Last updated: September 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. Exam facts re-read on AWS’s certification page, the DEA-C01 exam guide and the AWS Certification FAQ on 11 September 2026. See our review methodology.
By Josh Hutcheson · E-Learning Specialist
Reviewing online learning platforms since 2019. Connect on LinkedIn · Review methodology
THE 60-SECOND GUIDE
Bottom line: the AWS Certified Data Engineer – Associate (DEA-C01) is the only associate-level AWS exam built around pipelines, and it is the one to take if your job title is, or will be, data engineer at an AWS shop. It costs $150 per attempt, runs 130 minutes for 65 questions, needs a scaled 720, and is valid for three years. It launched on 12 March 2024 as the replacement for the retired Data Analytics Specialty.
- Cheapest route that works: the Frank Kane and Stephane Maarek Udemy course plus Tutorials Dojo practice tests, about $180 all in
- If you need a portfolio too: Udacity’s Data Engineering with AWS Nanodegree covers Domains 1–3 through four reviewed projects; add Domain 4 yourself
- Skip it if: your employer runs Azure (take DP-700), or you have no Python, SQL or AWS at all yet (build those first)
Start DEA-C01 prep with the Udemy course →
What the AWS Data Engineer Associate actually certifies
Before you spend money on the wrong online course, read this.
Get the free 2026 Platform Comparison Guide — 12 platforms compared on price, certificates, and refund policies. Instant PDF, plus my honest Tuesday picks.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
DEA-C01 validates that you can implement data pipelines on AWS and then monitor, troubleshoot and optimise them for cost and performance. AWS’s exam guide spells out four task areas: ingest and transform data while orchestrating pipelines; choose data stores, design data models, catalogue schemas and manage data lifecycles; operationalise and monitor pipelines and ensure data quality; and apply authentication, authorisation, encryption, privacy, governance and logging. Machine-learning training, language-specific syntax and drawing business conclusions from data are explicitly out of scope.
The history matters because older guides still get it wrong. AWS’s specialty-level data exam began life as Big Data – Specialty (BDS-C00), was renamed Data Analytics – Specialty (DAS-C01) in April 2020, and was retired on 8 April 2024; DEA-C01 opened for scheduling on 12 March 2024 and took over the role at half the price and at the associate tier. If you see a course or a blog post preparing you for DAS-C01, it is two generations old.
Should you take it?
Take it if
- You are a data engineer, or an analyst moving into engineering, at an employer that runs on AWS. The exam tests the services you will touch every week.
- You want a credential that is still uncommon: the exam is under three years old, so a DEA-C01 badge separates you from generic “data engineer” applicants in a way SAA-C03 no longer does.
- You already have the SQL, Python and pipeline fundamentals and need the AWS-specific layer on top.
Skip it if
- Your target employers run Azure or GCP: the Azure Data Engineer (DP-700) is the equivalent, and our AWS vs Azure guide covers the platform choice.
- You have no Python, SQL or AWS experience yet. The exam assumes you have run pipelines; build the fundamentals with a course such as DataCamp’s track first.
- You are a senior engineer with a public portfolio and years of production work; a certificate will not change what interviewers already believe.
Exam format, cost and logistics
These figures come from AWS’s certification page, the exam guide and the AWS Certification FAQ, read on 11 September 2026.
| Detail | DEA-C01 (read 11 Sept 2026) |
|---|---|
| Cost | $150 USD per attempt |
| Duration | 130 minutes |
| Questions | 65 (50 scored, 15 unscored) |
| Format | Multiple choice and multiple response only |
| Passing score | 720 out of 1,000, scaled; compensatory across domains |
| Languages | English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese |
| Delivery | Pearson VUE test centre or online proctored |
| Validity | 3 years |
| Retake | After 14 days; no attempt limit; full fee each time |
| Recommended experience | 2–3 years data engineering plus 1–2 years hands-on AWS |
| Launched | 12 March 2024 (replaced Data Analytics – Specialty, retired 8 April 2024) |
Three details from the exam guide are worth reading twice. The question types are multiple choice and multiple response only; there are no ordering or matching items on this exam. Scoring is compensatory, so a weak domain will not fail you on its own if the overall scaled score clears 720. And 15 of the 65 questions are unscored trials that you cannot identify, so a run of hard questions is not a signal about how you are doing.
The four exam domains
The weightings below are from the exam guide. Domains 1 and 2 carry 60% of the scored content, which is where your study hours should go.
Domain 1: Data Ingestion and Transformation (34%)
Streaming ingestion with Kinesis Data Streams, Kinesis Data Firehose and Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka; batch ingestion with AWS Glue crawlers and jobs, AWS DMS and S3 transfer patterns; transformation with Glue ETL, Spark on EMR and Lambda; real-time processing with Managed Service for Apache Flink. The recurring question shape is “which ingestion service meets this throughput and latency requirement at the lowest operational effort”.
Domain 2: Data Store Management (26%)
Redshift cluster design, distribution and sort keys, RA3 versus DC2 nodes, Spectrum and Concurrency Scaling; data lakes on S3 with Lake Formation, the Glue Data Catalog and partitioning; operational stores (RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB) and when each fits; data modelling including star and snowflake schemas and slowly changing dimensions; lifecycle policies and storage classes.
Domain 3: Data Operations and Support (22%)
Orchestration with Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow, Step Functions, Glue workflows and EventBridge; monitoring and troubleshooting with CloudWatch metrics, logs and alarms; analysing data with Athena and QuickSight; data quality with Glue Data Quality and Deequ; automating operations with infrastructure as code and the AWS CLI.
Domain 4: Data Security and Governance (18%)
Encryption at rest and in transit with KMS and TLS; IAM identity and resource policies; Lake Formation fine-grained permissions; auditing with CloudTrail, AWS Config and access logs; privacy controls such as masking and tokenisation, and data governance with the Glue Data Catalog and Amazon DataZone-style cataloguing. This is the domain the project-based courses cover least, so plan dedicated study for it.
What it costs, all in
The exam fee is fixed; the prep budget is your choice. Every figure below was read from the vendor’s page on 11 September 2026 and the exam fee is counted once.
| Budget | Route | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum | Skill Builder free plan + exam | $150 |
| Typical | Udemy course (~$15) + Tutorials Dojo ($15) + exam | ~$180 |
| Fundamentals first | Two months of DataCamp (~$28–$70) + Udemy + Tutorials Dojo + exam | ~$210–$250 |
| Project-led | Udacity Nanodegree, 2–3 months with the reader code (~$300–$450) + practice tests + exam | ~$465–$615 |
| Any route + one fail | A second $150 attempt after 14 days | +$150 |
A failed attempt costs 14 days and another $150 with no limit on attempts, and once you hold any AWS certification you receive a 50% discount voucher for a recertification or higher-level exam, which is worth remembering when you plan the Solutions Architect or a specialty exam later.
Best ways to prepare for DEA-C01
Ranked by fit rather than by what pays us: we earn a commission on Udemy, Udacity and DataCamp enrolments through the links here and nothing from Tutorials Dojo, Pluralsight’s A Cloud Guru path in this table, or AWS Skill Builder.
| Option | What it is | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frank Kane & Stephane Maarek, Udemy | “AWS Certified Data Engineer Associate 2026 – Hands On!”: 4.6 from 13,782 ratings, 121,894 students, updated September 2026, bestseller | $12–$30 on Udemy’s rolling sales | Most candidates: the consensus core course |
| Udacity Data Engineering with AWS Nanodegree | 66 hours, 4 courses, 4 reviewed projects (Postgres/Cassandra modeling, Redshift warehouse, S3 + Spark lake, Airflow pipeline), 4.6 from 1,294 reviews, updated 3 Sept 2026 | $249/month all-access ($846 for 4 months); reader code onlinecourseing40 applies | Career-changers who need a portfolio, not just a badge |
| Pluralsight Cloud+ (A Cloud Guru library) | Structured DEA-C01 exam-prep path inside the Cloud+ plan | $35 month-to-month or $24.50/month billed yearly | People who prefer a second teaching style or already subscribe |
| DataCamp Data Engineer in Python track | 40-hour interactive track on SQL, Spark, Airflow and pipelines, run in the browser | DataCamp Premium, $14/month billed annually on the current offer ($28 list) or $35 monthly | Filling Python, SQL and Spark gaps before the AWS-specific study |
| Tutorials Dojo practice tests | Four timed, four review and four section-based sets plus a randomised test, updated continuously | $14.99 | Everyone, in the last three weeks (no affiliate relationship) |
| AWS Skill Builder | AWS’s own exam-prep plan with an official practice question set; labs on the paid plan | Free plan; paid tier for labs | The official question style, free (no affiliate relationship) |
#1 for most people: the Frank Kane and Stephane Maarek Udemy course
“AWS Certified Data Engineer Associate 2026 – Hands On!” pairs Frank Kane’s data-engineering depth with Maarek’s exam framing. When we read the listing on 11 September 2026 it stood at 4.6 from 13,782 ratings and 121,894 students, updated that month and flagged as a bestseller. It walks every in-scope service with hands-on demos and closes with a practice exam. Udemy’s rolling sales keep it at $12–$30; do not pay the list price.
Get the DEA-C01 course on Udemy →
The project-led path: Udacity Data Engineering with AWS
PREMIUM PICK — IF YOU NEED THE PORTFOLIO, NOT JUST THE CERT
Udacity’s Data Engineering with AWS Nanodegree (66 hours, four courses, four projects, 4.6 from 1,294 reviews, updated 3 September 2026) has you model data in Postgres and Cassandra, build a Redshift warehouse, stand up an S3 and Spark data lake, and automate it all with Airflow, with a human reviewing each project. That is Domains 1 to 3 of the exam as GitHub repositories a hiring manager can open. It does not cover Domain 4 (security and governance) in depth; budget separate study for Lake Formation, KMS and CloudTrail. Our full review goes project by project.
Pricing: Udacity’s all-access subscription is $249 a month at list, or $846 for four months ($212 a month); at 66 hours most people finish in two to three months. The reader code onlinecourseing40 takes 40% off and is applied when you click through. Skip if: you already have a portfolio; the Udemy course plus the exam is the efficient route.
See the Data Engineering Nanodegree
Affiliate partnership: we may earn a commission when you enrol via this link.
Fundamentals first: DataCamp’s Data Engineer in Python track
If SQL, Spark or Airflow are the gap rather than AWS itself, DataCamp’s 40-hour Data Engineer in Python track teaches them in the browser with graded exercises. It is not AWS exam prep and does not pretend to be; it is the cheapest way to arrive at the Udemy course able to follow it. DataCamp Premium is $14 a month billed annually on the current offer ($28 list) or $35 month to month.
See DataCamp’s Data Engineer track →
Practice tests and free supplements
Tutorials Dojo‘s DEA-C01 set ($14.99) gives you four timed, four review-mode and four section-based tests plus a randomised exam, with explanations that teach as much as the course did. AWS Skill Builder has a free exam-prep plan for DEA-C01 and an official practice question set that shows you AWS’s own question style; hands-on labs sit behind its paid tier. Pluralsight’s Cloud+ plan, which now holds the A Cloud Guru library, has a structured DEA-C01 path at $35 month to month or $24.50 a month billed yearly, and suits people who bounce off Udemy’s format. We have no affiliate relationship with Tutorials Dojo or Skill Builder.
A 12-week study plan for working engineers
Weeks 1-2: foundations and account setup
Read the DEA-C01 exam guide including its in-scope services list, set up an AWS account with billing alerts at $25, $50 and $100, and refresh SQL and Python basics if they are rusty.
Weeks 3-6: Domains 1 and 2
Work through the Udemy course sections on ingestion (Kinesis, MSK, Glue, DMS), transformation (Glue ETL, EMR, Lambda) and storage (S3, Redshift, Lake Formation), building each service once by hand.
Weeks 7-9: Domains 3 and 4
Orchestrate a pipeline with Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow or Step Functions, add CloudWatch alarms, then lock it down with IAM, KMS and Lake Formation permissions and audit it with CloudTrail.
Weeks 10-11: practice exams
Take Tutorials Dojo’s timed sets and AWS’s official practice questions, reviewing every miss by domain until you score above 80% on fresh sets.
Week 12: sit the exam
Book the exam, keep the last two days for light review, and remember the 14-day retake window exists.
That is roughly eight to ten hours a week. Engineers already running AWS pipelines daily can compress it to six weeks; people new to AWS should double it and lead with the Nanodegree or the labs below.
Four pipelines to build before the exam
The questions are scenarios about services misbehaving under constraints, so the fastest way to learn the trade-offs is to build small versions and break them. Each of these stays cheap if you tear it down the same day.
- Streaming to lake (Domain 1). A Kinesis Data Firehose stream landing JSON in S3, partitioned by hour, with a Glue crawler cataloguing it and Athena querying it. Then swap Firehose for Kinesis Data Streams plus Lambda and note what changes.
- Warehouse load (Domain 2). A two-node Redshift cluster, a COPY from S3, then the same table with different distribution and sort keys; time the same query on each.
- Orchestrated batch (Domain 3). A Glue ETL job triggered by Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow or Step Functions, with a CloudWatch alarm on failures and a Glue Data Quality rule that fails the run on bad rows.
- Locked-down lake (Domain 4). Register the S3 location in Lake Formation, grant column-level access to one role, encrypt with a customer-managed KMS key, and read the CloudTrail events your own queries generate.
Salary impact, honestly
The certification is too new for a survey that isolates its effect, and the salary figures circulating for it mostly recycle general data-engineer ranges. The defensible version is this: US data-engineering roles at AWS-centric employers advertise well into six figures in major markets, the credential’s effect is largest at the screening stage, and it matters more when it sits beside a portfolio of pipelines than on its own. We do not quote a premium percentage or a single dollar figure here because the sources disagree with each other and none isolates the certification.
DEA-C01 next to the neighbouring exams
| Exam | Level | Cost | Choose it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data Engineer – Associate (DEA-C01) | Associate | $150 | You build and run pipelines on AWS |
| Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) | Associate | $150 | You want the broad architecture exam first |
| Machine Learning Engineer – Associate (MLA-C01, moving to MLA-C02) | Associate | $150 | You productionise ML pipelines; see our AWS ML Engineer Nanodegree review |
| Machine Learning – Specialty (MLS-C01) | Specialty | $300 | You design and tune ML systems |
| Azure Data Engineer (DP-700) | Associate (Microsoft) | $165 | Your employer runs Azure |
Frequently asked questions
How hard is the DEA-C01 exam?
Harder than Solutions Architect Associate for most people, because it assumes you have run pipelines, not just read about them. AWS pitches it at candidates with two to three years of data engineering and one to two years on AWS, and it does not publish a pass rate. The scaled passing score is 720 out of 1,000, scoring is compensatory (you need to pass the whole exam, not every domain), and 15 of the 65 questions are unscored trials you cannot identify.
How much does the AWS Certified Data Engineer Associate cost in total?
The exam is $150 per attempt and every retake is another $150 after a 14-day wait. Prep ranges from free (AWS Skill Builder’s exam-prep plan) through about $12-$30 for the Udemy course and $15 for Tutorials Dojo practice tests, to $24.50-$35 a month for Pluralsight’s Cloud+ plan or $249 a month for the Udacity Nanodegree. A realistic all-in figure is $180 to $700 depending on whether you buy the project-based route.
Is DEA-C01 worth it?
Yes if you are a data engineer, or moving into data engineering, at an employer that runs on AWS: it is the only associate-level AWS credential built around pipelines, warehouses, lakes and governance, and it is still young enough (launched March 2024) that holders are uncommon. It is worth less to a senior engineer with a public portfolio, and it is the wrong exam for an Azure shop, where DP-700 is the equivalent.
How is DEA-C01 different from the retired Data Analytics Specialty?
AWS retired the Data Analytics – Specialty (DAS-C01) on 8 April 2024 and launched the Data Engineer – Associate on 12 March 2024 to replace it at the associate tier. DAS-C01 was itself the 2020 rename of the older Big Data – Specialty (BDS-C00). DEA-C01 is cheaper ($150 against $300), shorter, and covers newer services such as Lake Formation, Glue Data Quality and Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow that the specialty never did.
Should I get DEA-C01 or Solutions Architect Associate first?
If your target job title is data engineer, take DEA-C01 directly; it tests the services you will use. If you want general cloud fundamentals first, or are not sure which specialism you will land in, SAA-C03 is broader and its material overlaps with DEA-C01’s storage, security and cost domains.
Can I pass DEA-C01 with no AWS experience?
It is possible but slow. Budget four to five months of part-time study instead of the six to ten weeks an experienced engineer needs, and build the Nanodegree or lab projects rather than relying on video, because the questions are scenario-based and assume you have seen the services misbehave.
Does the Udacity Data Engineering with AWS Nanodegree cover the whole exam?
No, and it is not designed to. Its four projects (data modeling with Postgres and Cassandra, a Redshift warehouse, an S3 and Spark data lake, an Airflow pipeline) map well onto Domains 1 to 3, which carry 82% of the marks; Domain 4, security and governance (Lake Formation permissions, encryption, auditing, Glue Data Quality), needs separate study. Pair it with practice tests and the exam guide’s in-scope services list.
What happens if I fail DEA-C01?
You wait 14 calendar days, pay the full $150 again, and retake it; there is no limit on attempts. Your score report shows a strength or weakness classification per domain, so target the weak domain rather than restarting the whole plan. AWS advises reading section-level feedback with caution because the sections are small.
How does DEA-C01 compare to the Azure Data Engineer (DP-700)?
They are the same job on different clouds and roughly the same difficulty. Choose by the platform your target employers run. Our Azure Data Engineer certification guide covers DP-700’s domains and prep, and our AWS vs Azure comparison covers the broader choice.
Final verdict
DEA-C01 is the right AWS exam for a data engineer and a poor one for anyone else, which is exactly what a role-specific certification should be. Prepare with the Kane and Maarek course and Tutorials Dojo if you already run pipelines; add the Udacity Nanodegree if you need the projects; build the four labs either way. The exam costs $150, the hands-on hours are what you are really paying for, and the security domain is where the cheaper routes leave a hole you will have to fill yourself.
Start DEA-C01 prep with the Udemy course →
Related guides: Azure Data Engineer (DP-700) · AWS Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03) · AWS Developer Associate (DVA-C02 and C03) · AWS vs Azure · Best data engineering courses · Udacity Data Engineering Nanodegree review · Udacity AWS Cloud Architect review · Best cloud certifications