DEA-C01 exam directly, regardless of whether you hold other AWS certifications.
Is there a hands-on or lab component in the DEA-C01 exam?
No. The DEA-C01 exam consists of multiple-choice and multiple-response questions only. There is no hands-on lab or performance-based component.
What is the retake policy for the DEA-C01 exam if I fail?
AWS allows you to retake the exam after a 14-day waiting period following a failed attempt. There is no limit on the number of attempts, but each attempt requires a new exam fee.
Can I use a discount voucher for the DEA-C01 exam?
Yes. Once you earn any AWS Certification, you receive a 50% discount on your next AWS Certification exam. You can access this discount in your AWS Certification Account.
What job roles does the AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate credential map to?
This certification is designed for data engineers, data architects, and other data-related roles. It validates the skills needed to implement data pipelines, manage data stores, and ensure data quality on AWS.
Can I recertify by passing a different AWS exam?
No. To recertify for the AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate, you must pass the latest version of the DEA-C01 exam. Passing a different exam does not renew this certification.
Are there any regional restrictions for taking the DEA-C01 exam?
The exam is available in English, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese. Testing is offered at Pearson VUE testing centers and online proctored, subject to regional availability.
Information freshness · Content last reviewed on 2026-07-30 Up to date
Practice free questions 452 questions, free, no account needed.
The curriculum
The whole exam, mapped and written
Every domain, every objective, and every concept AWS measures — each one written out.
4domains
17objectives
162concepts
97free pages
The domains, and what sits inside them
Every objective below is a page you can open and practise now, without an account.
The official AWS exam outline · checked 30 July 2026 · See the source
1Content Domain 1: Data Ingestion and Transformation126 questions
2Content Domain 2: Data Store Management98 questions
3Content Domain 3: Data Operations and Support109 questions
4Content Domain 4: Data Security and Governance119 questions
Task 4.1: Apply authentication mechanisms8 concepts · 5 pagesOpen →Task 4.2: Apply authorization mechanisms7 concepts · 3 pagesOpen →Task 4.3: Ensure data encryption and masking8 concepts · 6 pagesOpen →Task 4.4: Prepare logs for audit9 concepts · 5 pagesOpen →Task 4.5: Understand data privacy and governance12 concepts · 7 pagesOpen →
Not a table of contents
Every line on this map already opens
In front of every objective the practice pages are already there, free and without an account. This is one objective, opened.
Task 1.1: Perform data ingestion8 pagesOpen →
Free in front of it
38 questions on this objective, five to a page. Every range above is a real page, open now, with no account.
Reading the map is not the same as knowing the ground
The curriculum tells you what is on the exam. Proving you know it is a different job — and it is the one the closed-book run does.
Free questions
452 questions. No account, no card.
The whole bank is open. 5 questions to a page, every answer explained, and a discussion thread on each one.
452questions
97pages
17objectives
Freealways
Browse by domain
Every objective, and every page range, is a link — so you can pick up exactly where you left off.
1Content Domain 1: Data Ingestion and Transformation126 questions
2Content Domain 2: Data Store Management98 questions
3Content Domain 3: Data Operations and Support109 questions
4Content Domain 4: Data Security and Governance119 questions
What a practice page gives you
1Five to a page
Short enough to finish, long enough to matter.
2Every answer explained
Not only which one is right — why the others are wrong.
3A discussion on each
Ask, answer, and vote. Every question has its own thread.
A question, and the idea behind it
Every question comes from a concept
These are not trivia. Each one is written against a concept in the book, so when you get one wrong there is somewhere to go and find out why.
The visual book
See it once. Carry it into the exam.
The pages shown here come from our AI-900 book — an example of how each concept is written in plain language and, where the idea needs one, drawn as a full page you can take in at a glance.
162concepts
452free questions
Why a picture, and not another paragraph
Three reasons, and each one is a real finding rather than a slogan.
You can see it againThe whole idea at onceWhere it starts, what happens in the middle, what comes out, and the mistake to avoid.
Multimedia principle · MayerThe look-alikes sit togetherThe pairs the exam tests are drawn side by side, so the difference is seen, not told.
Dual coding · PaivioWhat one page is made of
You are never asked to read a poster here — only to see how one is built. After that, every other page is legible at a glance.
1A numbered strip on top
The idea as a sequence, followed with a finger before a word is read.
2Panels for the parts
What it is, how the machine learns it, when it is the right tool.
3The trap, framed
The distinction the exam tests, given its own box instead of buried in prose.
4One line at the bottom
The sentence to carry into the exam room.
Open book, on purpose
Answer it with the picture beside you
This is the part that teaches. The illustration and the written explanation stay where they are while you work, so a scenario stops being a memory test and becomes something you can simply look at.
It teaches · it does not count
A smartphone uses AI to unlock when the owner looks at the camera. Which AI capability is being used?
AImage classification
BFacial recognition
COptical character recognition
DObject detection
Look at the five steps. Detect finds a face, align straightens it, encode turns it into numbers, search compares it with a stored face, and decide answers one question: is this the same person? Classification would only say “a face”. Detection would only draw a box. Neither decides whose.
Then the page shuts, and it starts counting
The same questions come back with the book closed — that run is the one that counts. After it, your coach picks one thing for tonight, sized to the time you have, and brings pages back before you lose them.
Testing effect · Roediger & Karpicke 2006 · spacing effect · Cepeda et al. 2006
Official resources
Straight from AWS
Where the exam is defined, scheduled and scored.
3official links
162concepts mapped
The source
AWS’s own pages
We link to them rather than repeat them, so nothing here goes stale behind them.
Checked against the source
Every objective on the official AWS outline already has questions here
We build from the official skills outline, not from a summary of it — 17 objectives, 162 concepts written under them, and free questions against every one. When AWS changes the outline, this page changes with it.
17objectives on the outline→162concepts written→452free questions
An official page tells you what will be asked. It cannot tell you what you will get right.
That is the only question worth answering the night before, and no link answers it. You answer it by taking the questions with the book closed, and seeing what comes back.