The AWS Certified AI Practitioner (exam code AIF-C01) is a foundational certification for people who work with AI, machine learning and generative AI rather than build models from scratch. It tests whether you understand the concepts, can pick the right AWS AI services for a business problem, and know how to use AI responsibly and securely. Coding, model training and hyperparameter tuning are out of scope.
Exam format
- Questions: 65 in total, of which 50 are scored and 15 are unscored items AWS uses to trial future content.
- Passing score: 700 on a scaled score of 100–1000.
- Question types: alongside standard multiple-choice and multiple-response questions, AWS has introduced newer formats such as ordering and matching. Expect to put steps in sequence or pair concepts with their definitions.
What the exam covers
The AIF-C01 exam guide organises the content into five domains:
- Fundamentals of AI and ML (20%) — core terminology, types of learning, the ML lifecycle, and when AI is and isn't the right tool.
- Fundamentals of Generative AI (24%) — foundation models, tokens, embeddings, and the capabilities and limitations of generative AI.
- Applications of Foundation Models (28%) — prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation, fine-tuning, and evaluating model output.
- Guidelines for Responsible AI (14%) — bias, fairness, transparency and explainability.
- Security, Compliance, and Governance for AI Solutions (14%) — protecting AI workloads and data, and meeting governance requirements.
Generative AI and foundation models together make up just over half the exam. That is where most of your preparation should go.
How to prepare
Get the vocabulary exact. Many questions depend on the precise meaning of a term: inference versus training, fine-tuning versus RAG, precision versus recall. A personal glossary pays off.
Map services to use cases. Know which AWS service fits which need: Amazon Bedrock for foundation models, Amazon SageMaker for building and deploying ML, and the purpose-built AI services for tasks like text extraction, translation and speech. The exam asks you to choose the right one for a scenario.
Brush up on AWS basics first. AIF-C01 assumes familiarity with core AWS services, IAM and the shared responsibility model. If those are new to you, the Cloud Practitioner material is a good foundation.
Don't underrate responsible AI. The responsible AI and governance domains are 28% of the exam combined, and their questions are more about judgement than definitions.
Study resources from CertCraft
- AIF-C01 Practice Tests — exam-style questions across all five domains.
- AIF-C01 Study Notes — condensed notes organised by exam topic.
- AIF-C01 Exam Simulator — interactive practice in your browser.
Check the current exam guide, time limit and fee on the official AWS Certification page before booking. CertCraft Institute is an independent study resource and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Amazon Web Services.