AWS Certified Generative AI Developer – Professional (AIP-C01) Exam Guide
A summary of the official AWS exam guide: who the exam is for, what it looks like, how it is scored, which domains it covers and a plan to prepare. Site last reviewed: 2026-11-04.
What the AIP-C01 exam is
The AWS Certified Generative AI Developer – Professional exam is intended for individuals who perform a GenAI developer role. It validates your ability to integrate foundation models into applications and business workflows: designing solutions with vector stores, Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) and knowledge bases, applying prompt engineering and management, implementing agentic AI, optimizing for cost and performance, implementing security, governance and Responsible AI, troubleshooting, and evaluating FMs for quality and responsibility. It is one of the Professional-level certifications (see AWS certification levels explained).
Format, duration and price
The exam has 75 questions and lasts 180 minutes. Its official price is 300 USD, although it varies with exchange rates. AWS lists Pearson VUE test centers and online proctoring as testing options, and English, Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese as languages. According to the official guide, it contains these question types:
- Multiple choice: one correct response and three incorrect responses (distractors).
- Multiple response: two or more correct responses out of five or more response options; you must select all the correct responses to receive credit.
Scoring and passing score
- Results are reported as a scaled score of 100–1,000 and the minimum passing score is 750. The exam is pass or fail.
- Of the 75 questions, 65 are scored and 10 are unscored: AWS uses them to evaluate future content and they are not identified during the exam.
- The scoring model is compensatory: you do not need to pass each section, only the exam as a whole. Each section has a specific weighting, so some sections have more questions than others.
- There is no penalty for guessing, but unanswered questions are scored as incorrect. For multiple response questions you only receive credit if you select all the correct answers.
Exam domains and their weight
The content is organized into five domains. Open each one to see its tasks, skills and the AWS services you need to master.
| Domain | Content | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Foundation Model Integration, Data Management, and Compliance | 31% |
| 2 | Implementation and Integration | 26% |
| 3 | AI Safety, Security, and Governance | 20% |
| 4 | Operational Efficiency and Optimization for GenAI Applications | 12% |
| 5 | Testing, Validation, and Troubleshooting | 11% |
- Domain 1: Foundation Model Integration, Data Management, and Compliance (31%) — analyze requirements and design GenAI solutions; select and configure FMs; implement data validation and processing pipelines for FM consumption; design and implement vector store solutions; design retrieval mechanisms for FM augmentation; implement prompt engineering strategies and governance for FM interactions.
- Domain 2: Implementation and Integration (26%) — implement agentic AI solutions and tool integrations; implement model deployment strategies; design and implement enterprise integration architectures; implement FM API integrations; implement application integration patterns and development tools.
- Domain 3: AI Safety, Security, and Governance (20%) — implement input and output safety controls; implement data security and privacy controls; implement AI governance and compliance mechanisms; implement responsible AI principles.
- Domain 4: Operational Efficiency and Optimization for GenAI Applications (12%) — implement cost optimization and resource efficiency strategies; optimize application performance; implement monitoring systems for GenAI applications.
- Domain 5: Testing, Validation, and Troubleshooting (11%) — implement evaluation systems for GenAI; troubleshoot GenAI applications.
Recommended knowledge
The official guide lists the AWS knowledge the target candidate should have:
- AWS compute, storage and networking services
- AWS security best practices and identity management
- AWS deployment and infrastructure as code (IaC) tools
- AWS monitoring and observability services
- AWS cost optimization principles
Job tasks that are out of scope
AWS states that the target candidate is not expected to be able to perform these tasks (the list is non-exhaustive):
- Model development and training
- Advanced ML techniques
- Data engineering and feature engineering
How to prepare: a six-step study plan
This is the site's own recommendation, not an official AWS guide:
- Read the official guide. Start with the AWS AIP-C01 exam guide: it defines the domains, tasks and services that are tested, and lists the AWS services in and out of scope.
- Take a diagnostic test. Answer 20 questions without preparing. The result shows you which domains are weakest.
- Split your study by weight. Foundation model integration and data (31%) and implementation and integration (26%) are 57% of the exam together. Spend more time there, without neglecting safety and governance (20%).
- Study with the official documentation. Amazon Bedrock has its user guide on docs.aws.amazon.com. The tips on this site link the exact page each fact comes from.
- Review your mistakes. A mistake reviewed on time sticks. Use the incorrect questions bank and spaced repetition instead of repeating questions you already know.
- Simulate the full exam. Take a 65-question test in exam mode and time yourself. With 180 minutes for 75 questions you have about 2 min 24 s per question.
Deepen the topics that exam questions hinge on:
- RAG data: chunking and embeddings
- RAG retrieval: hybrid search, reranking and filters
- Bedrock Guardrails: filters, PII and grounding
- Governance: enforcing guardrails and data privacy
- Capacity: throughput, cross-Region inference and routing
- Prompt caching and token costs
- Orchestration: Step Functions, streaming and retries
- Monitoring, logging and evaluation
Start a practice test Browse study topics
Frequently asked questions
How many questions does the AWS Generative AI Developer Professional (AIP-C01) exam have?
The exam has 75 questions. Of those, 65 affect your score and 10 are unscored questions that AWS uses to evaluate future content; they are not identified during the exam.
How long is the AIP-C01 exam?
It lasts 180 minutes, which is about 2 minutes and 24 seconds per question if you split the time evenly.
What is the passing score for AWS Certified Generative AI Developer – Professional?
The minimum passing score is 750 on a scaled score of 100 to 1,000. The result is pass or fail, and the scoring model is compensatory: you do not need to pass each section, only the exam as a whole.
How much does the AIP-C01 exam cost?
The official price listed by AWS is 300 USD. It can vary with exchange rates, so check the local price on the official AWS page.
What are the AIP-C01 exam domains?
There are five: 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%) and Testing, Validation, and Troubleshooting (11%).
What experience is recommended before taking the exam?
AWS describes the target candidate as having 2 or more years of experience building production-grade applications on AWS or with open-source technologies, general AI/ML or data engineering experience, and 1 year of hands-on experience implementing GenAI solutions.
Is there a penalty for wrong answers?
There is no penalty for guessing, but unanswered questions are scored as incorrect. Answer every question, even if you have to flag it and come back later.
What question types does the exam include?
It includes multiple choice questions (one correct answer out of four) and multiple response questions (two or more correct answers out of five or more options, all of which you must select to get credit).
Is this practice test official AWS content?
No. This is an independent practice site with no affiliation with Amazon Web Services. Exam facts come from the official guide that AWS publishes, and you should always check that guide for current information.
How does the practice exam work?
You choose how many questions, the mode (practice with instant feedback, or exam with grading at the end) and which sources to use. Every miss goes to your incorrect questions bank and comes back with spaced repetition until you master it.
Sources: official AIP-C01 exam guide and certification page (AWS).