DEA-C01 study guide · 2026

The 4 DEA-C01 domains, explained

4 domains and 17 official task statements. Data Ingestion and Transformation carries the most weight at 34%. 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
DEA-C01 exam guide v1.1, December 12, 2025 (current)

Exam blueprint

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

  1. 1 34%
  2. 2 26%
  3. 3 22%
  4. 4 18%
  1. 1 Data Ingestion and Transformation
  2. 2 Data Store Management
  3. 3 Data Operations and Support
  4. 4 Data Security and Governance

All 4 domains

17 official task statements 54–72 hrs suggested study

  1. Domain 01 34%

    Data Ingestion and Transformation

    Domain 1 is the largest part of the AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate exam: reading streaming and batch data, transforming it with Glue, EMR, Lambda or Redshift, orchestrating pipelines and writing deployable pipeline code.

    Inside this domain

    • Perform data ingestion
    • Transform and process data
    • Orchestrate data pipelines
    • Apply programming concepts

    Watch for Firehose for replay

    Task statements
    4
    Questions est.
    ~17
    Study time est.
    18–24 hrs
  2. Domain 02 26%

    Data Store Management

    Domain 2 tests where data should live on AWS and how it is described and kept: choosing stores, cataloging with AWS Glue and SageMaker Catalog, lifecycle rules, and schema design for Redshift, DynamoDB and data lakes.

    Inside this domain

    • Choose a data store
    • Understand data cataloging systems
    • Manage the lifecycle of data
    • Design data models and schema evolution

    Watch for Load everything into Redshift

    Task statements
    4
    Questions est.
    ~13
    Study time est.
    14–18 hrs
  3. Domain 03 22%

    Data Operations and Support

    Domain 3 covers running data pipelines day to day: automating processing with AWS services, analyzing data with Athena, Redshift and Quick Sight, monitoring and troubleshooting pipelines, and enforcing data quality.

    Inside this domain

    • Automate data processing by using AWS services
    • Analyze data by using AWS services
    • Maintain and monitor data pipelines
    • Ensure data quality

    Watch for More workers for skew

    Task statements
    4
    Questions est.
    ~11
    Study time est.
    12–16 hrs
  4. Domain 04 18%

    Data Security and Governance

    Domain 4 covers securing and governing data pipelines on AWS: authentication with IAM and network controls, authorization through policies and Lake Formation, encryption and masking, audit logging, and privacy and data sovereignty.

    Inside this domain

    • Apply authentication mechanisms
    • Apply authorization mechanisms
    • Ensure data encryption and masking
    • Prepare logs for audit
    • and 1 more task statements

    Watch for Bucket policy for columns

    Task statements
    5
    Questions est.
    ~9
    Study time est.
    10–14 hrs

Study the heaviest domains first

Marks follow weight. This order puts the most marks behind you first, across about 54–72 hrs of study.

  1. 1 Data Ingestion and Transformation 34% · 18–24 hrs
  2. 2 Data Store Management 26% · 14–18 hrs
  3. 3 Data Operations and Support 22% · 12–16 hrs
  4. 4 Data Security and Governance 18% · 10–14 hrs

Try one

Practice questionDomain 1: Data Ingestion and Transformation

A retailer streams point-of-sale events into Amazon Kinesis Data Streams. Three separate teams run consumer applications on the stream, and each now reports read throttling and rising latency even though write volume has not changed. What should a data engineer do to give every consumer consistent read throughput?

One trap from every domain

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

  • Domain 1

    Firehose for replay

    Clue The scenario mentions reprocessing, replay or several independent consumers.

  • Domain 2

    Load everything into Redshift

    Clue Infrequent queries over large data already in S3.

  • Domain 3

    More workers for skew

    Clue One task runs far longer than the rest.

  • Domain 4

    Bucket policy for columns

    Clue Access differs by column or row in the same table.

Other Data & Analytics certifications

Study guides for exams that overlap with DEA-C01.

Practise what you read

DEA-C01 domains: common questions

How many domains are in the DEA-C01 exam?

DEA-C01 has 4 domains with 17 official task statements between them: Data Ingestion and Transformation, Data Store Management, Data Operations and Support and Data Security and Governance.

Which DEA-C01 domain carries the most weight?

Data Ingestion and Transformation is the heaviest at 34%, followed by Data Store Management (26%). The lightest is Data Security and Governance (18%). Weights come from Amazon Web Services's official outline.

What is the DEA-C01 exam format?

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

How long should I study for DEA-C01?

Our planning estimate is 54–72 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 Data Ingestion and Transformation, 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 DEA-C01 exam guide v1.1, December 12, 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 (DEA-C01 exam guide v1.1, December 12, 2025 (current)). Question counts and study hours are editorial planning estimates, not official figures. Last reviewed October 2026.