AWS certification roadmaps
Which certifications to take — and in which order — for seven common AWS career paths. Solid badges link to our practice banks; dashed badges are AWS certs we don't cover yet.
CLF-C02 · AIF-C01
Entry point — no experience needed
SAA-C03 · DVA-C02 · SOA-C03 · DEA-C01
Role-level skills — the main career certs
SAP-C02 · DOP-C02
Org-wide design and deep expertise
SCS-C03 · ANS-C01
Deep dives — security, networking
Solutions Architect
Designing systems on AWSThe classic architect track: fundamentals first, then the Associate blueprint, then Professional-level multi-account and organizational design.
- 1CLF-C02Optional
Cloud Practitioner
Foundational60 questionsSkip if you already have hands-on AWS experience.
- 2SAA-C03Recommended
Solutions Architect – Associate
Associate81 questionsThe anchor cert — Well-Architected reasoning across compute, storage, DB, networking.
- 3SAP-C02Recommended
Solutions Architect – Professional
Professional20 questionsMulti-account orgs, migration, complex hybrid — the professional tier.
- 4ANS-C01Stretch
Advanced Networking – Specialty
Specialty20 questionsDeep networking depth — valuable for hybrid/global architectures.
DevOps / CloudOps Engineer
Operating and automating AWS workloadsOperations-first path: monitoring, deployment automation, and reliability — then broaden into architecture and the DevOps professional cert.
- 1CLF-C02Optional
Cloud Practitioner
Foundational60 questionsSkip if you already know AWS fundamentals.
- 2SOA-C03Recommended
CloudOps Engineer – Associate
Associate20 questionsCloudOps: monitoring, remediation, deployment, security ops — the ops baseline.
- 3SAA-C03Recommended
Solutions Architect – Associate
Associate81 questionsArchitecture literacy — you can't automate what you can't design.
- 4DVA-C02Optional
Developer – Associate
Associate39 questionsCI/CD services, Lambda, and IaC deepen the automation skill set.
- 5DOP-C02Recommended
DevOps Engineer – Professional
ProfessionalNot covered yetThe DevOps professional tier — practice content coming soon.
- 6SAP-C02Stretch
Solutions Architect – Professional
Professional20 questionsFor platform/lead roles owning org-wide infrastructure.
Developer
Building applications on AWSCode-first path: serverless and SDK fluency at Associate, then architectural breadth to design what you build.
- 1CLF-C02Optional
Cloud Practitioner
Foundational60 questionsSkip if you already deploy on AWS.
- 2DVA-C02Recommended
Developer – Associate
Associate39 questionsLambda, DynamoDB, API Gateway, CI/CD — the builder's cert.
- 3SAA-C03Recommended
Solutions Architect – Associate
Associate81 questionsBroadens you from writing services to designing them.
- 4SAP-C02Stretch
Solutions Architect – Professional
Professional20 questionsSenior/staff-level architecture scope.
Security Engineer
Securing AWS environmentsSecurity requires architecture context first — then the specialty cert covering detection, IR, and data protection in depth.
- 1CLF-C02Optional
Cloud Practitioner
Foundational60 questionsFoundation if new to AWS.
- 2SAA-C03Recommended
Solutions Architect – Associate
Associate81 questionsYou secure what you understand — architecture first.
- 3SCS-C03Recommended
Security – Specialty
Specialty20 questionsDetection, incident response, IAM depth, data protection, governance.
- 4ANS-C01Stretch
Advanced Networking – Specialty
Specialty20 questionsNetwork-layer defense at scale — firewalls, inspection, segmentation.
Data Engineer / Analytics
Building data pipelines and lakesData platform path: foundational cloud literacy, then the analytics-heavy DEA cert covering ingestion, storage, ETL, and governance.
- 1CLF-C02Optional
Cloud Practitioner
Foundational60 questionsFoundation if new to AWS.
- 2DEA-C01Recommended
Data Engineer – Associate
Associate20 questionsKinesis, Glue, Redshift, Athena, Lake Formation — the data platform core.
- 3SAA-C03Optional
Solutions Architect – Associate
Associate81 questionsArchitecture breadth for designing end-to-end platforms.
- 4SAP-C02Stretch
Solutions Architect – Professional
Professional20 questionsFor data platform architects owning org-wide design.
AI / ML Practitioner
Applying AI and generative AI on AWSStart with the AI practitioner cert — accessible even without deep ML background — then build architectural and engineering depth.
- 1AIF-C01Recommended
AI Practitioner
Foundational24 questionsGenAI fundamentals, Bedrock, responsible AI — no ML experience required.
- 2CLF-C02Optional
Cloud Practitioner
Foundational60 questionsIf also new to AWS generally — broad cloud literacy.
- 3SAA-C03Recommended
Solutions Architect – Associate
Associate81 questionsArchitecture context for deploying AI workloads in real systems.
- 4MLA-C01Stretch
ML Engineer – Associate
AssociateNot covered yetSageMaker-centric ML engineering — practice content coming soon.
Network Engineer
Hybrid and large-scale networkingNetworking path: broad architecture foundation, then the deepest AWS specialty — hybrid connectivity, TGW, DNS, and inspection at scale.
- 1CLF-C02Optional
Cloud Practitioner
Foundational60 questionsFoundation if new to AWS.
- 2SAA-C03Recommended
Solutions Architect – Associate
Associate81 questionsVPC fundamentals in architectural context first.
- 3ANS-C01Recommended
Advanced Networking – Specialty
Specialty20 questionsDirect Connect, TGW routing, hybrid DNS, Network Firewall — the deep dive.
- 4SCS-C03Stretch
Security – Specialty
Specialty20 questionsSecurity depth pairs naturally with network inspection roles.
Not sure where to start?
Most learners start with CLF-C02 (fundamentals) or jump straight to SAA-C03 (the most widely recognized Associate cert). Compare all certifications, exam costs, and domain weights on the directory.
Compare all 9 certifications