SOA-C03 study guide · 2026

The 5 SOA-C03 domains, explained

5 domains and 13 official task statements. Monitoring, Logging, Analysis, Remediation, and Performance Optimization carries the most weight at 22%. Each guide explains what the domain covers, how its questions are framed and where candidates lose marks.

Start with Domain 1 See all domains
Questions
65 (50 scored, 15 unscored)
Time
130 minutes
Passing score
720 / 1000
Outline
SOA-C03 exam guide, in use since 30 September 2025 (current)

Exam blueprint

Bar widths follow the official weights. Weight ranges are drawn at their midpoint.

  1. 1 22%
  2. 2 22%
  3. 3 22%
  4. 4 16%
  5. 5 18%
  1. 1 Monitoring, Logging, Analysis, Remediation, and Performance Optimization
  2. 2 Reliability and Business Continuity
  3. 3 Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation
  4. 4 Security and Compliance
  5. 5 Networking and Content Delivery

All 5 domains

13 official task statements 90–135 hrs suggested study

  1. Domain 01 22%

    Monitoring, Logging, Analysis, Remediation, and Performance Optimization

    This is the largest CloudOps domain. It covers instrumenting AWS workloads with CloudWatch and CloudTrail, analyzing logs and audit data to find problems, automatically remediating issues, and optimizing performance across compute, storage and other resources.

    Inside this domain

    • Implement metrics, alarms, filters, and remediation using AWS monitoring and logging services
    • Perform analysis and troubleshooting using logs and auditing data
    • Implement performance optimization strategies for compute, storage, and other resources

    Watch for Memory without the agent

    Task statements
    3
    Questions est.
    ~11
    Study time est.
    20–30 hrs
  2. Domain 02 22%

    Reliability and Business Continuity

    This domain covers keeping AWS workloads available and recoverable: scaling with Auto Scaling and load balancing, building highly available multi-AZ designs, and implementing backup, restore and disaster-recovery strategies.

    Inside this domain

    • Implement scalability and elasticity
    • Implement highly available and resilient environments
    • Implement backup and restore strategies

    Watch for Read replica for failover

    Task statements
    3
    Questions est.
    ~11
    Study time est.
    20–30 hrs
  3. Domain 03 22%

    Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation

    This domain covers provisioning and maintaining AWS resources and automating their management: infrastructure as code with CloudFormation and the CDK, AMIs and launch templates, and Systems Manager automation.

    Inside this domain

    • Provision and maintain cloud resources
    • Automate the management of existing resources

    Watch for Patch by hand

    Task statements
    2
    Questions est.
    ~11
    Study time est.
    20–30 hrs
  4. Domain 04 16%

    Security and Compliance

    This domain covers operating AWS securely: managing identity and access, enforcing compliance, and protecting data and infrastructure with encryption, secrets management and network protection.

    Inside this domain

    • Implement and manage security and compliance policies
    • Implement strategies to protect data and infrastructure

    Watch for IAM to restrict Regions

    Task statements
    2
    Questions est.
    ~8
    Study time est.
    15–20 hrs
  5. Domain 05 18%

    Networking and Content Delivery

    This domain covers operating AWS networking: configuring and optimizing VPC connectivity, setting up DNS and content delivery with Route 53 and CloudFront, and troubleshooting network connectivity problems.

    Inside this domain

    • Implement and optimize networking features and connectivity
    • Configure domains, DNS services, and content delivery
    • Troubleshoot network connectivity issues

    Watch for Blame the security group only

    Task statements
    3
    Questions est.
    ~9
    Study time est.
    15–25 hrs

Study the heaviest domains first

Marks follow weight. This order puts the most marks behind you first, across about 90–135 hrs of study.

  1. 1 Monitoring, Logging, Analysis, Remediation, and Performance Optimization 22% · 20–30 hrs
  2. 2 Reliability and Business Continuity 22% · 20–30 hrs
  3. 3 Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation 22% · 20–30 hrs
  4. 5 Networking and Content Delivery 18% · 15–25 hrs
  5. 4 Security and Compliance 16% · 15–20 hrs

Try one

Practice questionDomain 1: Monitoring, Logging, Analysis, Remediation, and Performance Optimization

A CloudOps engineer must create a CloudWatch alarm on the memory utilization of several EC2 instances, but the memory metric does not appear in CloudWatch. What should the engineer do FIRST?

One trap from every domain

The answer that looks right, and the clue that gives it away.

  • Domain 1

    Memory without the agent

    Clue The needed metric is memory or disk space on EC2.

  • Domain 2

    Read replica for failover

    Clue The requirement is automatic failover on zone loss.

  • Domain 3

    Patch by hand

    Clue Patching must be repeatable and scalable across many instances.

  • Domain 4

    IAM to restrict Regions

    Clue The restriction must apply to all accounts regardless of user permissions.

  • Domain 5

    Blame the security group only

    Clue The security group looks correct but traffic still fails.

Other Cloud Computing certifications

Study guides for exams that overlap with SOA-C03.

Practise what you read

SOA-C03 domains: common questions

How many domains are in the SOA-C03 exam?

SOA-C03 has 5 domains with 13 official task statements between them: Monitoring, Logging, Analysis, Remediation, and Performance Optimization, Reliability and Business Continuity, Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation, Security and Compliance and Networking and Content Delivery.

Which SOA-C03 domain carries the most weight?

Monitoring, Logging, Analysis, Remediation, and Performance Optimization is the heaviest at 22%, followed by Reliability and Business Continuity (22%). The lightest is Security and Compliance (16%). Weights come from Amazon Web Services's official outline.

What is the SOA-C03 exam format?

Questions: 65 (50 scored, 15 unscored). Time allowed: 130 minutes. Passing score: 720 / 1000.

How long should I study for SOA-C03?

Our planning estimate is 90–135 hrs across all domains, split by weight. It is an editorial estimate, not an official figure, so adjust it to your experience and to how you score on practice questions.

Where should I start?

Start with Monitoring, Logging, Analysis, Remediation, and Performance Optimization, because it carries the most marks, then work down by weight. Use the checklist on each domain page to confirm you can do what the domain asks before moving on.

Which outline is this guide based on?

This guide follows SOA-C03 exam guide, in use since 30 September 2025 (current), published by Amazon Web Services. It was last reviewed in October 2026.

Domain names, weights and task statements come from Amazon Web Services's official outline (SOA-C03 exam guide, in use since 30 September 2025 (current)). Question counts and study hours are editorial planning estimates, not official figures. Last reviewed October 2026.