AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate (SOA-C02): Ultimate 2025 Study & Exam Preparation Guide

If you’ve been eyeing the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate (SOA‑C02), this guide is for you. We’ll break down what SOA‑C02 validated, how the exam was structured, the skills it measured, and—crucially—what to do now that AWS has retired SOA‑C02 and introduced its successor: AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer – Associate. You’ll get clear, practical steps to pivot your study plan without losing momentum, plus an actionable study roadmap and real‑world tips.

Note: As of late 2025, SOA‑C02 is retired. The last day to take it was September 29, 2025. Its successor, AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer – Associate (exam series SOA‑C03), is now available at the same price and duration, with updated scope.

2025 Update: SOA‑C02 Retirement and What It Means

Here’s the bottom line:

• SOA‑C02 retired after September 29, 2025.

• AWS replaced it with AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer – Associate (SOA‑C03).

• Registration for the new exam opened September 9, 2025; first test date was September 30, 2025.

• Cost, delivery (Pearson VUE), and duration remain the same; scope reflects modern CloudOps practices.

Why the change? AWS periodically refreshes exams to reflect evolving services, best practices, and job roles. The new name (CloudOps Engineer) better aligns with how organizations structure cloud operations today and hints at slightly broader coverage (for example, containers appear as an in‑scope topic).

Action step: If you were preparing for SOA‑C02, download the new CloudOps Engineer – Associate exam guide and map your notes to the updated blueprint before you study another hour.

What SOA‑C02 Validated (and why it mattered)

The AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate validated your ability to:

• Deploy, manage, and operate workloads on AWS.

• Implement security controls and compliance checks.

• Monitor, log, and troubleshoot systems.

• Apply networking and business‑continuity concepts in real environments.

Unlike architect‑focused certifications, SOA‑C02 emphasized day‑to‑day operations—keeping services healthy, efficient, secure, and cost‑optimized. That operational mindset remains essential in the new CloudOps Engineer credential.

Try this: Write a one‑page “Ops playbook” for a simple web app: how you’d monitor it (CloudWatch metrics/alarms), log it (CloudWatch Logs, Logs Insights), respond to incidents (EventBridge + Systems Manager Automation), and enforce least privilege (IAM/KMS).

Who This Certification Was For (and still is, under CloudOps)

• System Administrators and Cloud Operations Engineers running AWS workloads.

• NOC/Support Engineers and early‑career SREs supporting production systems.

• Learners transitioning from on‑prem ops to cloud‑native operations.

AWS recommended about one year of hands‑on experience with AWS for SOA‑C02—no formal prerequisite, just practical exposure to the console and CLI, plus a working grasp of security, networking, and business continuity. That guidance remains a strong baseline for CloudOps Engineer – Associate.

Action step: Inventory your real experience across IAM, VPC, EC2/Auto Scaling/ELB, RDS/Aurora, S3/Backup, CloudWatch, Systems Manager, and CloudTrail/Config. Any gaps? Make those your first labs.

Exam Format and Scoring (SOA‑C02)

• Format: 65 questions (multiple‑choice/multiple‑response).

• Time: 130 minutes.

• Delivery: Pearson VUE (test center or online proctoring).

• Languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese.

• Price: 150 USD (regional equivalents).

Scoring used a scaled score from 100–1,000, with 720 as the passing standard for Associate‑level exams. Results generally posted within five business days.

What about labs? SOA‑C02 originally introduced hands‑on labs, but AWS removed labs beginning March 28, 2023 “until further notice.” From that date through retirement, SOA‑C02 consisted only of questions.

Action step: Build “exam‑style” time management—aim for ~2 minutes per question in timed practice blocks so you finish with a small review buffer.

The SOA‑C02 Content Blueprint (still great for CloudOps study)

SOA‑C02’s six domains map to the core of CloudOps. Use them to organize your study plan:

1. Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation – 20%

• CloudWatch metrics/alarms/dashboards, Logs/Logs Insights, metrics filters.

• Event‑driven ops (EventBridge) and Systems Manager Automation for remediation.

• Health checks (ELB, Route 53), status visibility (Personal Health Dashboard).

2. Reliability and Business Continuity – 16%

• Multi‑AZ vs. Multi‑Region strategies.

• Backups, versioning, replication (S3, RDS, Aurora, EBS snapshots), test restores.

• Resilient architectures with Auto Scaling and load balancing.

3. Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation – 18%

• Infrastructure automation (CloudFormation), parameterization and change control.

• EC2 fleet management, AMIs, user data, SSM State Manager/Patch Manager.

• Blue/green and canary strategies (paired with ALB or Route 53), CI/CD awareness.

4. Security and Compliance – 16%

• IAM least privilege, roles vs. users, permission boundaries.

• KMS keys, encryption at rest/in transit; Secrets Manager/Parameter Store.

• Logging/auditing (CloudTrail), drift/compliance (AWS Config rules), detective controls.

5. Networking and Content Delivery – 18%

• VPC primitives (subnets, route tables, NAT, IGWs), security groups/NACLs.

• Hybrid connectivity (VPN, Direct Connect) at a conceptual operations level.

• Name resolution (Route 53), caching/CDN (CloudFront), ALB/NLB operations.

6. Cost and Performance Optimization – 12%

• Right‑sizing and instance families, EBS volume types, auto scaling efficiency.

• S3 storage classes and lifecycle management, CloudFront/ALB cost levers.

• Visibility via Cost Explorer, Budgets, and Trusted Advisor.

Action step: For each domain, define two “proof‑of‑skill” labs you can actually demo (e.g., build a CloudWatch alarm -> EventBridge rule -> SSM automation that tags or stops an underused instance).

The Most Efficient Study Plan (6 Weeks)

Week 1: Scope and baseline

• Read the CloudOps Engineer – Associate exam guide end‑to‑end (to align with the successor blueprint).

• Take a free Official Practice Question Set to baseline your strengths and weaknesses.

• Set your exam date now (you can reschedule) to lock your study cadence.

Weeks 2–3: Monitoring/Security/Networking core

• CloudWatch: Create custom metrics, dashboards, composite alarms, and Logs Insights queries.

• Systems Manager: Build an Automation document for patching or incident remediation.

• IAM/KMS: Implement least‑privilege roles for services; practice envelope encryption patterns.

• VPC: Design a two‑tier VPC with public/private subnets, NAT gateway, and security groups/NACLs.

Week 4: Reliability/Deployment/Cost

• Reliability: Configure RDS Multi‑AZ and test a failover; practice EBS snapshot policies; enable S3 versioning + lifecycle.

• Deployment: Parameterize CloudFormation templates; try a blue/green shift behind an ALB.

• Cost: Run Cost Explorer and Budgets; create remediation alerts for spend anomalies.

Week 5: Domain reviews + targeted docs

• Drill each domain with focused labs and service docs: CloudFront, Route 53, ELB modes, S3 storage classes, RDS backups/restore, Config rules, CloudTrail trails.

• Build quick one‑pagers of “gotchas” per service (quotas, defaults, limits).

Week 6: Exam readiness

• Take a full Official Practice Exam (available with Skill Builder subscription).

• Close final gaps, retake a timed block of practice questions, and sharpen flag‑and‑move tactics.

Action step: Put your study blocks on your calendar like classes. Treat them as appointments with your future self—non‑negotiable.

Hands‑On Lab Ideas You Can Do in a Free Tier Account

• Monitoring and auto‑heal:

  • Send custom metrics to CloudWatch; set alarms with SNS notifications.

  • Trigger EventBridge rule on an alarm state change; run an SSM Automation document that restarts an instance or collects diagnostics.

• Controlled rollouts:

  • Deploy an app behind an ALB; practice swapping target groups for blue/green or shifting percentages with a weighted Route 53 policy.

• Security posture:

  • Create a CIAM boundary: IAM permission boundary + SCP (if in Organizations) + Config rules to catch public S3 buckets; remediate with an SSM runbook.

• Cost hygiene:

  • Enable Cost Explorer and Budgets; create an alert for untagged resources or budget thresholds; right‑size an instance and demonstrate impact.

Action step: Keep a lab journal with commands, screenshots, and lessons learned. It’s a great portfolio artifact and a rapid‑review pack before exam day.

Common Pitfalls (and how to avoid them)

• Studying services in isolation

  • Fix: Practice end‑to‑end flows (CloudWatch -> EventBridge -> SSM; ALB -> ASG -> CloudWatch metrics).

• Underestimating networking

  • Fix: Spend real time with route tables, NAT vs. IGW flows, SG vs. NACL differences, and hybrid connectivity basics.

• Overlooking identity and encryption details

  • Fix: Drill IAM role trust vs. permission policies, boundary use‑cases, KMS key policies vs. grants, and cross‑account patterns.

• Memorizing without practicing

  • Fix: Convert every “note” into a micro‑lab. If you can’t do it, you don’t own it.

Action step: After each study session, write one “If X, then Y” troubleshooting rule you can apply during the exam to quickly eliminate distractors.

Costs, Policies, and Logistics

• Price: 150 USD for Associate‑level exams (local taxes may apply).

• Provider: Pearson VUE (test center or online proctored).

• Retakes: 14‑day wait after a fail; no cap on attempts; full fee each time.

• Scoring: Scaled 100–1,000; passing 720 for Associate; results typically within five business days.

• Prep resources:

  • Free: AWS Official Practice Question Sets and Exam Prep courses on AWS Skill Builder.

  • Subscription (from ~29 USD/month): Official Practice Exams, labs, Cloud Quest, SimuLearn.

Action step: Create your AWS Certification Account, verify your ID and test environment early, and review Pearson VUE check‑in steps a week before your exam.

Career Value and ROI

This certification track signals that you can keep AWS workloads healthy, secure, efficient, and auditable—skills every organization needs.

• Roles that benefit: Cloud/System Administrator, Cloud Operations Engineer, Support/NOC Engineer, early SRE.

• Team value: You can reduce MTTR through better observability and automation; prevent incidents with guardrails; and save money with right‑sizing and lifecycle policies.

• Stackability: Progressing to DevOps Engineer – Professional not only boosts your profile but also recertifies your Associate‑level credential when applicable.

Action step: Add your AWS digital badge to LinkedIn and pair it with a post linking to a small GitHub repo of your ops runbooks or CloudFormation templates—make your skills visible.

Already Passed SOA‑C02? Here’s how to stay current

• Maintain hands‑on: Keep practicing with Systems Manager, CloudWatch, IAM, VPC, and modern ops patterns (serverless events, container observability).

• Plan your recert path: Earning a Professional‑level cert (e.g., DevOps Engineer – Professional) can recertify your Associate‑level credential and future‑proof your resume. Check AWS recertification guidance.

Action step: Pick one Professional‑level service/workload (e.g., CI/CD for ECS or EKS) and automate a small pipeline; document how you’d monitor, roll back, and control blast radius.

Transitioning from SOA‑C02 to CloudOps Engineer – Associate

You don’t need to start over. Here’s how to pivot smoothly:

• Re‑map your notes: Most SOA‑C02 domains map directly to CloudOps Engineer. Expect modernized emphasis (for example, containers in scope).

• Keep core hands‑on: CloudWatch, SSM, IAM/KMS, VPC/ALB/ASG, RDS/Aurora, S3/Backup, CloudTrail/Config, Trusted Advisor/Cost tools—these remain foundational.

• Validate with official practice: Use the free Official Practice Question Set for the new exam to check topic drift; then confirm readiness with a full Official Practice Exam via Skill Builder.

Action step: Build a two‑column “delta list”—left: SOA‑C02 topics you already mastered; right: refreshed/new topics (e.g., container‑aware ops). Focus your final two weeks on the right column.

A Sample 30/60/90‑Minute Weekly Study Rhythm

• 30 minutes: Read a targeted service doc (e.g., CloudWatch composite alarms).

• 60 minutes: Hands‑on lab to implement what you read.

• 90 minutes: Mixed practice questions (timed), with a 10‑minute post‑mortem to tag weak areas.

Action step: Keep a “hit list” of 10–12 weak topics. Update it after every practice session, crossing items out only when you can explain and demonstrate them without notes.

FAQs

Q1: Is the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate (SOA‑C02) still available?

A1: No. SOA‑C02 retired after September 29, 2025. AWS replaced it with AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer – Associate (SOA‑C03), which opened for registration on September 9, 2025.

Q2: What was the passing score and how were results delivered?

A2: Associate‑level exams use a scaled scoring model (100–1,000), with 720 as the passing score. Results typically post within five business days.

Q3: Did SOA‑C02 include hands‑on labs?

A3: Not after March 28, 2023. AWS removed live labs “until further notice,” so the exam consisted only of questions until retirement.

Q4: How much does the new CloudOps Engineer – Associate exam cost?

A4: 150 USD (regional equivalents may apply), delivered by Pearson VUE (test center or online).

Q5: What are the best official prep resources?

A5: Start with the exam guide and free Official Practice Question Sets on AWS Skill Builder; consider the subscription for full Official Practice Exams, hands‑on labs, Cloud Quest, and SimuLearn.

Conclusion:

If you were preparing for SOA‑C02, you’re closer than you think. The skills you’ve built—monitoring, automation, security, networking, reliability, and cost optimization—map directly to AWS’s new CloudOps Engineer – Associate. Lock your exam date, map your notes to the refreshed blueprint, and keep your study sessions hands‑on and outcome‑driven. Your goal isn’t just passing an exam—it’s becoming the kind of CloudOps engineer who can keep real systems fast, secure, and resilient. You’ve got this.