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Certifications guide

Which AWS Certification Should You Choose?

AWS has one Foundational exam and three Associate exams, and the usual advice — "start with Cloud Practitioner, then work up" — is only right for some people. This guide compares all four against the current official exam guides so you can pick the one that matches your work instead of collecting them in order.

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certifications compared
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last updated
September 2026
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Overview

The AWS certification path at a glance

AWS certifications come in four tiers: Foundational, Associate, Professional and Specialty. Almost everyone starts in the first two, which is where this guide stays: the Cloud Practitioner exam and the three Associates — Solutions Architect, Developer and SysOps Administrator.

The structural fact that reframes the choice: the three Associates are not a ladder. They sit at the same level, cost the same, run the same length and are valid for the same three years — they differ by the role they describe, not by difficulty. Nothing stops you taking the Developer exam without the Solutions Architect, and no AWS exam has a prerequisite. The only genuine step up is from Cloud Practitioner, which is shorter and passes at a lower score.

Every one of these exams is also the same shape underneath: 65 questions of which only 50 are scored — the other 15 are unscored trial questions that AWS is evaluating, and they are not marked on the exam. Below is each certification in turn, a decision guide, and what the scores and fees actually mean. Gnoseed does not sell, proctor or guarantee any AWS exam; it is a free study companion. If you are weighing the AI-focused exam instead, see AI-901 vs AWS AI Practitioner.

Side by side

How the four compare

Aspect CLF-C02AWS Certified Cloud PractitionerSAA-C03AWS Certified Solutions Architect – AssociateDVA-C02AWS Certified Developer – AssociateSOA-C02AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate
Focus The vocabulary, the billing model and the shared responsibility lineDesigning for security, resilience, performance and costWriting, deploying and debugging application code on AWSRunning, monitoring and fixing AWS in production
Level FoundationalAssociateAssociateAssociate
Format Multiple choice · 90 min · $100Multiple choice · 130 min · $150Multiple choice · 130 min · $150Multiple choice · 130 min · $150
Prerequisite NoneNone (AWS recommends ~1 year hands-on)NoneNone
Best for Anyone who needs to speak AWS — including non-engineersEngineers who choose between AWS services and defend the choiceDevelopers shipping application code that runs on AWSEngineers who operate AWS workloads rather than design them
Breakdown

The four exams, one by one

Figures below come from the current official AWS exam guides and certification pages. Domain weightings are the percentage of scored content, as AWS publishes them.

CLF-C02

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

FoundationalMultiple choice · 90 min · $100Prereq: None

Cloud Practitioner is the only AWS exam aimed at people who do not build on AWS day to day, and AWS describes the target candidate as having up to six months of exposure, explicitly including candidates from non-IT backgrounds. Coding, architecture design and troubleshooting are all listed as out of scope. The scored content is weighted Cloud Technology and Services 34%, Security and Compliance 30%, Cloud Concepts 24% and Billing, Pricing and Support 12%. It also passes at 700 rather than the 720 the Associates require.

Choose this if…

  • You work with AWS people without building on AWS yourself
  • You want the vocabulary before committing to an Associate exam
  • Your employer wants a credential and you have months, not years, of exposure

Study with Gnoseed

AWS Cloud Practitioner Fundamentals · 160 cards
SAA-C03

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate

AssociateMultiple choice · 130 min · $150Prereq: None (AWS recommends ~1 year hands-on)

The most-taken AWS certification and the default answer for most people. It is a trade-off exam: questions describe a requirement and ask which design meets it, so the skill under test is choosing between services rather than recalling what each one does. Scored content is weighted Design Secure Architectures 30%, Design Resilient Architectures 26%, Design High-Performing Architectures 24% and Design Cost-Optimized Architectures 20% — security is the single largest slice, which surprises people who prepare for it as an architecture exam alone.

Choose this if…

  • You already build on AWS and want one credential that travels
  • You are asked to justify service choices, not just operate them
  • You want the exam employers recognise without a Professional-level commitment

Study with Gnoseed

AWS Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03) · 90 cardsAWS IAM: Identity and Access Management Policies · 102 cardsAmazon EKS: Elastic Kubernetes Service · 97 cards
DVA-C02

AWS Certified Developer – Associate

AssociateMultiple choice · 130 min · $150Prereq: None

The Developer Associate is the same length, price and pass mark as the Solutions Architect exam, but it asks a different question: not "which service fits", but "how do you build, deploy and debug on it". Scored content is weighted Development with AWS Services 32%, Security 26%, Deployment 24% and Troubleshooting and Optimization 18%. Note the security share — it is only four points behind the architecture exam, so IAM, encryption and credential handling are worth the same study time here. Gnoseed has no dedicated Developer deck yet; the IAM deck covers a meaningful slice of that 26%.

Choose this if…

  • You write the application code rather than design the platform
  • SDKs, deployment pipelines and debugging are your daily work
  • You want an Associate credential that matches a developer job title

Study with Gnoseed

AWS IAM: Identity and Access Management Policies · 102 cards
SOA-C02

AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate

AssociateMultiple choice · 130 min · $150Prereq: None

The operations exam, and the one most often described incorrectly elsewhere. SysOps no longer includes hands-on exam labs. AWS removed them on 28 March 2023 "until further notice", and the current exam guide states the exam is 50 scored and 15 unscored multiple-choice and multiple-response questions in 130 minutes — the same format as every other Associate. Plenty of prep material still promises labs. It is also the only exam here with six domains: Monitoring, Logging and Remediation 20%, Deployment, Provisioning and Automation 18%, Networking and Content Delivery 18%, Reliability and Business Continuity 16%, Security and Compliance 16% and Cost and Performance Optimization 12%.

Choose this if…

  • You are on call for AWS workloads someone else designed
  • Monitoring, automation and incident response are your job
  • You want the operations credential and were put off by the labs

Study with Gnoseed

AWS IAM: Identity and Access Management Policies · 102 cards
Decision guide

Still not sure? Start here

Pick by the work you do now, not by the order the exams appear on the AWS site. None of them has a prerequisite.

  • If you are

    New to cloud entirely

    Cloud Practitioner. It is shorter, cheaper, passes at 700 instead of 720, and explicitly excludes coding and architecture design — it is the one exam here written for people without AWS experience.

    Start with AWS Cloud Practitioner Fundamentals
  • If you are

    You already build on AWS and want one credential

    Solutions Architect Associate, and skip Cloud Practitioner. There is no prerequisite, and paying $100 to certify vocabulary you already use is the most common way people spend money they did not need to.

    Start with AWS Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03)
  • If you are

    You write the application code

    Developer Associate. Same price and length as the architecture exam, but weighted towards SDKs, deployment and debugging. Budget real time for the 26% security domain — that is where developers most often lose marks.

    Start with AWS IAM: Identity and Access Management Policies
  • If you are

    You operate and monitor AWS in production

    SysOps Administrator Associate — and note that the hands-on labs were removed in March 2023, so it is now a standard multiple-choice exam like the other two.

    Start with AWS IAM: Identity and Access Management Policies
Logistics

Cost, validity and what the score actually means

Cloud Practitioner is $100 USD and runs 90 minutes; each Associate exam is $150 USD and runs 130 minutes. All four are valid for three years, and none has a prerequisite, so you can take them in any order. Prices exclude locally applicable taxes.

Scores are reported on a scaled range of 100–1,000. Cloud Practitioner passes at 700; all three Associates pass at 720. Two things about that number are widely misunderstood. First, it is scaled, not a raw percentage — you cannot convert it into "how many questions I got right". Second, only 50 of the 65 questions are scored; the remaining 15 are unscored trial questions, they are not identified on the exam, and they do not affect your result.

The scoring is compensatory: AWS states you do not need to pass each individual domain, only the exam overall. A weak domain can be carried by a strong one — which is why the weightings above are worth studying against, rather than spreading effort evenly. Fees, formats and weightings change; confirm everything on the official exam guide for your exam before you register. Gnoseed sells nothing and takes no commission.

FAQ

Common questions

Which AWS certification should I start with? +

Solutions Architect Associate, if you already build on AWS. Cloud Practitioner, if you do not. There is no prerequisite chain, so the common advice to "start at the bottom" costs an extra $100 and a few weeks for anyone who already uses AWS day to day. Pick the exam that describes your work.

Do I need Cloud Practitioner before Solutions Architect? +

No. No AWS certification requires another one first. Cloud Practitioner is aimed at candidates with up to six months of exposure — AWS lists coding, architecture design and troubleshooting as out of scope for it — so it is a poor use of money if you already do those things.

Does the AWS SysOps exam still have hands-on labs? +

No. AWS removed exam labs from SOA-C02 on 28 March 2023 "until further notice", and the current exam guide describes the exam as 50 scored and 15 unscored multiple-choice and multiple-response questions in 130 minutes. A lot of prep material still advertises the labs, so check the official exam guide rather than a course description.

How much do AWS certifications cost? +

Cloud Practitioner is $100 USD and each Associate exam is $150 USD, excluding local taxes. All are valid for three years. AWS changes pricing and policies periodically, so confirm on the official certification page before you book.

What score do you need to pass an AWS exam? +

700 out of 1,000 for Cloud Practitioner and 720 out of 1,000 for the Associate exams, on a scaled score that starts at 100. The scale is not a percentage of questions answered correctly, and only 50 of the 65 questions on the exam count towards it.

Are AWS certifications worth it? +

They are worth it as a forcing function and as a hiring filter, not as proof that you can build. These are multiple-choice exams: they test whether you can recognise the right service and the right trade-off quickly, which is genuinely useful knowledge and genuinely not the same as having run the thing in production. Treat the certificate as the deadline, and the systems you build as the evidence.

Prepare the recall, then sit the exam

AWS exams reward fast, accurate recall of services, limits and trade-offs — exactly what spaced repetition is for. Plant your first seed with the deck that matches your exam and let the schedule do the remembering.

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