AIP-C01 is AWS’s professional-level exam for people who build production generative AI applications. You need a score of 750 on a 100–1,000 scale to pass. The exam has 65 scored questions plus 10 unscored ones, and it covers five weighted domains. Passing doesn’t require a minimum in each domain. It targets application builders who integrate foundation models into real workflows. It is not a general AI overview and it is not a model-training exam. This guide covers who should sit it, what it tests, how scoring and booking work, and how to prepare. Details come from AWS’s exam guide and certification page, which were checked on 2026-10-05.
Who should take this exam?
AWS says the exam is for people performing a GenAI developer role. It validates that you can integrate foundation models into applications and business workflows, and implement production GenAI solutions with AWS technologies. (AWS AIP-C01 exam guide)
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The target candidate
- At least two years of experience building production-grade applications on AWS or with open-source technologies.
- General AI/ML or data-engineering experience.
- One year of hands-on experience implementing generative AI solutions.
- Familiarity with AWS compute, storage, networking, security and identity, deployment and infrastructure as code, monitoring, observability, and cost optimization.
These requirements appear in the exam guide and on the AWS certification page.
Who it is not for
The exam centers on solution design, integration, safe production implementation, evaluation, and operations. The guide places model development and training, advanced ML techniques, and data and feature engineering outside the job tasks it expects of candidates. If you want to learn how to train models, or you need a first introduction to AI, this isn’t the right exam. Nothing in AWS’s materials promises a particular career outcome from passing.
Exam format, scoring, and logistics
Question types and scoring
- Multiple choice: one correct answer.
- Multiple response: two or more correct selections.
- Scored vs. unscored: 65 questions count toward your score. Another 10 are unscored and not identified, so treat every question seriously.
- Guessing: unanswered questions are marked incorrect and wrong answers aren’t penalized, so answer everything.
- Result: pass/fail, reported on a scaled 100–1,000 range with 750 as the minimum passing score.
- Compensatory model: you don’t have to pass each domain separately. A strong domain can offset a weak one.
Source: AIP-C01 exam guide.
Time, cost, delivery, and languages
| Item | Listed by AWS |
|---|---|
| Duration | 180 minutes |
| Total questions | 75 (65 scored, 10 unscored) |
| Fee | $300 USD |
| Delivery | Pearson VUE test center or online proctoring |
| Languages | English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese |
This table comes from the AWS certification page as seen on 2026-10-05. Fees, languages, and delivery options can change, and taxes or regional pricing may apply, so confirm on that page before you book.
What is on the exam?
The five domains
| Domain | Share of scored content |
|---|---|
| Foundation Model Integration, Data Management, and Compliance | 31% |
| Implementation and Integration | 26% |
| AI Safety, Security, and Governance | 20% |
| Operational Efficiency and Optimization for GenAI Applications | 12% |
| Testing, Validation, and Troubleshooting | 11% |
The top two domains make up 57% of scored content. Weighting your study time roughly in line with that is reasonable. That is our suggestion, not an AWS rule. Under compensatory scoring, a neglected 11% or 12% domain can still cost you points you need, so cover safety, operations, and evaluation deliberately.
Topics to prepare
Between the outline and AWS’s technologies and concepts page, expect:
- Foundation-model selection and integration.
- Data handling and compliance.
- RAG, embeddings, vector stores, and knowledge bases.
- Prompt design and management.
- Agentic systems and tool integrations.
- Safety controls, security, privacy, and governance.
- Cost and performance optimization.
- Monitoring, evaluation, and troubleshooting.
AWS also lists API and enterprise integration, event-driven and serverless patterns, containers, infrastructure as code, CI/CD, and hybrid cloud as possible topics.
Services in scope
The in-scope services list includes Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Bedrock Knowledge Bases. It also covers services across analytics, integration, compute, containers, databases, developer tools, security, and storage. AWS states the list is non-exhaustive and subject to change. Use it to guide study, not as a promise of what appears.
The guide itself says: “This exam guide does not provide a comprehensive list of the content on the exam.” Treat the outline as a strong map, not a complete syllabus.
Service names and abbreviations
Questions may use short service names. The on-exam Help feature maps some of them to full names, but not every abbreviation is expanded. Learn the common names and abbreviations beforehand. (AWS service-name guidance)
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How do I prepare for the exam?
AWS’s suggested sequence
- Read the exam guide.
- Take the official practice question set.
- Use the official pretest to find gaps in your AWS knowledge.
- Refresh those areas with courses and hands-on resources such as Builder Labs, Cloud Quest, AWS Jam, and SimuLearn.
- Check your readiness with the official practice exam.
Source: AWS certification page.
Turning the weights into a plan
The following is a suggested approach, not something AWS prescribes. Give each domain a weekly block sized by its weight. Pair reading with hands-on work in your own AWS environment where practical. Then practice explaining the trade-offs the exam is likely to probe:
Best Value
- Model capability versus latency and cost.
- Retrieval quality versus data and access constraints.
- Safety controls versus user experience.
- Monitoring and evaluation coverage versus operational burden.
Readiness check
- You’ve shipped, or closely worked on, an AWS application that calls a foundation model.
- You can design a RAG pipeline and justify your choices on data, access control, and cost.
- You can describe how you’d secure, monitor, and evaluate a GenAI workload in production.
- You score comfortably on AWS’s official practice exam, and you can name the gaps the pretest exposed.
AWS’s materials don’t compare AIP-C01 with other certifications, so this article doesn’t claim it is harder or more valuable than any other exam.
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