AWS Certified Data Analytics - Specialty (DAS-C01) - Practice Plan¶

IMPORTANT NOTICE¶

This certification was RETIRED on April 8, 2024 and is no longer available for new candidates.

If you're looking to pursue a data analytics/engineering certification, please consider: - AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate (Launched March 2024) - Recommended replacement - AWS Certified Machine Learning - Specialty (Still active) - AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional (Covers data solutions)

Historical Practice Plan (For Reference Only)¶

This practice plan is preserved for those who earned the DAS-C01 certification and want to reference their study materials, or for understanding data analytics concepts on AWS.

Week 1-2: Data Collection¶

Kinesis Data Streams hands-on labs
Kinesis Data Firehose delivery streams
AWS DMS (Database Migration Service)
AWS Glue crawlers and ETL jobs
Data Lakes with S3

Week 3-4: Storage and Data Management¶

S3 storage classes and lifecycle policies
Data lake architecture patterns
Lake Formation permissions and security
DynamoDB and DynamoDB Streams
RDS and Aurora for analytics

Week 5-6: Processing¶

AWS Glue ETL jobs (Python/Scala)
Amazon EMR with Hadoop and Spark
AWS Lambda for event-driven processing
AWS Batch for batch processing
Step Functions for workflow orchestration

Week 7-8: Analysis and Visualization¶

Amazon Athena with Glue Data Catalog
Amazon Redshift cluster design
Redshift Spectrum for S3 queries
Amazon QuickSight dashboards
Amazon OpenSearch Service

Week 9-10: Security and Governance¶

IAM policies for data services
KMS encryption for data at rest
VPC endpoints for private connectivity
Lake Formation fine-grained access control
CloudTrail and AWS Config for compliance

Week 11-12: Review and Practice Exams¶

Complete 2-3 full practice exams
Review incorrect answers
Focus on weak areas
Hands-on scenario practice
Final review of key services

Recommended Migration Path¶

For Current Data Professionals¶

Option 1: AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate - More aligned with modern data engineering roles - Covers data pipeline design and implementation - Includes data operations and governance - Associate-level (vs Specialty)

Option 2: Expand to ML/AI - AWS Certified Machine Learning - Specialty - Includes data engineering for ML workloads - Growing field with high demand

Option 3: Architect Track - AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional - Broader scope including data solutions - Advanced architectural patterns

Study Resources for AWS Data Services¶

Even though DAS-C01 is retired, these AWS data services remain critical:

Data Ingestion - Amazon Kinesis (Data Streams, Data Firehose, Data Analytics) - AWS DMS (Database Migration Service) - AWS DataSync - AWS Transfer Family

Data Storage - Amazon S3 (Data Lakes) - Amazon RDS and Aurora - Amazon DynamoDB - Amazon Redshift - AWS Lake Formation

Data Processing - AWS Glue (ETL, Data Catalog) - Amazon EMR (Hadoop, Spark, Presto) - AWS Lambda - AWS Step Functions

Data Analysis - Amazon Athena - Amazon Redshift - Amazon QuickSight - Amazon OpenSearch Service

Data Security - AWS IAM - AWS KMS - Lake Formation permissions - VPC endpoints - AWS Secrets Manager

Learning Resources¶

Official AWS Resources¶

Hands-On Practice¶

AWS Free Tier for experimentation
AWS Workshops - Data Analytics tracks
GitHub - AWS Samples for data analytics

Alternative Certifications¶

Notes¶

If you hold the DAS-C01 certification, it remains valid for 3 years from the date earned
Consider pursuing current certifications to maintain your credential
The knowledge and skills from DAS-C01 are still highly valuable in the industry
Many of the services covered are core AWS data services still in use today

Last Updated: October 2024 Status: RETIRED - Reference Only