Updated 1 Nov 2026 · 6 min read
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What the AWS SOA-C03 is and who it is for
The SOA-C03 is the exam for the AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer Associate certification, which AWS describes as formerly known as AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate. AWS renamed the certification with this exam version, and the new name applies only to people who pass SOA-C03. If you already hold the SysOps Administrator certification, AWS says you do not need to take this exam, and your certification stays valid for three years from the date you earned it.
The exam is aimed at CloudOps engineers and checks that you can deploy, manage and operate workloads on AWS. The target candidate has one year of experience with deployment, management, troubleshooting, networking and security on AWS, and at least one year in a related operations role such as system administrator. AWS also expects familiarity with a scripting language, containers, CI/CD and Git.
Designing distributed architectures, CI/CD pipelines or hybrid and multi-VPC networks, developing software and analysing costs are out of scope. This is an operations exam: you run and fix what someone else designed.
AWS SOA-C03 at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Exam code | SOA-C03 |
| Questions | 65, multiple choice or multiple response. 50 are scored and 15 are unscored |
| Time allowed | 130 minutes |
| Passing score | 720 on a scaled score of 100 to 1,000 |
| Exam fee | US$150, with local currency prices in some countries |
| Languages | English, Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese. The Simplified Chinese and Korean versions retire after 19 November 2026 |
| Where you sit it | Pearson VUE, at a test centre or online proctored |
| Certification valid for | 3 years |
The 15 unscored questions are not identified, so treat every question as if it counts. The exam uses a compensatory scoring model: you need to pass the exam as a whole, not each domain.
What is on the exam
Monitoring, Logging, Analysis, Remediation, and Performance Optimization (22%). CloudWatch metrics, alarms, composite alarms, dashboards across accounts and Regions, and the CloudWatch agent on EC2, ECS and EKS. You route events with EventBridge, send notifications through SNS and fix problems with Lambda and Systems Manager Automation runbooks. The performance half covers EBS volume types, S3 transfer options, EFS and FSx, RDS Performance Insights and EC2 placement groups.
Reliability and Business Continuity (22%). Auto Scaling, caching with CloudFront and ElastiCache, and scaling RDS and DynamoDB. Then Elastic Load Balancing and Route 53 health checks, Multi-AZ deployments, AWS Backup, point-in-time restores to meet RTO and RPO targets, versioning, and the disaster recovery patterns from backup and restore through pilot light and warm standby to active/active.
Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation (22%). AMIs and container images with EC2 Image Builder, CloudFormation and the AWS CDK, and sharing resources across accounts and Regions with AWS RAM and StackSets. You also diagnose failed deployments, for example subnet sizing, stack errors and missing permissions, and automate routine work with Systems Manager and event-driven triggers.
Security and Compliance (16%). IAM policies, roles, MFA and federation, then troubleshooting access with CloudTrail, IAM Access Analyzer and the policy simulator. Multi-account controls with AWS Organizations, service control policies and IAM Identity Center sit here too, along with AWS Config conformance packs, KMS encryption at rest, ACM certificates in transit, secrets storage, and acting on findings from Security Hub, GuardDuty and Inspector.
Networking and Content Delivery (18%). Building a VPC with subnets, route tables, network ACLs, security groups and NAT gateways, then private connectivity with VPC endpoints, PrivateLink and peering. Route 53 routing policies and Resolver, CloudFront and Global Accelerator follow. Troubleshooting means reading VPC flow logs and load balancer logs, fixing CloudFront caching and tracing hybrid connectivity problems.
Version 1.1 of the exam guide, published on 1 June 2026, kept the domains and weights and added examples such as Kiro, AWS DevOps Agent and Amazon S3 Files.
Why people fail it
The first trap is treating it as a design exam. Many tasks and skills in the exam guide ask you to identify, troubleshoot or remediate, so expect scenarios where something is broken: an Auto Scaling group that will not scale in, an instance in a private subnet that cannot reach S3, an alarm that never fired. AWS writes its wrong options to be plausible to a candidate with incomplete knowledge.
The second is relying on older SysOps material. SOA-C03 replaced SOA-C02 on 30 September 2025. AWS moved the old cost and performance optimisation tasks into the first domain, raised the weights of the first three domains, and added the CloudWatch agent on ECS and EKS clusters, the CDK and CloudWatch network monitoring. A study plan built on the SOA-C02 outline leaves gaps where the extra weight sits.
The third is networking. It carries 18%, but troubleshooting a route table, a network ACL and a security group together is where hands-on experience shows.
A study plan that fits the exam
Seven weeks suits most people who already work on AWS. The three 22% domains get about four weeks between them, networking and security share two, and the final week is timed practice.
- Week 1: CloudWatch and EventBridge. Install the CloudWatch agent, build alarms, a composite alarm and a cross-account dashboard, then wire an EventBridge rule to SNS and Lambda. Take the free SOA-C03 practice questions to find your weak areas.
- Week 2: remediation and performance. Run Systems Manager Automation runbooks, then compare EBS volume types, S3 transfer options and shared storage, and read RDS Performance Insights.
- Week 3: reliability. Auto Scaling policies, ELB and Route 53 health checks, Multi-AZ, AWS Backup plans, point-in-time restore and the four disaster recovery patterns.
- Week 4: deployment and automation. Write CloudFormation templates and a small CDK app, break them on purpose and read the errors. Deploy a StackSet, share a resource with AWS RAM and build an AMI with Image Builder.
- Week 5: security and compliance. IAM policies and conditions, Access Analyzer, the policy simulator, SCPs, Config conformance packs, KMS, ACM and Secrets Manager, plus Security Hub and GuardDuty findings.
- Week 6: networking. Build a VPC by hand with public and private subnets, then break routing, NACLs and security groups and fix them with flow logs. Add endpoints, peering, Route 53 routing policies and a CloudFront distribution.
- Week 7: timed runs. Work through the questions-only copy in the SOA-C03 practice question pack in 130 minute blocks and read the explanation for every miss.
On exam day
You book through your AWS Certification Account and sit with Pearson VUE, at a test centre or online. For an online exam you can launch up to 30 minutes before your appointment. Run the system test beforehand: if you are more than 15 minutes late or your computer fails the test, you cannot launch the exam and you lose the fee.
AWS exams have no scheduled breaks. At a test centre the clock keeps running during an unscheduled break, and online you may not leave the camera view at all, so plan for 130 minutes in one sitting. Unanswered questions are marked wrong, so answer everything.
If English is not your first language and you sit in English, you can request the ESL +30 accommodation for 30 extra minutes. You request it once, before registering, and it applies to later exams too. Results reach your account within five business days.
Frequently asked questions
What happens if I fail the SOA-C03?
You wait 14 calendar days before you can retake it. AWS sets no limit on attempts, but you pay the full fee each time. Your score report may include your performance by section, which shows what to study next.
I hold SysOps Administrator. Do I need this exam?
No. AWS says holders of the SysOps Administrator certification do not need to take SOA-C03, and the existing certification stays valid for three years from the date earned. To renew, you can pass the latest version of this exam or earn the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional, which also recertifies the associate.
Is the practice question pack enough on its own?
No. It is practice, not a course. The 200 questions with explanations show how AWS frames operations problems and where your gaps are, but SOA-C03 rewards hands-on time in an AWS account. Build and break the services yourself, then use the questions to check what you know under time pressure.
When you are ready to test yourself under exam conditions, get the SOA-C03 practice questions with full explanations.
Sources
The official pages the facts in this guide were checked against.
- aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-cloudops-engineer-associate/
- docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/sysops-administrator-associate-03/sysops-administrator-associate-03.html
- aws.amazon.com/certification/policies/before-testing/
- docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/sysops-administrator-associate-03/sysops-administrator-associate-03-domain1.html
- docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/sysops-administrator-associate-03/sysops-administrator-associate-03-domain2.html
- docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/sysops-administrator-associate-03/sysops-administrator-associate-03-domain3.html
- docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/sysops-administrator-associate-03/sysops-administrator-associate-03-domain4.html
- docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/sysops-administrator-associate-03/sysops-administrator-associate-03-domain5.html
- docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/sysops-administrator-associate-03/soa-03-revisions.html
- docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/sysops-administrator-associate-03/sysops-administrator-associate-03-comparison.html
- aws.amazon.com/certification/policies/during-testing/
- aws.amazon.com/certification/policies/after-testing/