How to Pass the AWS DOP-C02 in 2026: Format, Cost, Domains and Study Plan

Updated 1 Nov 2026 · 6 min read

On this page

What the AWS DOP-C02 is and who it is for
AWS DOP-C02 at a glance
What is on the exam
Why people fail it
A study plan that fits the exam
On exam day
Frequently asked questions
Sources

What the AWS DOP-C02 is and who it is for

The DOP-C02 is the exam behind the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional certification. AWS says it is intended for people who perform a DevOps engineer role, and that it validates technical expertise in provisioning, operating and managing distributed systems and services on AWS.

There are no formal prerequisites. AWS says any of its certifications can be earned without completing specific prerequisites, but the exam guide recommends 2 or more years of experience provisioning, operating and managing AWS environments, plus experience with the software development lifecycle and programming or scripting. AWS also lists experience building highly automated infrastructure, administering operating systems and securing AWS infrastructure.

The exam guide is just as clear about what is out of scope: advanced networking such as routing algorithms, deep security advice for developers, database design and tuning, and full-stack application code.

AWS DOP-C02 at a glance

Item	Detail
Exam code	DOP-C02
Questions	75, multiple choice or multiple response. 65 are scored and 10 are unscored
Time allowed	180 minutes
Passing score	750 on a scaled score of 100 to 1,000
Exam fee	US$300. AWS lists prices in some other currencies on its exam pricing page
Languages	English, Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese. The Korean version will be retired after 31 December 2026
Where you sit it	Pearson VUE test centre or online proctored
Certification valid for	3 years, renewed by passing the latest version of the exam

What is on the exam

AWS splits the scored content into six domains. The unscored questions are not identified, so treat every question as if it counts.

SDLC Automation (22%). The heaviest domain. You build CI/CD pipelines for single and multi-account environments, manage build and deployment secrets with Secrets Manager or Parameter Store, and choose deployment strategies with CodeDeploy. It also covers automated testing at each pipeline stage, artifact repositories such as CodeArtifact, S3 and ECR, image builds with EC2 Image Builder, and blue/green and canary deployments across EC2, ECS, EKS and Lambda.

Configuration Management and IaC (17%). CloudFormation, AWS SAM and the AWS CDK, stack sets across accounts and Regions, and reusable templates with governance built in through Service Catalog and CloudFormation modules. The multi-account half covers Organizations, Control Tower, SCPs and role assumption, then automation of inventory, patching and desired state with Systems Manager, AWS Config, Lambda and Step Functions.

Resilient Cloud Solutions (15%). Multi-AZ and multi-Region designs, replication and failover for stateful services, and removing single points of failure. Then scaling: auto scaling, load balancing, caching, containers and serverless with API Gateway, Lambda and Fargate. It ends with disaster recovery against RTO and RPO, pilot light and warm standby, AWS Backup and failover testing.

Monitoring and Logging (15%). Collecting and storing logs and metrics with CloudWatch, metric filters, metric streams, the CloudWatch agent, log retention and KMS encryption. Analysis with CloudWatch Logs Insights, Athena, anomaly detection alarms and X-Ray. Automation with EventBridge, SNS, Lambda, health checks and AWS Config remediation.

Incident and Event Response (14%). Event sources such as AWS Health, EventBridge and CloudTrail, event processing with SQS, Kinesis, SNS, Lambda and Step Functions, changing configuration in response to events, and troubleshooting failed deployments, scaling events and container workloads to a root cause.

Security and Compliance (17%). IAM at scale: roles, federation with IAM Identity Center, permissions boundaries, SCPs, least privilege and credential rotation. Then automated security controls across accounts with Security Hub, GuardDuty, Config, WAF, Network Firewall, Macie and KMS, and auditing with CloudTrail, VPC Flow Logs, Inspector and IAM Access Analyzer.

Why people fail it

Time is the first problem. 75 questions in 180 minutes is under two and a half minutes each, and professional level questions are long. A typical scenario describes several accounts, a pipeline and a constraint such as the least operational overhead or the fastest recovery. Often every option would work, and only one meets the stated requirement best. Candidates who know the services but have not practised reading scenarios at that length run short of time.

The second problem is similar services. CodeDeploy, CloudFormation and Systems Manager can all change a running system. AWS Config, Security Hub and GuardDuty all find problems. EventBridge, SNS and SQS all move events. The exam expects you to know which one an expert would choose, and why the others add effort or risk.

The third is the multi-account angle. Stack sets, Organizations, Control Tower, SCPs and cross-account roles appear in several domains, and people who have only worked in one account tend to lose marks there.

A study plan that fits the exam

Eight weeks suits most people with the recommended experience. SDLC Automation gets two weeks because it carries the most weight, each other domain gets one, and the last week is for timed practice.

Week 1: pipelines and testing. Build a CodePipeline with CodeBuild, handle secrets with Secrets Manager or Parameter Store, and add unit and integration tests at the right stages. End the week with the free DOP-C02 practice questions to see where you stand.
Week 2: artifacts and deployments. CodeArtifact, ECR, EC2 Image Builder, the CodeDeploy agent, and blue/green and canary deployments on EC2, ECS and Lambda. Practise reading failed deployment logs.
Week 3: IaC and accounts. CloudFormation, SAM and CDK, stack sets across accounts and Regions, Service Catalog, then Organizations, Control Tower and SCPs. Patch and configure instances with Systems Manager.
Week 4: resilience. Multi-AZ and multi-Region patterns, Route 53 failover, DynamoDB and RDS replication, auto scaling, and DR strategies against RTO and RPO with AWS Backup.
Week 5: monitoring and logging. Metric filters, the CloudWatch agent, Logs Insights, log subscriptions, anomaly detection, X-Ray and EventBridge rules, plus Config rules with remediation.
Week 6: incidents and events. AWS Health and CloudTrail events, fan out and queuing patterns, Systems Manager OpsCenter, and root cause analysis of failed deployments and scaling events.
Week 7: security and compliance. Permissions boundaries, federation, credential rotation, Security Hub, GuardDuty, Macie, KMS and IAM Access Analyzer across many accounts.
Week 8: timed runs. AWS offers an Official Practice Question Set and an Official Practice Exam on AWS Skill Builder. Then work through the 480 questions in the DOP-C02 practice question pack in timed blocks of 75, and read the explanation for every miss.

On exam day

You sit the exam at a Pearson VUE test centre or online. For an online exam you go through a self-check-in, showing your identification and checking your testing space, before a proctor connects. Online exams allow no breaks: you cannot stand up or leave the camera's view for any reason, including for a toilet break. At a test centre the timer keeps running during any unscheduled break.

There is no penalty for guessing and unanswered questions are marked wrong, so answer everything. The exam uses short names for some AWS services, and a list of the full names is available through the Help button during the exam. If English is not your first language and you sit in English, you can request an extra 30 minutes before you register. Results reach your AWS Certification Account within five business days.

Frequently asked questions

What happens if I fail the DOP-C02?

You must wait 14 calendar days before you can retake it. AWS sets no limit on the number of attempts, but you pay the full registration fee each time. Your score report can show how you did in each section, which helps you plan the next attempt.

How do I keep the certification?

It is valid for 3 years. Before it expires you recertify by passing the latest version of the exam. AWS also notes that passing the DevOps Engineer Professional recertifies an active CloudOps Engineer Associate or SysOps Administrator Associate certification.

Is the practice pack enough on its own?

No. The pack is practice, not a course. The 480 questions show you how AWS frames long scenarios and explain why each wrong option is wrong, but they do not replace building pipelines, stack sets and alarms yourself. Learn the services hands-on first, then use the questions to test your judgement and your timing.

When you are ready to test yourself properly, get the DOP-C02 practice questions with full explanations.

Sources

The official pages the facts in this guide were checked against.

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