DEA-C01 Exam Guide 2026: AWS Data Engineer Associate

This DEA-C01 exam guide covers the AWS Associate-level exam for data engineers. According to the AWS exam guide, it has 65 questions, 130 minutes of exam time and four weighted domains.

The exam is about building and running data pipelines, not about training models or drawing business conclusions from data. This guide covers what it measures, who it suits, and how to plan four weeks of preparation.

What is the DEA-C01 exam?

DEA-C01 is the AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate exam. According to AWS, it validates your ability to implement data pipelines and to monitor, troubleshoot and optimize their cost and performance.

An extract, transform, and load (ETL) pipeline is a process that pulls data from a source, reshapes it, and loads it into a destination. The exam guide lists setting up and maintaining such pipelines as recommended general IT knowledge.

AWS says the exam also validates a candidate’s ability to:

• ingest and transform data, and orchestrate data pipelines while applying programming concepts;
• choose an optimal data store, design data models, catalog data schemas and manage data lifecycles;
• operationalize, maintain and monitor data pipelines, analyze data and ensure data quality;
• implement authentication, authorization, data encryption, privacy and governance, and enable logging.

What domains does DEA-C01 cover?

The exam covers four domains, and data ingestion and transformation carries the most weight at 34% of scored content. AWS publishes these weights in the exam guide.

Content domain	Weight
Domain 1: Data Ingestion and Transformation	34%
Domain 2: Data Store Management	26%
Domain 3: Data Operations and Support	22%
Domain 4: Data Security and Governance	18%

The first two domains make up 60% of the scored content. A candidate who is strong on security but weak on ingestion can still lose a large share of points.

What is out of scope for DEA-C01?

AWS lists three job tasks that the target candidate is not expected to perform: ML training and inference, knowledge of programming language-specific syntax, and drawing business conclusions based on data. The list is not exhaustive.

That matters for your study time. You are tested on how to move, store, protect and operate data, not on building models or reading dashboards.

Who is DEA-C01 for, and who is it not for?

DEA-C01 suits people who already build or run data pipelines and have started working on AWS. AWS describes the target candidate as having 2-3 years of data engineering experience and 1-2 years with AWS services.

It is a good fit for:

• data engineers and data architects who want to prove their AWS skills;
• analysts and developers who now own pipelines and need a structured syllabus;
• cloud engineers who support data platforms and want to understand their cost and security trade-offs.

It is a weaker fit for:

• people who have never worked with data pipelines or SQL, who may want to build that experience first;
• readers focused on generative AI on AWS, who may prefer our guide to the AIP-C01 exam.

How should you use this DEA-C01 exam guide? A 4-week plan

Plan around the weights: spend the most hands-on time on ingestion and transformation, then on data stores. This plan assumes about eight hours a week.

1. Week 1: Domain 1. Ingest data from a batch source and a streaming source, transform it, and schedule the whole flow as one orchestrated pipeline. Note which choice you made at each step and why.
2. Week 2: Domain 2. Compare data stores for different access patterns, design a data model, catalog the schemas, and set lifecycle rules so old data moves or expires on schedule.
3. Week 3: Domains 3 and 4. Add monitoring, logging and data quality checks to your pipeline. Then apply least-privilege access, encryption and governance controls, and note what each one costs in performance or money.
4. Week 4: timed practice. Sit full timed practice tests, review every miss by domain, and repeat the weakest domain’s hands-on work before the next test.

Mixed, spaced review beats rereading, as our post on how to study for a technical exam explains.

How does DEA-C01 scoring work?

DEA-C01 is scored on a scaled range of 100-1,000, and the minimum passing score is 720. AWS says scaled scoring helps equate scores across exam forms of slightly different difficulty.

The exam uses a compensatory model. A weak domain can be offset by a strong one, because you need to pass only the overall exam.

There are two question types. Multiple choice has one correct response and three distractors. Multiple response has two or more correct responses out of five or more options.

How is DEA-C01 delivered?

You can take the exam at a Pearson VUE testing center or as an online proctored exam. AWS lists English, Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese as the languages offered.

The cost is 150 USD, according to the AWS certification page. AWS also says the exam uses short names for some AWS services, and a list of short and full names is available through the Help button in the exam.

Is DEA-C01 hard?

It is demanding mainly because of breadth. One scenario can touch ingestion, storage, security and cost at once, so you need to compare services, not memorize them one at a time.

Pace matters too: 65 questions in 130 minutes is two minutes a question. Multiple-response questions take longer to read, so practise under the clock.

How do you avoid the common mistakes?

Most lost points come from picking an answer that works but ignores the constraint in the question, such as cost, latency or operational effort. Read the last sentence of each scenario first to find the constraint.

Two habits help. Eliminate options that break the constraint before comparing the rest, and flag multiple-response questions to revisit if time allows. Do not leave anything blank, since AWS says there is no penalty for guessing.

How do you know you are ready to book?

You are ready when you can walk through each domain without notes and explain why you would choose one design over another. Use AWS’s free practice question set and pretest first for the question style.

Then sit at least two full timed DEA-C01 practice tests and look at your score by domain, not only the total. If one domain trails, spend another week building before you book.

Before you schedule, recheck the DEA-C01 certification page and the exam guide it links to for the current domains and weights.

Related reading

• AIP-C01 exam guide: AWS Generative AI Developer Professional
• Databricks Data Engineer Associate exam guide
• Are AI and data certifications worth taking in 2026?
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