If you searched for the AWS SysOps Administrator exam, this is the one you're looking for now. AWS retired SysOps Administrator - Associate (SOA-C02) after its last exam day on September 29, 2025, and replaced it with the AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer - Associate (SOA-C03) on September 30, 2025.
Same exam code family, same job: it asks whether you can keep things running, not just stand them up. But the guide changed enough that old SysOps notes will leave gaps.
I'll walk through what changed, what's actually on it, and how I'd study.
The exam at a glance
- 65 questions: 50 scored, 15 unscored (you won't know which)
- 130 minutes, multiple choice and multiple response
- $150
- Scaled score from 100 to 1,000, and you need 720 to pass
There are no exam labs. SOA-C03 is multiple choice and multiple response only, so you won't be clicking around a live console in the test center. That doesn't mean you can skip the hands-on work, but it does change how you practice.
What changed from SOA-C02
If you studied the old guide, here's what matters:
- Six domains became five. The old Cost and Performance Optimization domain (12%) is gone as a standalone. Its tasks moved into Domain 1, which is now Monitoring, Logging, Analysis, Remediation, and Performance Optimization.
- The weights shifted toward operations. Reliability went from 16% to 22%, and Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation went from 18% to 22%.
- Containers are in scope. You need to configure the CloudWatch agent to collect metrics and logs from EC2, ECS, and EKS, not just EC2.
- The AWS CDK sits next to CloudFormation. You're expected to create and manage stacks with both.
- Compliance got stricter. A new task covers enforcing requirements like which Regions and services an account can use.
- Network monitoring got its own line. Configuring and analyzing CloudWatch network monitoring services is now explicit.
- Small moves. S3 static website hosting was removed. VPNs moved from Security to Networking.
None of your old task statements disappeared, apart from S3 website hosting. The exam just expects more on top.
If you already hold SysOps Administrator - Associate, it stays valid until its expiry date. Recertifying means passing the current exam, which is now SOA-C03.
What's actually on it
The official domains and weights:
- Domain 1: Monitoring, Logging, Analysis, Remediation, and Performance Optimization (22%). CloudWatch is still the heavy hitter: metrics, alarms, dashboards, Logs, and the agent. CloudTrail for audit history. Know when to use CloudWatch alarms and when to use EventBridge rules to trigger a fix. Right-sizing, storage tiers, and performance tuning now live here too.
- Domain 2: Reliability and Business Continuity (22%). Auto Scaling groups, health checks, multi-AZ versus multi-Region, RDS read replicas and failover, backups, and snapshots. Expect questions where the answer is "the simplest thing that survives one AZ going down."
- Domain 3: Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation (22%). CloudFormation and CDK: stacks, change sets, drift, and what happens on rollback. Systems Manager shows up a lot: Parameter Store, Session Manager, Run Command, Patch Manager, and Automation.
- Domain 4: Security and Compliance (16%). IAM policies and roles, identity versus resource policies, KMS basics, and enforcing guardrails across accounts. Plus the classic "why can't this thing talk to that thing" investigation.
- Domain 5: Networking and Content Delivery (18%). VPC fundamentals, subnets, route tables, NAT, VPC endpoints, VPNs, network monitoring, and enough Route 53 and CloudFront to answer routing and caching questions.
Three domains at 22% means there's no single area you can bet the exam on. CloudWatch and Systems Manager are still the most tested services, and both reward hands-on time far more than reading.
Who should take it
CloudOps Engineer is the right cert if you:
- Run things in production: DevOps, SRE, platform, or a developer who's also on call.
- Already have Solutions Architect Associate and want to round out the operations side.
- Planned to take SysOps. This is the same slot in the catalog.
It's the wrong first cert if you've never touched AWS. Start with Cloud Practitioner, then come here once you've actually operated something.
Where people lose points
- They study from SOA-C02 material. Old courses skip containers, CDK, and the compliance and network monitoring tasks. Check that anything you buy says SOA-C03.
- They study like it's Solutions Architect. This exam wants the operational fix, not the elegant design. Ask "what's the fastest, safest action."
- They're shaky on CloudFormation internals. Know what drift is, what a change set shows you, and what gets rolled back on failure.
- They've never used Systems Manager. It's underrated and overtested. Spend an afternoon in Session Manager and Parameter Store.
How I'd study for it
Give it four to eight weeks depending on your experience. If you already studied for SysOps, start at the "what changed" list above and fill those gaps first.
- Read the official SOA-C03 exam guide on the AWS site. Start with the page that compares it to SOA-C02.
- Build a small live setup: EC2 instances behind an Auto Scaling group, a CloudWatch alarm that triggers something, and a CloudFormation or CDK stack you can update and watch roll back.
- Add a small ECS service and get the CloudWatch agent shipping its metrics and logs.
- Break things on purpose and fix them. Stop an instance, fail a health check, deny a permission, then trace it.
- Drill scenario questions for coverage. Our CloudOps Engineer study guide breaks down every domain, and the SOA-C03 practice questions are written to the new guide.
That console-and-break-things loop is still the whole game. If you can calmly diagnose a broken setup under a little time pressure, you're ready.
This cert won't make you a better architect. It'll make you the person who's trusted when something is on fire at 2am. For a lot of teams, that's the more valuable reputation.