AWS is retiring the Simplified Chinese and Korean versions of the CloudOps Engineer – Associate exam after 19 November 2026. The English exam is unaffected.
Source: AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer – Associate exam page (checked 7 Oct 2026)
Reference
Cloud certification exam facts, side by side
This page lists the published exam facts for 15 certification exams from 6 vendors — question count, time limit, pass mark, fee and how long the credential stays valid — taken from each vendor’s own exam guide. Below the table is a dated record of recent and upcoming exam changes, each linked to the vendor page that announced it.
Every exam at a glance
15 exams, grouped by vendor and ordered by level. Fees are the vendor's published list price before local tax; where a vendor prices by country, the table says so.
| Exam | Vendor | Level | Questions | Time | Pass mark | Fee | Valid for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AIF-C01 — AI Practitioner | AWS | Foundational | 65 | 90 min | 700 / 1000 | $100 | 3 years |
| CLF-C02 — Cloud Practitioner | AWS | Foundational | 65 | 90 min | 700 / 1000 | $100 | 3 years |
| DEA-C01 — Data Engineer | AWS | Associate | 65 | 130 min | 720 / 1000 | $150 | 3 years |
| DVA-C02 — Developer Associate | AWS | Associate | 65 | 130 min | 720 / 1000 | $150 | 3 years |
| SAA-C03 — Solutions Architect Associate | AWS | Associate | 65 | 130 min | 720 / 1000 | $150 | 3 years |
| SOA-C03 — CloudOps Engineer Associate | AWS | Associate | 65 | 130 min | 720 / 1000 | $150 | 3 years |
| SCS-C03 — Security Specialty | AWS | Specialty | 65 | 170 min | 750 / 1000 | $300 | 3 years |
| KCNA — Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate | CNCF | Foundational | 60 | 90 min | 75% | $250 | 2 years |
| GenAI Leader — Generative AI Leader | Google Cloud | Foundational | 50–60 | 90 min | Pass / fail | $99 | 3 years |
| ACE — Associate Cloud Engineer | Google Cloud | Associate | 50–60 | 120 min | Pass / fail | $125 | 3 years |
| Terraform 004 — Terraform Associate | HashiCorp | Associate | ~57 | 60 min | Pass / fail | $70.50 | 2 years |
| CC — Certified in Cybersecurity | ISC2 | Foundational | 100–125 | 120 min | 700 / 1000 | $199 | 3 years |
| AZ-900 — Azure Fundamentals | Microsoft Azure | Foundational | 40–60 | 45 min | 700 / 1000 | $99 | Does not expire |
| AZ-104 — Azure Administrator | Microsoft Azure | Associate | 40–60 | 100 min | 700 / 1000 | $165 | 1 year (free renewal) |
| DP-700 — Fabric Data Engineer | Microsoft Azure | Associate | 40–60 | 100 min | 700 / 1000 | $165 | 1 year (free renewal) |
- CC has the most questions: 100–125.
- The longest time limit is 170 minutes (SCS-C03); the shortest is 45 minutes (AZ-900).
- Published fees run from $70.50 (Terraform 004) to $300 (SCS-C03), before local tax.
Exam changes: recent and upcoming
Vendors replace, rename and retire exams. Each entry links to the vendor page it was checked against.
AWS is replacing the Developer – Associate exam. The last day to sit DVA-C02 is 30 November 2026; registration for DVA-C03 opens on 27 October 2026, when AWS says it will publish the new exam’s details.
Source: AWS Certified Developer – Associate exam page (checked 7 Oct 2026)
AWS is retiring the Simplified Chinese, Spanish (Latin America) and Portuguese (Brazil) versions of the Security – Specialty exam after 31 December 2026. The English exam is unaffected.
Source: AWS Certified Security – Specialty exam page (checked 7 Oct 2026)
A new Certified in Cybersecurity exam outline took effect on 1 September 2026, with five domains: Security Principles, Security Governance, IAM Concepts, Networking and Cloud Security Concepts, and Security Operations and Incident Response.
Source: ISC2 CC certification exam outline (checked 7 Oct 2026)
Retired
AI-900 → AI-901
Microsoft ·Microsoft retired the AI-900 exam on 30 June 2026. The Azure AI Fundamentals certification now requires AI-901, which expects basic Python knowledge.
Source: Microsoft Learn: Exam AI-900 (checked 7 Oct 2026)
Terraform Associate 004 is the current exam: one hour, online proctored, testing Terraform 1.12, with the credential valid for two years. It replaced the 003 exam.
Source: HashiCorp: Terraform Associate (004) (checked 7 Oct 2026)
The AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate is now the AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer – Associate, and the current exam is SOA-C03.
Source: AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer – Associate exam page (checked 7 Oct 2026)
Using these figures
Pass marks are not comparable across vendors. AWS, Microsoft and ISC2 report a scaled score, where the pass mark is a point on the vendor’s scale rather than a percentage of questions answered correctly. Our guides explain how AWS scoring works and how Microsoft scoring works.
To work out what an exam path costs in total, including retakes and renewals, use the certification cost calculator. You are welcome to link to or quote this table; please link back to this page so readers can see the current figures.
Sources
Every figure in the table comes from these exam guides. Vendors revise exams, so check the source before booking.
- AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF-C01) exam guide — Amazon Web Services
- AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) exam guide — Amazon Web Services
- AWS Certified Data Engineer – Associate (DEA-C01) exam guide — Amazon Web Services
- AWS Certified Developer – Associate (DVA-C02) exam guide — Amazon Web Services
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) exam guide — Amazon Web Services
- AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer – Associate (SOA-C03) exam guide — Amazon Web Services
- AWS Certified Security – Specialty (SCS-C03) exam guide — Amazon Web Services
- KCNA certification page and curriculum — The Linux Foundation
- Google Cloud Generative AI Leader exam guide — Google Cloud
- Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer exam guide — Google Cloud
- HashiCorp Terraform Associate certification page — HashiCorp
- ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity exam outline — ISC2
- Microsoft AZ-900 study guide — Microsoft Learn
- Microsoft AZ-104 study guide — Microsoft Learn
- Microsoft DP-700 study guide — Microsoft Learn