DOP-C02 study guide · 2026

The 6 DOP-C02 domains, explained

6 domains and 19 official task statements. SDLC Automation 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
75 (65 scored, 10 unscored)
Time
180 minutes
Passing score
750 / 1000
Outline
DOP-C02 exam guide (current; no DOP-C03 announced as of 2026-10-31)

Exam blueprint

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

  1. 1 22%
  2. 2 17%
  3. 3 15%
  4. 4 15%
  5. 5 14%
  6. 6 17%
  1. 1 SDLC Automation
  2. 2 Configuration Management and IaC
  3. 3 Resilient Cloud Solutions
  4. 4 Monitoring and Logging
  5. 5 Incident and Event Response
  6. 6 Security and Compliance

All 6 domains

19 official task statements 116–165 hrs suggested study

  1. Domain 01 22%

    SDLC Automation

    The heaviest DOP-C02 domain covers building CI/CD pipelines, wiring automated tests into them, producing and storing artifacts, and choosing deployment strategies for EC2 instances, containers and Lambda functions.

    Inside this domain

    • Implement CI/CD pipelines
    • Integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines
    • Build and manage artifacts
    • Implement deployment strategies for instance, container, and serverless environments

    Watch for Agent everywhere

    Task statements
    4
    Questions est.
    ~14
    Study time est.
    25–35 hrs
  2. Domain 02 17%

    Configuration Management and IaC

    This domain covers defining infrastructure as reusable code, rolling it out across accounts and Regions, automating account creation and governance, and keeping fleets patched and in their desired state at scale.

    Inside this domain

    • Define cloud infrastructure and reusable components to provision and manage systems throughout their lifecycle
    • Deploy automation to create, onboard, and secure AWS accounts in a multi-account or multi-Region environment
    • Design and build automated solutions for complex tasks and large-scale environments

    Watch for SCP as an allow

    Task statements
    3
    Questions est.
    ~11
    Study time est.
    20–30 hrs
  3. Domain 03 15%

    Resilient Cloud Solutions

    This domain covers designing workloads that stay available, scale with demand and recover automatically within stated RTO and RPO targets, across Availability Zones and Regions, on instances, containers and serverless services.

    Inside this domain

    • Implement highly available solutions to meet resilience and business requirements
    • Implement solutions that are scalable to meet business requirements
    • Implement automated recovery processes to meet RTO and RPO requirements

    Watch for Multi-AZ means multi-Region

    Task statements
    3
    Questions est.
    ~10
    Study time est.
    18–25 hrs
  4. Domain 04 15%

    Monitoring and Logging

    This domain covers collecting, storing and securing logs and metrics, analyzing them to find problems, and automating alarms, scaling and remediation across complex AWS environments.

    Inside this domain

    • Configure the collection, aggregation, and storage of logs and metrics
    • Audit, monitor, and analyze logs and metrics to detect issues
    • Automate monitoring and event management of complex environments

    Watch for Metric filter backfill

    Task statements
    3
    Questions est.
    ~10
    Study time est.
    18–25 hrs
  5. Domain 05 14%

    Incident and Event Response

    This domain covers building event-driven workflows that notify and act, applying configuration changes automatically when events occur, and troubleshooting failed deployments, scaling events and container workloads.

    Inside this domain

    • Manage event sources to process, notify, and take action in response to events
    • Implement configuration changes in response to events
    • Troubleshoot system and application failures

    Watch for Last error is the cause

    Task statements
    3
    Questions est.
    ~9
    Study time est.
    15–22 hrs
  6. Domain 06 17%

    Security and Compliance

    This domain covers identity and access management at scale, automated security controls and data protection across accounts and Regions, and the monitoring and auditing that detects anomalous security events.

    Inside this domain

    • Implement techniques for identity and access management at scale
    • Apply automation for security controls and data protection
    • Implement security monitoring and auditing solutions

    Watch for Detective for detection

    Task statements
    3
    Questions est.
    ~11
    Study time est.
    20–28 hrs

Study the heaviest domains first

Marks follow weight. This order puts the most marks behind you first, across about 116–165 hrs of study.

  1. 1 SDLC Automation 22% · 25–35 hrs
  2. 2 Configuration Management and IaC 17% · 20–30 hrs
  3. 6 Security and Compliance 17% · 20–28 hrs
  4. 3 Resilient Cloud Solutions 15% · 18–25 hrs
  5. 4 Monitoring and Logging 15% · 18–25 hrs
  6. 5 Incident and Event Response 14% · 15–22 hrs

Try one

Practice questionDomain 1: SDLC Automation

A company deploys an application on an Amazon ECS service behind an Application Load Balancer. Releases must allow a full switch back to the previous version within seconds and must send production traffic to the new version only after validation tests pass. Which approach meets these requirements?

One trap from every domain

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

  • Domain 1

    Agent everywhere

    Clue Compute platform is ECS, Fargate or Lambda.

  • Domain 2

    SCP as an allow

    Clue Users lack access despite an allow SCP.

  • Domain 3

    Multi-AZ means multi-Region

    Clue The requirement mentions a Regional failure.

  • Domain 4

    Metric filter backfill

    Clue Question asks about historical log data.

  • Domain 5

    Last error is the cause

    Clue Stack events list several failures.

  • Domain 6

    Detective for detection

    Clue Requirement is to detect suspicious activity.

Other DevOps & Containers certifications

Study guides for exams that overlap with DOP-C02.

Practise what you read

DOP-C02 domains: common questions

How many domains are in the DOP-C02 exam?

DOP-C02 has 6 domains with 19 official task statements between them: SDLC Automation, Configuration Management and IaC, Resilient Cloud Solutions, Monitoring and Logging, Incident and Event Response and Security and Compliance.

Which DOP-C02 domain carries the most weight?

SDLC Automation is the heaviest at 22%, followed by Configuration Management and IaC (17%). The lightest is Incident and Event Response (14%). Weights come from Amazon Web Services's official outline.

What is the DOP-C02 exam format?

Questions: 75 (65 scored, 10 unscored). Time allowed: 180 minutes. Passing score: 750 / 1000.

How long should I study for DOP-C02?

Our planning estimate is 116–165 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 SDLC Automation, 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 DOP-C02 exam guide (current; no DOP-C03 announced as of 2026-10-31), 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 (DOP-C02 exam guide (current; no DOP-C03 announced as of 2026-10-31)). Question counts and study hours are editorial planning estimates, not official figures. Last reviewed October 2026.