Validate your ability to deploy, manage, and operate workloads on AWS. This exam covers monitoring, reliability, deployment automation, security compliance, and networking.
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Every CloudWatch alarm pattern, Systems Manager tool, DR strategy, and VPC diagnostic the SOA-C03 exam actually tests — organised the way operators work, not the way services are catalogued
The AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer Associate (SOA-C03), formerly the SysOps Administrator Associate, validates your ability to deploy, manage, and operate scalable, fault-tolerant systems on AWS. It's the most operations-focused of the three associate-level certifications.
This certification targets system administrators, operations engineers, cloud support engineers, and anyone responsible for day-to-day management of AWS workloads. If you're the person who gets paged when production breaks, this cert validates your skills. One year of hands-on AWS operations experience is recommended.
Read the full AWS CloudOps Engineer Associate certification guide
The SOA-C03 exam has 65 questions (50 scored, 15 unscored) in multiple-choice and multiple-response format. You get 130 minutes, and the passing score is 720/1000 (approximately 72%). The exam costs $150 USD.
Recommended experience: One year of hands-on experience operating and managing AWS-based systems, including monitoring, patching, backup, and access management.
Many people consider it the most challenging of the three associate exams because it tests operational depth — troubleshooting, monitoring, and hands-on system management skills. The questions often describe a broken scenario and ask you to identify the fix.
The new name arrived with a new exam version: SOA-C03 replaced the SysOps Administrator Associate (SOA-C02) on September 30, 2025. It has five domains instead of six (cost and performance optimization moved into the monitoring domain) and adds topics such as the CloudWatch agent on ECS and EKS, the AWS CDK and enforcing compliance requirements. The name reflects the broader scope of modern cloud operations beyond traditional system administration.
If your daily work involves monitoring, managing, and maintaining AWS infrastructure, take the SysOps/CloudOps exam. If you write application code and deploy it to AWS, take the Developer Associate. If you're a DevOps engineer, consider both, or go directly to the DevOps Professional.
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