AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate (DEA-C01)
DEA-C01 is AWS's associate-level data engineering certification. It covers the pipeline end to end: ingesting and transforming data, choosing and operating the right stores, running pipelines in production, and governing the whole thing securely. Ingestion and transformation is the largest domain at 34%. It replaced the retired Data Analytics - Specialty as AWS's primary data credential, and is aimed at practitioners who build pipelines rather than analysts who query them.
- 65
- Questions
- 130 min
- Duration
- 720 on a 100 to 1000 scaled score
- Passing score
- About US$150
- Exam cost
50 scored, 15 unscored; multiple choice and multiple response
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Exam facts reviewed July 2026 · Independent study resource, not affiliated with Amazon Web Services
Who should take it
Data engineers, analytics engineers and backend engineers who own data pipelines on AWS. AWS recommends 2 to 3 years of data engineering experience plus 1 to 2 years hands-on with AWS. It also assumes familiarity with building ETL pipelines from source to destination, language-agnostic programming concepts, Git, data lakes, and general networking, storage and compute fundamentals.
Skills measured
Domains and weightings as published by Amazon Web Services. Full objectives →
- 34%Data Ingestion and Transformation
- 26%Data Store Management
- 22%Data Operations and Support
- 18%Data Security and Governance
Prepare with Kwizza
- Free practice exam: full-length, weighted to the official blueprint, every answer explained
- Study guide: focus areas for each domain, common mistakes, and exam-day tips
- Exam objectives: the official domains, broken down skill by skill
- Sample questions: real questions from our bank, with answers and explanations
- How our exams are made: the quality checks behind every question
Frequently asked questions
- How many questions is DEA-C01, and what is the passing score?
- 65 questions in 130 minutes, of which 50 are scored and 15 are unscored trial items you cannot identify. Results are reported on a 100 to 1000 scaled score, with 720 required to pass. AWS does not publish an equivalent percentage, so the scaled score is the only meaningful target.
- Is this exam replacing the AWS Data Analytics - Specialty?
- Effectively, yes. AWS retired the Data Analytics - Specialty certification, and DEA-C01 is now its primary data credential. It is pitched at associate level, though, and leans toward pipeline engineering rather than analytics tooling.
- How much experience do I need?
- AWS recommends 2 to 3 years in data engineering plus 1 to 2 years hands-on with AWS services. Nothing is enforced, but the exam assumes you have built and debugged real pipelines. A large share of the questions are troubleshooting scenarios.
- Should I take Solutions Architect - Associate first?
- Not necessarily. They overlap on core AWS fundamentals, so SAA-C03 makes a reasonable on-ramp if you are new to AWS. But DEA-C01 goes much deeper on data services, and an experienced data engineer can take it directly.
- Are Kwizza's practice questions real exam questions?
- No, deliberately. Every question is original, written against the published DEA-C01 exam guide and checked for duplicates, broken citations and item-writing flaws. Reproducing real exam content violates AWS's certification agreement and teaches you less. These test the same skills with fresh scenarios.
Related certifications
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03): Broader AWS fundamentals, and a common on-ramp to this exam
- Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect: Architecture judgment on the other major cloud