Welcome! This course will guide you through the AWS Certified Data Engineer – Associate exam with focused lessons, hands-on labs, and quick quizzes.
What you’ll learn#
- The exam domains and weighting
- The core AWS services for data engineering (Glue, EMR, Athena, Lake Formation, Redshift, Kinesis, MSK, DMS, S3, IAM)
- Practical skills with hands-on examples
- Exam-taking strategies and common pitfalls
Exam snapshot#
- Format: Multiple choice/multiple response
- Questions: 65 (50 scored + 15 unscored)
- Duration: ~130 minutes
- Fees: $150
- Level: Associate
- Languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese
- Delivery: Pearson VUE center or online proctor
AWS deliberately words questions to test your decision-making, not trivia.
Pay attention to modifiers like “least cost,” “simplest,” “most scalable,”—those single adjectives change everything.
Exam Domains#
| Domain | Weight | Core Focus |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Data Ingestion & Transformation | 34 % | ETL/ELT design, streaming, orchestration |
| 2. Data Store Management | 26 % | Catalogs, schema evolution, lifecycle mgmt |
| 3. Data Operations & Support | 22 % | Monitoring, automation, optimization |
| 4. Data Security & Governance | 18 % | IAM, encryption, compliance, access control |
Study plan#
- Follow lessons in order (use the Series module on this page)
- Do the hands-on sections — they’re exam-focused
- Use the references at the end of each lesson for deeper dives
Tips#
- Learn service limits and default behaviors (often tested)
- Map use cases to the right service (e.g., streaming vs. batch)
- Expect scenario-based questions
References#
- AWS Exam Guide
- AWS Well-Architected: Analytics Lens
- Service docs for Glue, EMR, Athena, Redshift, Lake Formation