DOP-C02 · ● Active · Expert · AWS
Use this certification to validate advanced CI/CD automation, infrastructure-as-code, observability, and incident response skills on AWS at enterprise scale. DOP-C02 is the professional-tier follow-on to associate-tier certifications and one of AWS's most rigorous exams, requiring 2+ years hands-on DevOps experience on AWS.
Exam facts
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Cost | USD $300 |
| Duration | 180 minutes (3 hours) |
| Questions | 75 (65 scored, 10 unscored) |
| Passing | 750/1000 (scaled score 100–1000) |
| Format | Multiple choice / Multiple response |
| Delivery | Pearson VUE (test center or online proctoring) |
| Languages | English |
| Valid | 3 years |
| Renewal | Pass DOP-C02 again, or hold another active AWS cert (SAP-C02, etc.) |
| Prerequisites | 2+ years hands-on AWS DevOps experience; SAA-C03 or DVA-C02 recommended |
| Released | March 7, 2023 (DOP-C02 launched; DOP-C01 retired April 23, 2023) |
| Retiring | Not scheduled for retirement as of 2026 |
Vendor source — AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional ↗
Official exam guide — DOP-C02 Exam Guide PDF ↗
Exam objectives — AWS DOP-C02 Content Domains ↗
About
AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional (DOP-C02) validates your ability to design, implement, and maintain DevOps practices and infrastructure-as-code at enterprise scale on AWS. Launched March 7, 2023, DOP-C02 replaced the older DOP-C01 and is the professional-tier certification for engineers beyond the associate level. Targeted at senior DevOps engineers, SREs, and platform engineers who own end-to-end CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure automation, monitoring and observability, and incident response strategies.
Domain context — DevOps / SRE / Cloud Infrastructure
Automation, reliability, and continuous delivery across the cloud infrastructure and platform engineering spectrum. DevOps emphasizes speed and collaboration through CI/CD and infrastructure-as-code; SRE applies engineering discipline to operational reliability via observability and error budgets; Platform Engineering builds internal developer platforms for self-service deployments.
Read full deep dive — DevOps, SRE & Platform Engineering Domain →
Topics covered
Content Domains from Official Exam Blueprint (DOP-C02):
- SDLC Automation (22%) — CodePipeline, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, CodeArtifact, GitHub Actions integration, deployment strategies (blue/green, canary), approval processes.
- Configuration Management and Infrastructure as Code (17%) — CloudFormation, AWS CDK, Terraform/Pulumi, StackSets, Service Catalog, AWS SAM, configuration drift detection.
- Resilience and Observability (20%) — CloudWatch (metrics, logs, dashboards, alarms), X-Ray distributed tracing, Container Insights, Synthetics, EventBridge automation, Application Auto Scaling.
- Incident and Event Response (15%) — Incident Manager, on-call routing, runbooks, post-incident reviews, automated remediation, AWS Systems Manager OpsCenter.
- Security and Compliance Automation (14%) — KMS rotation, Secrets Manager, AWS Config rules, security automation via Lambda, GuardDuty, Security Hub integration.
- Cost and Performance Optimization (12%) — Tagging strategies, FinOps, performance tuning, Reserved Instances/Savings Plans automation, workload optimization.
Source: AWS DOP-C02 Exam Guide ↗
Common skills at DevOps / SRE · Expert
Shared content for the DevOps / SRE domain at Expert level — not specific to this cert.
- CI/CD pipeline design and implementation (end-to-end automation from code commit to production)
- Infrastructure as code (IaC) using Terraform, CloudFormation, CDK, Pulumi, or Ansible
- GitOps workflows and declarative deployments
- Observability and monitoring at scale (metrics, logs, traces, dashboards, alerting)
- Incident response and on-call operations (runbooks, playbooks, post-mortems)
- SRE practices (SLOs, error budgets, chaos engineering, reliability testing)
- Container orchestration (Kubernetes, Docker, ECS/EKS)
- Security automation and compliance-as-code
- Performance tuning and cost optimization
- Mentoring, documentation, and knowledge transfer
Recommended courses at DevOps / SRE · Expert
| Provider | Title | Cost | URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS Skill Builder | AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional Exam Prep | Free (partial) + paid tiers | ↗ |
| Adrian Cantrill | AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional | $49–$99 lifetime access | ↗ |
| Stephane Maarek (Udemy) | AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional (DOP-C02) | $10–$100 (frequent sales) | ↗ |
| A Cloud Guru / Pluralsight | AWS DevOps Engineer Professional | ~$40–$60/month subscription | ↗ |
| Tutorials Dojo | DOP-C02 Video Course + Practice Exams | $20–$50 | ↗ |
| Linux Academy / KodeKloud | DevOps paths (Kubernetes, Docker, CI/CD) | ~$30–$50/month | ↗ |
Course-selection rule: Each course must cover DOP-C02 exam domains (not generic AWS or DevOps in general). Prioritize Adrian Cantrill for depth and Tutorials Dojo for practice exams (highly realistic).
Practice exams
| Provider | Title | Cost | URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tutorials Dojo | AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional Practice Exams (DOP-C02) | $15–$25 | ↗ |
| Whizlabs | AWS DevOps Engineer Professional Exam Practice Tests | $20–$30 | ↗ |
| A Cloud Guru | Practice exams included with subscription | ~$40–$60/month | ↗ |
Exam strategy: Aim for 80%+ average on practice exams before scheduling the real exam. Tutorials Dojo is the gold standard for AWS; Whizlabs provides alternative scenarios for additional depth.
Books
| Title | Author | Publisher | Year | ISBN | URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional Study Guide (DOP-C02) | Piper & Clinton | Sybex/Wiley | 2023 | 978-1119916490 | ↗ |
| Infrastructure as Code: Patterns and Practices (2nd ed.) | Kief Morris | O'Reilly Media | 2021 | 978-1492040896 | ↗ |
| Site Reliability Engineering: How Google Runs Production Systems | Beyer et al. | O'Reilly Media | 2016 | 978-1491929881 | ↗ |
| Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation | Jez Humble, David Farley | Addison-Wesley | 2010 | 978-0321601919 | ↗ |
Book rule: The Piper & Clinton study guide is DOP-C02–specific and current (2023); supplementary books on IaC and SRE provide broader context. The Google SRE book (free online) is essential for observability and incident response mindset.
Skills validated
Cert-specific — what this exam actually tests, distinct from the shared "Common skills" above.
- AWS CodePipeline orchestration and multi-stage deployments
- AWS CodeBuild build automation and custom build environments
- AWS CodeDeploy strategies (in-place, blue/green, canary)
- AWS CodeArtifact artifact repository management
- GitHub Actions and Jenkins integration with AWS services
- AWS CloudFormation (templates, parameters, outputs, stack policies, StackSets)
- AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) and Infrastructure-as-Code at scale
- AWS Service Catalog for self-service infrastructure
- AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM)
- ECS / EKS / Fargate / App Runner deployment patterns and scaling
- Lambda blue/green deployments and canary traffic shifting
- CloudWatch metrics, logs, dashboards, and alarms at scale
- AWS X-Ray distributed tracing and service mapping
- Container Insights for ECS/EKS observability
- CloudWatch Synthetics for synthetic monitoring
- EventBridge automation and event-driven orchestration
- AWS Systems Manager (Patch Manager, OpsCenter, Incident Manager, Run Command, Automation, Session Manager)
- AWS Config rules for compliance and configuration drift detection
- AWS Backup for disaster recovery and RPO/RTO validation
- AWS Health Dashboard and personal health notifications
- GuardDuty and Security Hub for security observability
- AWS Inspector for automated vulnerability scanning
- KMS key rotation and key policy automation
- AWS Secrets Manager rotation and Lambda integration
- Auto Scaling lifecycle hooks and custom scaling policies
- AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry (ADOT) collector setup
- Application load balancing and traffic shifting patterns
- Disaster recovery architectures (RTO, RPO, backup strategies)
- Cost analysis tools (Cost Explorer, Trusted Advisor, finops automation)
Typical job titles at DevOps / SRE · Expert
Senior DevOps Engineer · Site Reliability Engineer (AWS) · Platform Engineer · DevSecOps Engineer · Cloud Reliability Architect · DevOps Tech Lead · Infrastructure Architect (AWS) · Automation Engineer (Enterprise)
(Job titles drawn from current job-board postings that list DOP-C02 or equivalent as required or preferred.)
Salary
| Region | Range | Source |
|---|---|---|
| USD | $180K–$280K (senior/professional DevOps) | Robert Half 2026 Tech Salary Guide ↗ · Levels.fyi AWS ↗ · Glassdoor DevOps ↗ |
| ZAR | R220,000–R380,000 | Pnet ZA ↗ · CareerJunction ↗ |
| GBP | £140K–£200K | IT Jobs Watch ↗ · Hays Tech Salaries ↗ |
| EUR | €150K–€220K (DE/NL/FR senior) | Levels.fyi European tech ↗, StepStone ↗ |
| AUD | A$200K–A$290K | Seek.com.au Tech ↗, Glassdoor Australia ↗ |
Salary context: DOP-C02 does not automatically raise salary on its own; it validates skills for senior-level roles. The salary ranges above reflect typical Senior DevOps Engineer and SRE positions that require or prefer this certification. Entry-level DevOps engineers typically earn USD $120K–$160K; DOP-C02 holders at 5+ years experience commonly reach USD $180K–$240K depending on company, location, and equity. FAANG and startup equity can add 30–50% to base salary.
Related certifications
- Stacks with: AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional (SAP-C02) ↗ · AWS Certified Security Specialty (SCS-C03) ↗
- Prerequisite for: Generally a terminal cert; no higher AWS certification builds directly on DOP-C02. Many pursue SAP-C02 for architect track or SCS-C03 for security specialization.
- Replaces: DOP-C01 (retired April 23, 2023)
- Equivalents at this level: Microsoft Azure DevOps Engineer Expert (AZ-400) ↗ · Google Cloud Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer ↗
- Common companion: AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer Associate (SOA-C03) ↗ (often held by DevOps engineers; bridges dev and ops)
- AWS Vendor overview: AWS Certification Ecosystem ↗
Sources
- AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional Official Page
- DOP-C02 Exam Guide PDF
- AWS DOP-C02 Exam Objectives
- AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional Exam Content Domains
- AWS Skill Builder — DOP-C02 Exam Prep Plan
- Adrian Cantrill AWS Courses
- Tutorials Dojo DOP-C02 Practice Exams
- Whizlabs AWS DevOps Engineer Professional
- Robert Half Tech Salary Guide 2026
- Levels.fyi AWS DevOps / SRE Salaries
- Glassdoor DevOps Engineer Salaries
- DevOps, SRE & Platform Engineering Domain Deep Dive
- AWS Ecosystem and Certification Paths
Last verified: 2026-05-01
Parent ecosystem: AWS Ecosystem
Parent domain: DevOps, SRE & Platform Engineering
Vendor overview: AWS Certification Ecosystem