Which AWS certification should you get? 2026 roadmap

If you are new to the cloud, get AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (or AI Practitioner, if AI is why you are here); if you already work on AWS, skip straight to Solutions Architect – Associate. After that, take the one associate exam that matches your job, and only then aim for a professional exam in the same lane.

That is the short answer to "which AWS certification should I get". The longer one depends on timing, because AWS is replacing, retiring or launching six exams between late 2025 and the end of 2026. This guide sets out the whole lineup as it stands in October 2026, what is changing and when, the order that fits each role, what to skip, and what it all costs. Every exam fact was checked on AWS's own certification pages and exam guides on October 20, 2026.

The AWS certification levels in 2026

AWS groups its exams into four technical levels, plus a new business level:

Foundational: Cloud Practitioner and AI Practitioner. AWS says no prior experience is needed.
Associate: five role exams (Solutions Architect, Developer, CloudOps Engineer, Data Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer). AWS recommends prior cloud or IT experience.
Professional: Solutions Architect, DevOps Engineer and Generative AI Developer. AWS recommends two or more years of hands-on AWS work.
Specialty: Security, plus Advanced Networking until the end of 2026.
Business: AI Business Strategist, in beta.

There are no prerequisites. AWS's exam policy says every certification "may be earned without completing specific prerequisites", so nothing stops you booking a professional exam first. The levels are advice about difficulty, not gates.

Every AWS certification is valid for three years. You renew it by passing the latest version of the same exam, or in many cases by passing a higher one: a professional exam renews specific associate and foundational certifications, as the cost section below explains. For many exams, AWS also lets you extend a certification by one year through a paid Skill Builder subscription.

What's changing in late 2026

Before you choose, check that the exam you pick will still be the same exam when you sit it. As of October 2026:

Solutions Architect – Professional: SAP-C02's last day is November 16, 2026. Registration for SAP-C03 opens October 27, 2026. Our SAP-C02 vs SAP-C03 guide covers what changes.
Developer – Associate: DVA-C02's last day is November 30, 2026. DVA-C03 registration opens October 27 and delivery begins December 1, 2026, with no beta. The format stays at 65 questions in 130 minutes, but AWS adds AI security and AI-assisted development tools.
Machine Learning Engineer – Associate: MLA-C02 has been in beta since September 29, 2026, and AWS lists its general availability date as "TBD". The English MLA-C01 exam ended on September 28, 2026. See MLA-C01 vs MLA-C02.
Advanced Networking – Specialty: retiring. The last day to take ANS-C01 is December 31, 2026, and AWS names no successor.
CloudOps Engineer – Associate: this is the old SysOps Administrator exam, renamed when SOA-C03 replaced SOA-C02 on September 30, 2025. If a roadmap still says "SysOps", it is out of date.
AI Business Strategist: a new beta exam (AIB-C01) whose delivery began September 29, 2026.

The exams with no change announced are Cloud Practitioner, AI Practitioner, Solutions Architect – Associate, Data Engineer – Associate, DevOps Engineer – Professional, Generative AI Developer – Professional and Security – Specialty. Some of them are dropping individual languages, so check the exam page if you plan to sit it in a language other than English.

Foundational: Cloud Practitioner and AI Practitioner

Both foundational exams have 65 questions in 90 minutes, of which 50 are scored, a passing score of 700 out of 1,000, and a price of 100 USD (as of October 2026). Both are offered at Pearson VUE test centres or online with a proctor.

Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02)

AWS writes this exam for people with up to six months of exposure to AWS, including people in sales, marketing or project roles who work next to cloud teams. Its four domains are Cloud Concepts (24%), Security and Compliance (30%), Cloud Technology and Services (34%) and Billing, Pricing and Support (12%). Expect "what is this service for" and "who is responsible for what" questions, like this practice question on the shared responsibility model.

It is the right first exam if you have never used AWS. If you have built anything real on AWS, it mostly confirms what you know, and your time is better spent on an associate exam.

AI Practitioner (AIF-C01)

AI Practitioner is for people who use AI and machine learning on AWS rather than build models, with up to six months of exposure. Its domains are Fundamentals of AI and ML (20%), Fundamentals of Generative AI (24%), Applications of Foundation Models (28%), Guidelines for Responsible AI (14%) and Security, Compliance and Governance for AI Solutions (14%). Unlike Cloud Practitioner, it also uses ordering and matching questions.

Questions are about choosing an approach, such as this practice question on RAG for documents that change. If AI is the reason you are looking at AWS at all, this is a better first exam than Cloud Practitioner. Our RAG vs fine-tuning guide covers one of its most tested choices.

AI Business Strategist (AIB-C01, beta)

This is AWS's first business-level exam, aimed at product managers, sales, consultants and analysts who evaluate and scale AI, with no coding. As of October 2026 it is in beta: 85 questions in 170 minutes for 50 USD, in English and Japanese, and AWS gives an Early Adopter badge to anyone who earns it by February 15, 2027. The standard price will be 100 USD.

Associate: the five role exams

The standard associate exams cost 150 USD and have a passing score of 720 out of 1,000 (as of October 2026); the MLA-C02 beta is cheaper. Four of the five have 65 questions in 130 minutes, with 50 of them scored; the MLA-C02 beta is longer. For four of the five, AWS recommends around a year of hands-on experience; Data Engineer asks for more.

Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03)

This is the exam most people mean when they say "AWS certification". It tests designing systems on the Well-Architected Framework across four domains: secure (30%), resilient (26%), high-performing (24%) and cost-optimized (20%) architectures. No new version has been announced.

Questions give you a scenario and a constraint and ask for the best design, like this practice question on RDS Multi-AZ failover. Because it is about designing whole systems rather than one job within them, it touches more of AWS than the other associate exams do, which is why it is the usual second step after Cloud Practitioner, or the first step for anyone with AWS experience. Practice for it on the Solutions Architect Associate page.

Developer – Associate (DVA-C02, moving to DVA-C03)

Developer – Associate is for people who write, test, deploy and debug applications on AWS. The current DVA-C02 domains are Development (32%), Security (26%), Deployment (24%) and Troubleshooting and Optimization (18%). DVA-C03, from December 1, 2026, shifts to 30/26/22/22 and renames Deployment to Testing and Deployment.

If you are starting today, plan for DVA-C03 unless you can sit DVA-C02 by November 30. AWS publishes the full DVA-C03 exam guide on October 27, 2026.

CloudOps Engineer – Associate (SOA-C03)

The renamed SysOps exam is for people who deploy, manage and operate workloads: monitoring and remediation (22%), reliability (22%), deployment and automation (22%), security (16%) and networking (18%). AWS updated its exam guide on June 1, 2026 to add more services, including Amazon Bedrock. If you hold the old SysOps Administrator certification, it stays valid; the new name applies only to people who pass SOA-C03.

Data Engineer – Associate (DEA-C01)

Data Engineer – Associate covers pipelines: ingestion and transformation (34%), data store management (26%), operations and support (22%) and security and governance (18%). AWS suggests two to three years of data engineering and one to two years on AWS, the highest recommended experience of any associate exam. Model training is explicitly out of scope.

A typical question is about a pipeline misbehaving, like this practice question on Glue job bookmarks. Practice tests are on the Data Engineer Associate page.

Machine Learning Engineer – Associate (MLA-C02, beta)

MLA-C02 is the only associate exam that covers both classic machine learning on SageMaker AI and foundation models on Bedrock, including RAG, agents and Guardrails. As of October 2026 it is in beta: 85 questions in 170 minutes, English only, at a beta price of 75 USD. A beta can be taken only once, and results take up to five business days. If you want the standard exam, wait for AWS to announce general availability.

Professional: architecture, DevOps and generative AI

All three professional exams have 75 questions in 180 minutes, of which 65 are scored, a passing score of 750 out of 1,000 and a price of 300 USD (as of October 2026). AWS recommends at least two years of hands-on AWS experience for each. In our experience writing practice questions for them, the scenarios are long, and the hard part is that several options would work, so you choose by the constraint the question states.

Solutions Architect – Professional (SAP-C02, moving to SAP-C03)

SAP-C02 tests design for complex organizations (26%), new solutions (29%), continuous improvement (25%) and migration and modernization (20%). Expect multi-account questions like this practice question on SCP guardrails. With SAP-C02 ending on November 16, 2026, only book it if you are nearly ready now. Otherwise, prepare for SAP-C03, whose format, domains and price AWS had not yet published when this guide was checked.

DevOps Engineer – Professional (DOP-C02)

DevOps Engineer – Professional is the natural next step after Developer or CloudOps Engineer. Its six domains are SDLC automation (22%), configuration management and infrastructure as code (17%), resilient cloud solutions (15%), monitoring and logging (15%), incident and event response (14%) and security and compliance (17%). No new version is announced. A typical question asks for a safe, automatic deployment, like this practice question on Lambda canary rollback.

Generative AI Developer – Professional (AIP-C01)

This exam is for developers who put generative AI into production on AWS. AWS recommends two or more years building production applications plus one year of hands-on generative AI work. Its largest domain is foundation model integration, data management and compliance (31%). The beta ended on March 31, 2026, and the standard exam has been live since then, refreshed to cover Amazon Bedrock AgentCore. AWS suggests AI Practitioner, Solutions Architect, ML Engineer or Data Engineer first.

Specialty: Security, and Advanced Networking's last year

AWS cut most of its specialties in 2024, retiring Data Analytics, Database and SAP on AWS, and Machine Learning – Specialty followed on March 31, 2026. Two remain:

Security – Specialty (SCS-C03): 65 questions in 170 minutes, a passing score of 750, 300 USD (as of October 2026). Its largest domain is identity and access management (20%). The exam guide's target candidate has three to five years of experience securing cloud solutions.
Advanced Networking – Specialty (ANS-C01): same format and price, last exam day December 31, 2026. Only start it if you can sit it this year.

How the AWS certification levels differ

Foundational vs associate: foundational exams ask what a service is for; associate exams give a scenario and ask which design or fix is best. Foundational: 90 minutes, pass at 700, 100 USD. Associate: 130 minutes, pass at 720, 150 USD.
Associate vs professional: associate scenarios are shorter and test one role's decisions; professional scenarios are longer and span many accounts, teams or Regions at once. Professional: 75 questions, 180 minutes, pass at 750, 300 USD.
Professional vs specialty: professional exams span a whole role; the remaining specialty goes deep on one area, security.
Technical vs business: every exam except AI Business Strategist assumes you work with AWS services; the business exam needs no coding or implementation knowledge.

Which AWS certification should you get first

You are new to IT or the cloud: Cloud Practitioner. It gives you the vocabulary every other exam assumes.
You are non-technical and work with AI projects: AI Practitioner, or AI Business Strategist once you are comfortable sitting a beta.
You are a developer or student who wants to build with AI: AI Practitioner, then a builder associate.
You already use AWS at work: skip foundational and take Solutions Architect – Associate. Its whole-system design view is a good base for any other exam.
You are a data engineer: Data Engineer – Associate, ideally after Solutions Architect – Associate if your AWS basics are thin.
You work in operations or support: CloudOps Engineer – Associate.

AWS certification roadmaps by role

Each path ends at a professional exam, because that is where the three-year renewal pays off: the professional exam renews the lower certifications on the way.

Cloud or solutions architect: Cloud Practitioner (optional) → Solutions Architect – Associate → Solutions Architect – Professional. Passing SAP renews the associate.
Software developer: Solutions Architect – Associate or Developer – Associate → DevOps Engineer – Professional, which renews Developer – Associate.
Operations, SRE or DevOps: CloudOps Engineer – Associate → DevOps Engineer – Professional, which renews CloudOps Engineer – Associate.
Data engineer: Data Engineer – Associate → Generative AI Developer – Professional if your work is moving into AI.
AI or ML engineer: AI Practitioner → ML Engineer – Associate (once MLA-C02 is generally available, or as a beta) → Generative AI Developer – Professional. The professional exam renews both earlier ones.
Security engineer: Solutions Architect – Associate → Security – Specialty.

What to skip or delay

Skip Cloud Practitioner if you already deploy things on AWS. Nothing requires it, and passing any associate or professional exam renews it anyway.
Delay SAP-C02 and DVA-C02 unless you will sit them before November 16 and November 30, 2026. After those dates the old versions can't be booked, so prepare for the new ones.
Avoid starting Advanced Networking unless you can pass it by December 31, 2026.
Don't hunt for Machine Learning – Specialty, SysOps or Data Analytics study plans. Those exams are gone.

AWS certification cost and free preparation

As of October 2026, AWS charges 100 USD for a foundational exam, 150 USD for an associate exam and 300 USD for a professional or specialty exam. AWS's pricing page lists Indian rupee prices for the same tiers: 8,553 INR, 12,829.50 INR and 25,659 INR, payable in rupees only through the Pearson voucher store. Other currencies may add foreign exchange charges. A retake costs the full fee again, after a 14-day wait.

Two rules lower the total. Once you hold one AWS certification, you get a 50% discount voucher toward "recertification or any other exam". And a professional exam renews lower ones for three years: Solutions Architect – Professional renews the associate, DevOps Engineer – Professional renews Developer and CloudOps Engineer, Generative AI Developer – Professional renews Data Engineer, ML Engineer and AI Practitioner, and any associate or professional exam renews Cloud Practitioner.

AWS Skill Builder offers free preparation: an Official Practice Question Set of 20 questions for most exams, a two-hour Exam Prep course, and AWS Cloud Quest. The full Official Practice Exams need a subscription, which starts at 29 USD a month.

The practice tests here are free and need no account. Each test is 10 scenario questions with full explanations, and every question also has its own page:

Read the official exam guide for your exam first, then take a practice test cold to find your weak domains, and spend most of your study time there. The shared responsibility model guide is a good place to start for any foundational exam.

Frequently asked questions

Which AWS certification should I get first?

Cloud Practitioner if you are new to the cloud, AI Practitioner if AI is your goal, and Solutions Architect – Associate if you already work on AWS. There are no prerequisites, so pick by what you already know, not by level.

Do I need Cloud Practitioner before Solutions Architect – Associate?

No. AWS has no prerequisites for any exam. Cloud Practitioner helps if the cloud is new to you, but someone who already uses AWS can go straight to the associate exam.

Is AWS certification worth it?

It is worth it when it matches work you do or want to do: an associate exam shows you can design or operate real systems, and a professional exam shows depth. It is worth less as a stack of unrelated badges. One associate exam in your lane, backed by hands-on work, usually does more than three foundational ones.

How much does an AWS certification cost?

As of October 2026: 100 USD (8,553 INR) for foundational exams, 150 USD (12,829.50 INR) for associate exams and 300 USD (25,659 INR) for professional and specialty exams. Your first pass earns a 50% discount voucher for another exam.

Which AWS certification is easiest?

Cloud Practitioner and AI Practitioner are the entry-level exams: 90 minutes, a passing score of 700, and no experience assumed. Of the associate exams, Data Engineer has the highest recommended experience.

How long does an AWS certification last?

Three years. You renew by passing the latest version of the same exam, or a higher exam that AWS lists as renewing it. Many certifications can also be extended by a year through a paid Skill Builder subscription.