AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate (DEA-C01)
The AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate (DEA-C01) exam validates a candidate's ability to implement data pipelines and to monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize cost and performance issues in accordance with best practices.
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Topics
Introduction
The AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate (DEA-C01)
The exam also validates a candidate's ability to complete the following tasks:
Ingest and transform data, and orchestrate data pipelines while applying programming concepts.
Choose an optimal data store, design data models, catalog data schemas, and manage data lifecycles.
Operationalize, maintain, and monitor data pipelines. Analyze data and ensure data quality.
Implement appropriate authentication, authorization, data encryption, privacy, and governance. Enable logging.
Target Candidate Description
The target candidate should have the equivalent of 2–3 years of experience in data engineering. The target candidate should understand the effects of volume, variety, and velocity on data ingestion, transformation, modeling, security, governance, privacy, schema design, and optimal data store design. Additionally, the target candidate should have at least 1–2 years of hands-on experience with AWS services.
Recommended general IT knowledge
The target candidate should have the following general IT knowledge:
Setup and maintenance of extract, transform, and load (ETL) pipelines from ingestion to destination
Application of high-level but language-agnostic programming concepts as required by the pipeline
How to use Git commands for source control
How to use data lakes to store data
General concepts for networking, storage, and compute
General concepts of vectors
Recommended AWS knowledge
The target candidate should have the following AWS knowledge:
How to use AWS services to accomplish the tasks listed in the Introduction section of this exam guide
An understanding of the AWS services for encryption, governance, protection, and logging of all data that is part of data pipelines
The ability to compare AWS services to understand the cost, performance, and functional differences between services
How to structure SQL queries and how to run SQL queries on AWS services
An understanding of how to analyze data, verify data quality, and ensure data consistency by using AWS services
Job tasks that are out of scope for the target candidate
The following list contains job tasks that the target candidate is not expected to be able to perform. This list is non-exhaustive. These tasks are out of scope for the exam:
Perform ML training and inferences.
Demonstrate knowledge of programming language-specific syntax.
Draw business conclusions based on data.
Exam content
Response types
There are two types of questions on the exam:
Multiple choice: Has one correct response and three incorrect responses (distractors)
Multiple response: Has two or more correct responses out of five or more response options
Select one or more responses that best complete the statement or answer the question. Distractors, or incorrect answers, are response options that a candidate with incomplete knowledge or skill might choose. Distractors are generally plausible responses that match the content area.
Unanswered questions are scored as incorrect; there is no penalty for guessing. The exam includes 50 questions that affect your score.
The exam includes 15 unscored questions that do not affect your score. AWS collects information about performance on these unscored questions to evaluate these questions for future use as scored questions. These unscored questions are not identified on the exam.
The AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate (DEA-C01) exam has a pass or fail designation. The exam is scored against a minimum standard established by AWS professionals who follow certification industry best practices and guidelines.
Your results for the exam are reported as a scaled score of 100–1,000. The minimum passing score is 720. Your score shows how you performed on the exam as a whole and whether you passed. Scaled scoring models help equate scores across multiple exam forms that might have slightly different difficulty levels.
Your score report could contain a table of classifications of your performance at each section level. The exam uses a compensatory scoring model, which means that you do not need to achieve a passing score in each section. You need to pass only the overall exam.
Each section of the exam has a specific weighting, so some sections have more questions than other sections have. The table of classifications contains general information that highlights your strengths and weaknesses. Use caution when you interpret section-level feedback.
Unscored content
The exam includes 15 unscored questions that do not affect your score. AWS collects information about performance on these unscored questions to evaluate these questions for future use as scored questions. These unscored questions are not identified on the exam.
Exam results
The AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate (DEA-C01) exam has a pass or fail designation. The exam is scored against a minimum standard established by AWS professionals who follow certification industry best practices and guidelines.
Your results for the exam are reported as a scaled score of 100–1,000. The minimum passing score is 720. Your score shows how you performed on the exam as a whole and whether you passed. Scaled scoring models help equate scores across multiple exam forms that might have slightly different difficulty levels.
Your score report could contain a table of classifications of your performance at each section level. The exam uses a compensatory scoring model, which means that you do not need to achieve a passing score in each section. You need to pass only the overall exam.
Each section of the exam has a specific weighting, so some sections have more questions than other sections have. The table of classifications contains general information that highlights your strengths and weaknesses. Use caution when you interpret section-level feedback.
Content outline
This exam guide includes weightings, content domains, and task statements for the exam. This guide does not provide a comprehensive list of the content on the exam. However, additional context for each task statement is available to help you prepare for the exam.
The exam has the following content domains and weightings:
Content Domain 1: Data Ingestion and Transformation (34% of scored content)
Content Domain 2: Data Store Management (26% of scored content)
Content Domain 3: Data Operations and Support (22% of scored content)
Content Domain 4: Data Security and Governance (18% of scored content)
AWS Services for the Exam
The AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate exam covers specific AWS services that are relevant to data engineers. Understanding which services are in scope can help you focus your preparation efforts.
For detailed information about the AWS services covered in the exam, see the following section:
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