Become an ML engineer on AWS with Stephane Maarek and Frank Kane: SageMaker end to end, MLOps, and everything on the Machine Learning Engineer blueprint.
Bestseller 4.6 · 64K+ students · 25 total hours · 367 lectures
The AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer Associate is the certification for putting ML into production on AWS. Co-taught by Stephane Maarek and Frank Kane, this 25-hour course covers SageMaker end to end, MLOps pipelines, deployment and orchestration, and the monitoring and security that production ML demands.
The course is fully updated for the MLA-C02 exam, including the generative AI, foundation model, RAG and agentic AI topics it adds, with expanded Amazon Bedrock coverage.
Co-taught with Frank Kane, founder of Sundog Education and former Amazon machine learning engineer.
| Exam code | MLA-C02 |
| Level | Associate |
| Price | $75 USD during the beta, $150 USD once generally available |
| Duration | 170 minutes during the beta |
| Questions | 85 during the beta (65 scored, 20 unscored): multiple choice, multiple response, ordering, matching, and case studies |
| Passing score | 720 on a scaled score of 100 to 1,000 |
| Delivery | Pearson VUE, at a test center or online proctored |
| Languages | English during the beta; English, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese at general availability |
| Recommended experience | 1+ year working with Amazon SageMaker AI, Amazon Bedrock, and other AWS ML services recommended |
| Certification validity | 3 years |
| Exam update | MLA-C02 replaced MLA-C01 in English on September 29th, 2026 (beta, registered as ME1-C02). General availability in all languages is planned for January 14th, 2027; until then MLA-C01 remains available in Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese |
The exam has 4 domains:
Over 100 brand-new questions for the Machine Learning Engineer Associate exam, with detailed explanations for every option.
How much does the MLA-C02 exam cost?
$75 USD during the beta (English only), then $150 USD once generally available. Taken at a Pearson VUE test center or online proctored.
How many questions does the exam have, and how long is it?
During the beta: 85 questions (65 scored, 20 unscored) in 170 minutes. Unanswered questions are scored as incorrect, so never leave one blank: there is no penalty for guessing.
What score do I need to pass?
720 on a scaled score of 100 to 1,000. The scoring is compensatory: you only need to pass overall, not each domain.
Do I need experience before attempting the exam?
There are no prerequisites. Recommended background: 1+ year working with Amazon SageMaker AI, Amazon Bedrock, and other AWS ML services.
How long is the certification valid?
3 years. Recertify by passing the exam again or a higher-level AWS exam.
What changed from MLA-C01 to MLA-C02?
No new domains were added, but every domain was updated: more generative AI, foundation models, LLMs, and RAG, deploying and monitoring AI agents, expanded Amazon Bedrock coverage (Agents, Knowledge Bases, Guardrails, Model Evaluation), and responsible AI topics like prompt injection mitigation. MLA-C01 can no longer be taken in English since September 28th, 2026. An existing MLA-C01 certification stays valid for its full 3 years.
Looking for another certification? See all courses and practice exams.
AWS Certified Data Engineer Associate (DEA-C01)
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