Certification Guide

AWS Certification Roadmap 2026

All 12 AWS certifications explained — from Cloud Practitioner to Specialty. Difficulty ratings, exam costs, study time estimates, and the recommended order for every career path.

Foundational Level

AWS Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02)

Beginner $100 USD

Entry-level certification covering cloud concepts, AWS services overview, security, architecture, pricing, and support. Recommended starting point for everyone — no prerequisites.

Study time: 4-6 weeks | 65 questions | 90 minutes | Passing: 700/1000

Associate Level

Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03)

Intermediate $150 USD

The most popular AWS certification. Covers designing resilient, high-performing, secure, and cost-optimized architectures. Essential for architects, developers, and DevOps engineers.

Study time: 8-12 weeks | 65 questions | 130 minutes | Passing: 720/1000

Developer Associate (DVA-C02)

Intermediate $150 USD

Focused on developing, deploying, and debugging cloud-based applications. Covers Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3, SQS, SNS, CI/CD, and application security.

Study time: 8-10 weeks | 65 questions | 130 minutes | Passing: 720/1000

SysOps Administrator Associate (SOA-C02)

Intermediate $150 USD

Operations-focused: monitoring, logging, remediation, security, networking, and cost optimization. Includes exam labs (hands-on practical component).

Study time: 8-12 weeks | 65 questions + labs | 180 minutes | Passing: 720/1000

Professional Level

Solutions Architect Professional (SAP-C02)

Advanced $300 USD

The most prestigious AWS certification. Complex multi-account architectures, migrations, cost optimization, and enterprise design. Long, scenario-heavy questions.

Study time: 12-16 weeks | 75 questions | 180 minutes | Passing: 750/1000

DevOps Engineer Professional (DOP-C02)

Advanced $300 USD

Advanced CI/CD, infrastructure as code, monitoring, logging, incident response, and security automation. Ideal for DevOps/SRE professionals.

Study time: 12-16 weeks | 75 questions | 180 minutes | Passing: 750/1000

Specialty Certifications

Security Specialty (SCS-C02)

Incident response, logging, monitoring, infrastructure security, identity & access management, data protection.

$300 | 10-14 weeks study

Machine Learning Specialty (MLS-C01)

Data engineering, ML modeling, exploratory data analysis, ML implementation/operations with SageMaker.

$300 | 12-16 weeks study

Advanced Networking Specialty (ANS-C01)

Hybrid networking, VPC deep-dive, Direct Connect, Transit Gateway, Route 53, CloudFront, network security.

$300 | 12-16 weeks study

Data Analytics Specialty (DAS-C01)

Data collection, storage, processing, analysis, visualization using Kinesis, Glue, Athena, Redshift, QuickSight.

$300 | 10-14 weeks study

Database Specialty (DBS-C01)

Database design, migration, deployment, monitoring, and maintenance across RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, DocumentDB.

$300 | 10-14 weeks study

SAP on AWS Specialty (PAS-C01)

Design, implementation, migration, and operation of SAP workloads on AWS.

$300 | 12-16 weeks study

Recommended Path by Career Goal

Solutions Architect Path

  1. Cloud Practitioner
  2. SA Associate (SAA-C03)
  3. SA Professional (SAP-C02)
  4. Security or Networking Specialty

DevOps / SRE Path

  1. Cloud Practitioner
  2. Developer Associate or SysOps
  3. DevOps Professional (DOP-C02)
  4. Security Specialty

Cloud Security Path

  1. Cloud Practitioner
  2. SA Associate (SAA-C03)
  3. Security Specialty (SCS-C02)
  4. SA Professional (SAP-C02)

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