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AWS Data Engineer Associate Exam Guide

Everything you need to know about the AWS Data Engineer Associate certification exam, from study strategies to exam day tips.

Exam Information

130 minutes

Duration

65 questions

Questions

720/1000

Passing Score

$150 USD

Exam Cost

Recommended Study Plan

Week 1-2

Data Ingestion Fundamentals

Data Ingestion and Transformation (34%)

15-20 hours

Kinesis Data Streams vs Kinesis Firehose
AWS Glue ETL jobs, crawlers, and triggers
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
Amazon MSK (Managed Streaming for Kafka)

Recommended Resources:

AWS Kinesis Documentation

AWS Glue Developer Guide

Week 3-4

Data Transformation & Orchestration

Data Ingestion and Transformation (34%)

15-20 hours

AWS Step Functions for pipeline orchestration
Amazon MWAA (Managed Airflow)
EMR for large-scale data processing
Lambda for event-driven data transformation

Recommended Resources:

Step Functions Documentation

EMR Best Practices

Week 5-6

Data Store Management

Data Store Management (26%)

20-25 hours

Amazon Redshift optimization (DISTKEY, SORTKEY, WLM)
S3 data lake architecture and storage classes
AWS Lake Formation permissions and governance
Athena, DynamoDB, OpenSearch, and ElastiCache

Recommended Resources:

Redshift Best Practices

Lake Formation Workshop

Week 7-8

Operations, Security & Governance

Data Operations (22%) + Security & Governance (18%)

15-20 hours

CloudWatch monitoring for data pipelines
AWS KMS encryption for data at rest and in transit
Lake Formation column and row-level security
Data lifecycle management and cost optimization

Recommended Resources:

KMS Best Practices

Practice Exams

Exam Tips & Strategies

Know Kinesis Inside Out

Kinesis Data Streams vs Firehose is heavily tested. Know retention, shard capacity, consumers, and transformation options.

Manage Your Time

You have about 2 minutes per question. Flag complex scenario questions and return to them.

Master Glue & Lake Formation

AWS Glue ETL, Data Catalog, and Lake Formation access controls are high-frequency topics on the exam.

Understand Data Store Trade-offs

Know when to choose Redshift vs Athena vs DynamoDB vs OpenSearch. Each has specific use cases tested on the exam.

Key Topics to Master

Amazon Kinesis Data Streams

Amazon Kinesis Firehose

AWS Glue ETL

AWS Glue Data Catalog

AWS Lake Formation

Amazon Redshift

Amazon Athena

AWS DMS

Amazon EMR

AWS Step Functions

Amazon MSK

AWS KMS Encryption

S3 Data Lake

Data Lifecycle Management

For the most up-to-date exam information, visit the official exam guide.

View Official Exam Guide

Back to Data Engineer Associate

AWS Data Engineer Associate Exam Guide

Everything you need to know about the AWS Data Engineer Associate certification exam, from study strategies to exam day tips.

Exam Information

130 minutes

Duration

65 questions

Questions

720/1000

Passing Score

$150 USD

Exam Cost

Recommended Study Plan

Week 1-2

Data Ingestion Fundamentals

Data Ingestion and Transformation (34%)

15-20 hours

Kinesis Data Streams vs Kinesis Firehose
AWS Glue ETL jobs, crawlers, and triggers
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
Amazon MSK (Managed Streaming for Kafka)

Recommended Resources:

AWS Kinesis Documentation

AWS Glue Developer Guide

Week 3-4

Data Transformation & Orchestration

Data Ingestion and Transformation (34%)

15-20 hours

AWS Step Functions for pipeline orchestration
Amazon MWAA (Managed Airflow)
EMR for large-scale data processing
Lambda for event-driven data transformation

Recommended Resources:

Step Functions Documentation

EMR Best Practices

Week 5-6

Data Store Management

Data Store Management (26%)

20-25 hours

Amazon Redshift optimization (DISTKEY, SORTKEY, WLM)
S3 data lake architecture and storage classes
AWS Lake Formation permissions and governance
Athena, DynamoDB, OpenSearch, and ElastiCache

Recommended Resources:

Redshift Best Practices

Lake Formation Workshop

Week 7-8

Operations, Security & Governance

Data Operations (22%) + Security & Governance (18%)

15-20 hours

CloudWatch monitoring for data pipelines
AWS KMS encryption for data at rest and in transit
Lake Formation column and row-level security
Data lifecycle management and cost optimization

Recommended Resources:

KMS Best Practices

Practice Exams

Exam Tips & Strategies

Know Kinesis Inside Out

Kinesis Data Streams vs Firehose is heavily tested. Know retention, shard capacity, consumers, and transformation options.

Manage Your Time

You have about 2 minutes per question. Flag complex scenario questions and return to them.

Master Glue & Lake Formation

AWS Glue ETL, Data Catalog, and Lake Formation access controls are high-frequency topics on the exam.

Understand Data Store Trade-offs

Know when to choose Redshift vs Athena vs DynamoDB vs OpenSearch. Each has specific use cases tested on the exam.

Key Topics to Master

Amazon Kinesis Data Streams

Amazon Kinesis Firehose

AWS Glue ETL

AWS Glue Data Catalog

AWS Lake Formation

Amazon Redshift

Amazon Athena

AWS DMS

Amazon EMR

AWS Step Functions

Amazon MSK

AWS KMS Encryption

S3 Data Lake

Data Lifecycle Management

For the most up-to-date exam information, visit the official exam guide.

View Official Exam Guide