AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate (SOA-C02): Study Guide

The operations-focused AWS associate. SOA-C02 exam format, the six domains, monitoring and automation essentials, and a practical study plan.

Practice 466 free AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate questions

Official exam page: https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-sysops-admin-associate/

The AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate (SOA-C02) is the operations-focused associate certification. It validates that you can deploy, manage and operate workloads on AWS — monitoring, automation, networking, security and cost control from a day-to-day operations perspective.

Exam at a glance

• Format: 65 questions (multiple choice and multiple response)
• Duration: 130 minutes
• Cost: 150 USD
• Passing score: 720 out of 1000 (scaled)

Note: AWS removed the hands-on exam labs from SOA-C02 in early 2023, so the exam is currently all multiple choice. Always confirm the current format on the official page.

Exam domains

1. Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation — 20%. CloudWatch metrics/alarms/logs, EventBridge, automated remediation.
2. Reliability and Business Continuity — 16%. Scaling, load balancing, backups, and recovery.
3. Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation — 18%. CloudFormation, Systems Manager, AMIs, and provisioning at scale.
4. Security and Compliance — 16%. IAM, encryption, compliance tooling, and patching.
5. Networking and Content Delivery — 18%. VPC, Route 53, CloudFront, connectivity and troubleshooting.
6. Cost and Performance Optimization — 12%. Right-sizing, cost tooling, and performance tuning.

Services to master

• Operations: CloudWatch (metrics, alarms, Logs, agent), EventBridge, Systems Manager (Run Command, Patch Manager, Parameter Store)
• Automation: CloudFormation, AMIs, Auto Scaling
• Networking: VPC, ELB, Route 53 routing policies, CloudFront
• Reliability: snapshots, AWS Backup, Multi-AZ
• Security: IAM, KMS, AWS Config, Trusted Advisor

A study plan

• Weeks 1–2: CloudWatch and Systems Manager — the operational core of the exam.
• Week 3: Networking and content delivery troubleshooting.
• Week 4: Automation, reliability and backups.
• Week 5: Security, cost optimization, then practice exams.

Exam-day tips

• Know CloudWatch vs CloudTrail vs Config and what each is for.
• Be fluent in Systems Manager capabilities — they appear in many automation questions.
• Expect Route 53 routing-policy and VPC connectivity troubleshooting scenarios.

Practice now

Use the free SOA-C02 questions below, focusing on monitoring, automation and networking.