AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional (DOP-C02) Exam Guide Study Path

This article was written by Amiel Palacol. Amiel is a Senior DevOps Engineer based in the Philippines. He has solid hands-on experience in Amazon Web Services (AWS) and loves broadening his technical horizons in the cloud. Currently holds 6 AWS Certifications and outside tech, he loves coffee, driving, and games.

Achieving the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional certification represents a significant milestone in an AWS DevOps career. This advanced certification builds on the foundational knowledge gained from the AWS SysOps Administrator Associate and AWS Developer Associate certifications, similar to how the AWS Solutions Architect Professional is a more advanced version of the Solutions Architect Associate certification.

AWS generally advises completing both the AWS SysOps Administrator Associate and AWS Developer Associate certifications before pursuing the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional certification. Previously, obtaining these associate-level certifications was a prerequisite for the professional-level exam. However, in October 2018, AWS removed this requirement, offering a more flexible certification path for candidates.

DOP-C02 Study Materials

To pass the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional exam, you should utilize a comprehensive set of resources, including the free AWS Exam Readiness course, official sample questions, whitepapers, FAQs, documentation, Re:Invent videos, forums, labs, AWS cheat sheets, and practice tests. Given the exam's challenging nature, thorough preparation is essential. If you need a refresher on AWS DevOps fundamentals, review the guides for AWS SysOps Administrator Associate and AWS Developer Associate certifications, and consult the AWS exam blueprint for additional details.

To gain a better understanding of key concepts and practices likely to appear on the exam, consider attending the DevOps Engineering on AWS and Systems Operations on AWS virtual classes.

For whitepapers, focus on the following:

1. Running Containerized Microservices on AWS

2. Implementing Microservices on AWS

3. Infrastructure as Code

4. Introduction to DevOps

5. Practicing Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery on AWS

6. Blue/Green Deployments on AWS whitepaper

7. Development and Test on AWS

8. Disaster Recovery of Workloads on AWS: Recovery in the Cloud

9. AWS Multi-Region Fundamentals

Most of the online training resources you'll need are available on the AWS website. One key digital course to consider is the Exam Readiness: AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional. This course covers the various exam domains through lectures and includes short quizzes after each lecture to reinforce what you've learned.

Finally, make sure to familiarize yourself with the AWS CLI, SDKs, and APIs, as they are essential for the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional exam. Given that this certification builds on the Developer Associate level, programming, and scripting knowledge in AWS are crucial. Review the syntax for CloudFormation templates, Serverless Application Model templates, CodeBuild buildspecs, CodeDeploy appspecs, and IAM Policies by studying the AWS documentation.

AWS Services to Focus On for the DOP-C02 Exam

As this is a professional-level exam, it’s essential to already have a thorough understanding of the AWS services covered in the SysOps Administrator Associate and Developer Associate review guides. Additionally, it's important to become familiar with the following services that frequently appear in the DevOps Pro exam:

1. AWS CloudFormation

2. AWS Lambda

3. Amazon EventBridge

4. Amazon CloudWatch Alarms

5. AWS CodePipeline

6. AWS CodeDeploy

7. AWS CodeBuild

8. AWS CodeCommit

9. AWS Config

10. AWS Systems Manager

11. Amazon ECS

12. Amazon Elastic Beanstalk

13. AWS CloudTrail

14. AWS OpsWorks

15. AWS Trusted Advisor

While the FAQs offer a good overview of each service, the AWS documentation provides the in-depth details necessary for distinguishing between correct and incorrect answers on the exam. To complement your study of the services, Tutorials Dojo’s AWS Cheat Sheets are recommended for their concise and well-organized content, helping to streamline your review process by reducing the time spent on FAQs and documentation.

Common Exam Scenarios for DOP-C02

Validate Your Knowledge

After completing your review, it's important to take practice tests to gauge your readiness for the actual exam. AWS provides a free sample practice test, which you can access here. Additionally, you can purchase a more comprehensive practice test from aws.training, using a discount coupon if you've taken previous AWS certification exams. However, keep in mind that these practice tests may not fully replicate the difficulty of the real DevOps Pro exam.

We strongly recommend using additional mock exams, such as our AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional Practice Exam course, which offers high-quality questions, detailed explanations for correct and incorrect answers, visual aids, YouTube videos, and references to official AWS documentation, as well as our cheat sheets and study guides. You can also complement these practice exams with our AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional Exam Study Guide eBook to further enhance your exam preparation.

More AWS reviewers can be found here:

By now, you should have a strong understanding of the following key areas:

1. Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD), Application Development, and Automation.

2. Configuration Management and Infrastructure as Code.

3. Security, Monitoring, and Logging.

4. Incident Mitigation and Event Response.

5. Implementing High Availability, Fault Tolerance, and Disaster Recovery.

Additional Training Materials For DOP-C02

There are several video courses available to enhance your preparation for the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional exam, such as the course by Adrian Cantrill. As a DevOps practitioner, you carry significant responsibilities, and mastering these roles requires continuous practice and in-depth study. Ensure you review all key concepts thoroughly. The day before your exam, confirm your schedule and necessary items, and use the 180 minutes wisely during the test. Reviewing notes beforehand can also help you stay sharp and focused. Best of luck on your exam!

* This newsletter was sourced from this Tutorials Dojo article.