DEA-C01 FAQ — Common Questions (AWS Data Engineer Associate)
Answers to common AWS Data Engineer Associate (DEA-C01) questions: difficulty, prerequisites, passing score, study time, what services to know, and how to prep efficiently.
What is AWS Certified Data Engineer — Associate (DEA-C01)?
DEA-C01 is an associate-level AWS certification focused on building and operating data pipelines and analytics platforms on AWS: ingestion, transformation, storage, monitoring/troubleshooting, and security/governance.
If you want the fastest orientation, start with the section overview and keep the official exam guide from Resources open while you study.
What score do you need to pass DEA-C01?
AWS uses a scaled score (100–1000). The minimum passing score is 720.
How many questions and how much time?
- 65 questions
- 130 minutes
- Multiple-choice and multiple-response
Who should take DEA-C01?
AWS describes the ideal candidate as having:
- ~2–3 years of experience in data engineering or data architecture
- At least 1–2 years of hands-on AWS experience
What AWS services should you know?
At a high level, you should be comfortable with:
- Data lake and governance: Amazon S3, AWS Lake Formation, AWS Glue Data Catalog
- ETL and processing: AWS Glue, Amazon EMR (Spark), AWS Lambda, AWS Glue DataBrew
- Streaming and ingestion: Amazon Kinesis, Amazon MSK, AWS DMS, Amazon AppFlow
- Analytics: Amazon Athena, Amazon Redshift, Amazon QuickSight
- Orchestration: Amazon EventBridge, AWS Step Functions, Amazon MWAA
- Ops and security: CloudWatch, CloudTrail, IAM, KMS, Macie
Use the Cheatsheet for service pickers and high-yield patterns.
How long should you study for DEA-C01?
Typical ranges vary by hands-on experience:
- Strong AWS + strong data background: 40–60 hours
- Strong data background but newer to AWS: 60–90 hours
- Newer to data engineering platforms: 90–120+ hours
Pick a schedule you can sustain, then cycle between the Cheat Sheet and Resources so you keep service choice and official scope aligned.
How do you practice effectively for DEA-C01?
Follow a loop:
- Read one objective area from the official exam guide in Resources
- Review the matching service patterns in the Cheat Sheet
- Write 3–5 “miss rules” from what you got wrong
- Re-drill weak tasks 48–72 hours later (spaced repetition)