How hard is the AWS AI Practitioner exam? +
It is a foundational exam, but not a trivial one. The main difficulty is telling similar AWS AI services apart - Bedrock, SageMaker AI, Amazon Q, Comprehend, Rekognition and Textract - and matching each to a business scenario. The question formats also catch people out: besides multiple choice, expect ordering, matching and case-study items. Candidates who only drill single-answer practice tests lose time on exam day.
How many questions are on AIF-C01 and how long is it? +
AIF-C01 has 65 questions in 90 minutes. Fifty are scored and 15 are unscored items AWS is testing; you cannot tell which is which, so treat every question as scored. You can take it at a Pearson VUE center or online, in many languages. Note that the German and Italian versions are retired after October 15, 2026.
What is the passing score for AIF-C01? +
AWS reports results on a scaled score from 100 to 1,000, and the minimum passing score is 700. The exam is compensatory, so you need to pass overall rather than each domain. Unanswered questions count as wrong and there is no penalty for guessing, so never leave an item blank.
What does AIF-C01 cost and do I need experience? +
The exam costs USD 100, and the certification is valid for three years. There are no prerequisites and you do not need to build AI/ML solutions. AWS recommends familiarity with AI and ML on AWS; if you are new to IT or AWS, it suggests completing Cloud Practitioner Essentials or Technical Essentials first. Most candidates prepare in 3-6 weeks.
Which AIF-C01 domains matter most? +
Applications of foundation models is the largest domain at 28%, ahead of fundamentals of AI and ML at 20% and fundamentals of generative AI at 24%. Responsible AI and security, compliance and governance are 14% each. Learners who spend weeks on classic ML theory often under-prepare for RAG, prompt engineering, model customization trade-offs, Guardrails and the shared responsibility model.
Should I take AI Practitioner or Cloud Practitioner first? +
Neither is required for the other. Cloud Practitioner covers general AWS services, billing and security; AI Practitioner focuses on AI, ML and generative AI use cases on AWS. If you will work with AI products or explain them to customers and you already know basic AWS concepts, go straight to AIF-C01. If AWS itself is new to you, Cloud Practitioner first makes AIF-C01 easier.