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AWS · DevOps & Automation · Professional

AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional exam guide

Exam DOP-C02

The AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional validates that you can automate provisioning, CI/CD, monitoring, incident response and security controls for AWS environments at scale. It is the senior credential for cloud DevOps and platform engineering roles and renews both Developer and CloudOps associates.

Questions75
Time limit180 minutes
Passing score750 (100-1000 scale)
Exam fee$300 USD
Valid for3 years
DeliveryPearson VUE test center or online proctored

Format: Multiple choice and multiple response; long scenarios. Fee note: Plus applicable taxes/FX; 50% off with a voucher from a previously passed AWS exam.

Who it's for

Engineers with 2+ years provisioning, operating and managing AWS environments who also write code or scripts and run software delivery pipelines.

What the exam covers

SDLC Automation22%
Configuration Management and IaC17%
Resilient Cloud Solutions15%
Monitoring and Logging15%
Incident and Event Response14%
Security and Compliance17%

Eligibility & prerequisites

Required: None

Recommended: 2 or more years provisioning, operating and managing AWS environments, plus SDLC and programming/scripting experience.

Keeping it active

Valid 3 years. Recertify by passing the latest version of this exam before your certification expires. After passing any AWS exam you receive a 50% discount voucher for your next exam.

Skills & careers

Skills it validates

  • Multi-stage CI/CD with CodePipeline, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy and third-party tools
  • IaC at scale with CloudFormation StackSets, CDK and Service Catalog
  • Blue/green, canary and rolling deployment strategies
  • Centralized logging and monitoring across accounts
  • Event-driven incident response with EventBridge, SSM and Lambda
  • Automated security and compliance with Config, Security Hub and GuardDuty
  • Designing self-healing, highly available systems

Job roles

DevOps EngineerPlatform EngineerSite Reliability EngineerCloud Automation EngineerRelease EngineerSenior Cloud Engineer

Where it fits in your path

Planning a degree too? See how this cert earns college credit in the College Credit Navigator.

Build my study plan

  1. Week 1: Exam guide review; map your experience against the six domains
  2. Week 2-3: SDLC automation - CodePipeline cross-account/cross-Region, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy for EC2/ECS/Lambda, artifact management
  3. Week 4: IaC - CloudFormation (custom resources, helper scripts, StackSets), CDK, Systems Manager State Manager
  4. Week 5: Resilience, monitoring and logging - Auto Scaling lifecycle hooks, multi-Region patterns, CloudWatch cross-account observability, log aggregation
  5. Week 6: Incident response and security - EventBridge rules, SSM Automation runbooks, Config conformance packs, Security Hub, IAM at scale
  6. Week 7-9: Full timed practice exams and targeted hands-on fixes

Make it yours: pick your exam date and weekly hours. We'll split your time by domain weight and give you a printable plan.

Exam-day tips

  • SDLC Automation is the largest domain - know CodeDeploy lifecycle hooks and rollback behavior per compute platform
  • Many answers differ only by automation level; prefer event-driven, automated remediation
  • Know how to deploy pipelines across accounts and Regions (KMS key sharing, artifact bucket policies, cross-account roles)
  • Distinguish CloudFormation StackSets (multi-account) from nested stacks (modularity)
  • Read every scenario for the hidden constraint (zero downtime, minimal cost, least privilege)

Key terms for this exam

All 58 terms Study with thinQcards™

Commonly confused on this exam

Frequently asked questions

How much does AWS DevOps Engineer Professional cost?

$300 USD plus applicable taxes.

Is DOP-C02 harder than SAP?

Difficulty is similar; DOP is deeper on CI/CD and operations tooling while SAP is broader on architecture.

Does DevOps Professional renew my associate certs?

Yes. AWS states it renews Developer Associate and CloudOps Engineer Associate holders.

Do I need an associate certification first?

No formal prerequisite, though Developer or CloudOps Associate is a strong foundation.

Is there a new DOP version coming?

As of November 2026 AWS lists DOP-C02 as current with no replacement announced on the certification page.

Official page: aws.amazon.com. Reviewed November 2026. Vendors change fees and objectives, so confirm with the vendor before you book. Spot something out of date? Tell us.