AIF-C01 FAQ — Common Questions (AWS Certified AI Practitioner)

What is AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF-C01)?

AIF-C01 is AWS’s foundational certification focused on AI and generative AI concepts plus how those concepts show up in AWS services and solution design.

If you want the fastest “what should I learn?” view, start with the Syllabus.

Is AIF-C01 harder than Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02)?

They are both foundational, but AIF-C01 leans harder into:

• AI/ML terminology and lifecycle
• Generative AI specifics (tokens, embeddings, RAG, prompting, evaluation)
• Responsible AI and governance (risk, transparency, security)

If you’re already comfortable with CLF-level AWS concepts, AIF-C01 is mostly about learning AI/GenAI language and patterns.

What score do you need to pass AIF-C01?

AWS uses a scaled score (100–1000). The minimum passing score is 700.

How many questions and how much time?

• 65 questions
• 90 minutes
• Multiple-choice and multiple-response

Do you need to code for AIF-C01?

Not deeply. You should be able to read simple technical descriptions and make good service/design choices (for example: use RAG to ground answers in proprietary documents), but the exam is not a programming test.

Do you need ML math (linear algebra, calculus)?

No. You should understand concepts like overfitting, evaluation metrics, and training vs inference, but not detailed math derivations.

What AWS services should you know?

At a high level, be comfortable with:

• Amazon Bedrock (foundation model access and application patterns)
• Amazon SageMaker (build/train/deploy ML models)
• Common AI services (for example: Textract, Comprehend, Rekognition, Transcribe, Translate, Polly)
• Security and governance primitives (IAM, KMS, logging/auditing)

Use the Cheatsheet for a service-by-use-case map.

What is the best AIF-C01 study plan?

Use a timeline you can actually sustain:

• 30 days: intensive (fast learning + lots of practice)
• 60 days: balanced (time for review and reinforcement)
• 90 days: part-time (more repetition and spaced practice)

See the full plans here: AIF-C01 Study Plan (30/60/90) →.

Should you focus more on generative AI or traditional ML?

Both matter, but the domain weights skew toward gen AI + foundation model applications:

• Domain 2 (GenAI) + Domain 3 (Foundation model apps) = 52%

That said, Domain 1 fundamentals are the vocabulary everything else depends on.

How do you practice effectively for AIF-C01?

Follow a loop:

1. Read one task in the Syllabus
2. Drill that task in Practice
3. Write 3–5 “miss rules” from what you got wrong
4. Re-drill weak tasks 48–72 hours later (spaced repetition)