I passed the AWS Data Engineer Associate (DEA-C01) three weeks ago with a score of 824. Here's the domain-by-domain breakdown that I wish someone had given me before I started studying.
The DEA-C01 is a relatively new cert — AWS launched it in 2024 to fill the gap between generic cloud certs and the old Big Data Specialty. It's 65 questions, 130 minutes, $150, and you need 720 to pass.
Fair warning: this is a technical exam. If you've been coasting on conceptual cloud knowledge, the DEA-C01 will humble you.
Domain 1: Data Ingestion and Transformation (34%)
This is the biggest domain and it's not even close. A third of the exam is about getting data FROM somewhere TO somewhere and changing it along the way.
Services you MUST know cold:
- AWS Glue — ETL jobs, crawlers, data catalog, Glue Studio
- Kinesis — Data Streams vs Firehose vs Analytics
- Lambda — Event-driven transformation (15-minute timeout, 10GB memory max)
- Step Functions — Orchestrating multi-step data pipelines
- DMS — CDC, full load, ongoing replication
Domain 2: Data Store Management (26%)
This domain is about choosing the RIGHT storage for the RIGHT use case.
| Use Case | Service |
|---|---|
| Data lake | S3 + Lake Formation |
| Data warehouse | Redshift |
| Key-value lookups | DynamoDB |
| Relational (OLTP) | RDS / Aurora |
| Search and analytics | OpenSearch |
I drilled these scenarios using ExamCert's DEA-C01 practice exam and it was incredibly close to the real thing.
Domain 3: Data Operations and Support (22%)
Focus on CloudWatch, Athena, Redshift performance tuning (distribution keys, sort keys), and cost optimization.
Domain 4: Data Security and Governance (18%)
Must-know: Lake Formation, IAM policies for data services, KMS encryption, VPC endpoints, CloudTrail.
Study Resources That Actually Worked
- AWS Skill Builder — Free DEA-C01 exam prep course
- Hands-on labs — Create a mini data pipeline: S3 → Glue → Athena → QuickSight
- ExamCert — Best bang for your buck at $4.99 lifetime. Money-back guarantee
- AWS documentation — Glue Developer Guide and Kinesis Developer Guide
Timeline
5 weeks while working full-time. Scored 78% on first practice exam, 86% by the end. Real exam felt slightly harder but manageable.
Start with domain weights. Spend 34% of your time on Domain 1. Drill practice questions until service selection becomes instinct.
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