AWS · SOA-C02
AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate practice exams
AWS's operations-focused associate certification — monitoring, deploying, and maintaining AWS workloads day to day, the SysOps counterpart to Solutions Architect Associate.
Or read 15 sample questions with answers.
Try a real SOA-C02 question
A company runs workloads in dozens of AWS accounts in AWS Organizations, all in the same Region. The operations team wants to run one CloudWatch Logs Insights query against application log groups from many accounts, and to graph CloudWatch metrics from those accounts side by side. Accounts created later in the organization should be included automatically. The team does not want to build pipelines that copy the data. Which solution meets these requirements?
About the SOA-C02 exam
AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate (SOA-C02) validates the ability to deploy, manage, and operate workloads on AWS: monitoring and logging, reliability and business continuity, deployment and automation, security and compliance, networking, and cost and performance optimization.
Where Solutions Architect Associate tests design decisions, SysOps Administrator tests operational judgment — reading CloudWatch metrics, diagnosing a failed deployment, choosing the right backup and recovery approach, tightening a security configuration. The exam includes some interactive, performance-based items in addition to standard multiple choice.
The real exam
Public information published by AWS. A CertRidge practice exam matches this format — it is not a copy of the exam's contents.
- Format
- 65 questions (50 scored, 15 unscored and unidentified) in 130 minutes, including some interactive performance-based items. Delivered at a Pearson VUE test centre or online with a proctor.
- Cost
- Approximately 150 USD, before regional pricing and taxes.
- Scoring
- Scored on a scaled 100–1000 range; 720 is the passing mark. AWS does not publish the exact question-to-scale conversion.
- Validity
- Valid for 3 years, then renewed by recertifying or by earning a higher-level AWS certification.
Practice by exam domain
CertRidge practice exams draw questions in these same proportions, from a bank of 594 SOA-C02 questions. Open a domain for what it covers and free questions with answers.
- Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation· 110 questions20%
- Reliability and Business Continuity· 92 questions16%
- Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation· 115 questions18%
- Security and Compliance· 96 questions16%
- Networking and Content Delivery· 106 questions18%
- Cost and Performance Optimization· 75 questions12%
Who it's for
- Systems administrators and cloud operations engineers who run and maintain AWS infrastructure day to day
- DevOps and SRE-track engineers who want the AWS credential most aligned with monitoring, automation, and reliability work specifically
- Solutions Architect Associate holders adding an operations-focused credential to round out their AWS certification profile
How to prepare
- Weight your study time by domain: Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation is the largest at 20%, with Deployment/Provisioning/Automation and Networking/Content Delivery both close behind at 18% each.
- Know CloudWatch cold — metrics, alarms (including composite and anomaly-detection alarms), Logs Insights queries, and dashboards — since monitoring is both its own domain and threaded through the rest of the exam.
- Be fluent in Systems Manager's components (Automation, Patch Manager, Session Manager, Parameter Store) — SysOps leans on it more heavily than any other AWS associate exam.
- Practise reading operational scenarios for the actual failure mode described (a permissions error looks different from a capacity error, which looks different from a networking error) before jumping to a remediation.
See the free SOA-C02 cheat sheet for a one-page domain summary, the SOA-C02 study guide for how to plan your preparation, and the content policy for how these questions are written.
Free SOA-C02 practice resources
- 15 free SOA-C02 practice questionsSpread across every domain, each with the answer and an explanation for every option.
- Free 10-question diagnosticA quick, scored check of where you stand, with no account needed.
- SOA-C02 cheat sheetThe domains and the facts that come up most, on one page.
- SOA-C02 study guideHow to plan your preparation, week by week.
SOA-C02 questions, answered
- How much does the SOA-C02 exam cost?
- Approximately 150 USD, before regional pricing and taxes.
- What is the SOA-C02 passing score?
- Scored on a scaled 100–1000 range; 720 is the passing mark. AWS does not publish the exact question-to-scale conversion.
- How many questions are on the SOA-C02 exam?
- 65 questions (50 scored, 15 unscored and unidentified) in 130 minutes, including some interactive performance-based items. Delivered at a Pearson VUE test centre or online with a proctor.
- How long is the SOA-C02 certification valid?
- Valid for 3 years, then renewed by recertifying or by earning a higher-level AWS certification.
- Where can I practise SOA-C02 questions for free?
- CertRidge has a free 10-question SOA-C02 diagnostic with every answer explained, no account needed, and 15 free sample questions with answers at certridge.com/certifications/aws-soa-c02/practice-questions. All questions are original, written to the published exam objectives.