AWS · SOA-C03
AWS CloudOps Engineer – Associate (SOA-C03) practice exams
AWS's operations-focused associate certification — monitoring, automating, securing and keeping AWS workloads running day to day. SOA-C03 replaced the SysOps Administrator exam (SOA-C02) in September 2025.
Or read 15 sample questions with answers.
Try a real SOA-C03 question
A team often runs a CloudWatch Logs Insights query that lists the 10 slowest requests in an application log group. They want the current results of this query on their operational CloudWatch dashboard, next to existing metric widgets, without anyone rerunning the query by hand. What should a CloudOps engineer do?
About the SOA-C03 exam
AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer – Associate (SOA-C03) validates the ability to deploy, manage and operate workloads on AWS: monitoring, logging, analysis, remediation and performance optimization; reliability and business continuity; deployment, provisioning and automation; security and compliance; and networking and content delivery.
Where Solutions Architect Associate tests design decisions, the CloudOps exam tests operational judgment — reading CloudWatch metrics, diagnosing a failed deployment, choosing the right backup and recovery approach, tightening a security configuration. SOA-C03 adds containers (ECS, EKS and ECR), infrastructure as code with the AWS CDK and third-party tools such as Terraform and Git, and CloudWatch network monitoring. The questions are multiple choice and multiple response; there are no labs.
SOA-C03 at a glance
- 65 questions (50 scored, 15 unscored) in 130 minutes, multiple choice and multiple response. No labs.
- Scaled score of 100–1000; 720 to pass.
- Five domains: Monitoring, Logging, Analysis, Remediation, and Performance Optimization 22%; Reliability and Business Continuity 22%; Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation 22%; Security and Compliance 16%; Networking and Content Delivery 18%.
- SOA-C03 replaced SOA-C02 (AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate) on 30 September 2025. SOA-C02's cost and performance domain is now part of Domain 1.
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, multiple choice and multiple response. 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 615 SOA-C03 questions. Open a domain for what it covers and free questions with answers.
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
- 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/Performance, Reliability and Deployment are 22% each, Networking 18% and Security 16%.
- Know CloudWatch cold — metrics, the CloudWatch agent (also on ECS and EKS), composite alarms, Logs Insights, cross-account dashboards — since monitoring is its own domain and threads through the rest of the exam.
- Be fluent in Systems Manager (Automation runbooks, Patch Manager, Session Manager, Parameter Store) and in CloudFormation, the CDK and StackSets — the exam leans on automation more 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-C03 cheat sheet for a one-page domain summary, the SOA-C03 study guide for how to plan your preparation, and the content policy for how these questions are written.
SOA-C03 question types and how to approach them
SOA-C03 uses two question types. There are no exam labs.
Multiple choice
One correct answer out of four. Most are short operational scenarios: read the last sentence first, then look for the constraint that decides it — least operational effort, no downtime, no custom code, across accounts.
Multiple response
Two or more correct answers out of five or more, stated in the question ("Choose two"). There is no partial credit, so judge each option on its own against the requirement. CertRidge's multiple-response questions ask for two answers.
Free SOA-C03 practice resources
- 15 free SOA-C03 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-C03 cheat sheetThe domains and the facts that come up most, on one page.
- SOA-C03 study guideHow to plan your preparation, week by week.
SOA-C03 questions, answered
- How much does the SOA-C03 exam cost?
- Approximately 150 USD, before regional pricing and taxes.
- What is the SOA-C03 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-C03 exam?
- 65 questions (50 scored, 15 unscored and unidentified) in 130 minutes, multiple choice and multiple response. Delivered at a Pearson VUE test centre or online with a proctor.
- How long is the SOA-C03 certification valid?
- Valid for 3 years, then renewed by recertifying or by earning a higher-level AWS certification.
- What happened to the AWS SysOps Administrator exam (SOA-C02)?
- AWS retired SOA-C02 on 29 September 2025 and replaced it with SOA-C03, AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer – Associate. The format stayed the same (65 questions, 130 minutes, 720 to pass). The six domains became five: cost and performance optimization moved into Domain 1, and containers, the AWS CDK, Terraform and network monitoring were added.
- Are SOA-C03 dumps worth it?
- No. Dumps are recalled or leaked live exam questions; using them breaks the candidate agreement you accept before the exam, and the provider can invalidate results, revoke certifications and ban candidates. Their answers are often wrong or out of date, and memorised answers don't hold up on scenario questions. More at certridge.com/blog/aws-saa-c03-dumps.
- Where can I practise SOA-C03 questions for free?
- CertRidge has a free 10-question SOA-C03 diagnostic with every answer explained, no account needed, and 15 free sample questions with answers at certridge.com/certifications/aws-soa-c03/practice-questions. All questions are original, written to the published exam objectives.