How I Passed the AWS GenAI Professional Exam: Resources and Tips

Reading time: ~5 minutes

I passed the AWS Certified Generative AI Developer - Professional (AIP-C01) beta exam on January 4th, 2026, after 4 days of focused study.

My background: 5+ years at AWS, AWS DevOps Engineer Professional, AWS Solutions Architect Professional, Golden Kubestronaut certified, with strong GenAI experience. If you have similar AWS/GenAI knowledge, you can prepare in a similar timeframe.

Essential Study Resources / Bookmarks

Here are the resources I used to prepare for the exam. These bookmarks cover the key topics you'll need to master:

Prompt Engineering:

• Prompt engineering concepts - Amazon Bedrock
• ReAct Prompting Guide

Architecture:

• Amazon Bedrock or Amazon SageMaker AI?
• Generative AI Lens - AWS Well-Architected Framework

Agentic AI:

• AWS Prescriptive Guidance - Agentic AI patterns
• Multi-Agent collaboration patterns
• MCP servers with Amazon Bedrock Agents

Knowledge Bases & RAG:

• How content chunking works for knowledge bases
• Protect sensitive data in RAG applications

Performance & Security:

• Inference parameters
• Prompt caching
• Contextual grounding check
• Guardrails for Amazon Bedrock

Exam Overview

Beta Exam Details:

• 85 questions, 215 minutes (~3.5 hours)
• Cost: $150 (half the price of production exam)
• Passing score: 750/1000 (scaled)
• Official Exam Guide

Like other AWS Professional exams, the devil is in the details—read questions carefully.

Content Domains:

1. Foundation Model Integration, Data Management, and Compliance (31%)
2. Implementation and Integration (26%)
3. AI Safety, Security, and Governance (20%)
4. Operational Efficiency and Optimization (12%)
5. Testing, Validation, and Troubleshooting (11%)

Exam Strategy

Read carefully: Pay attention to keywords ("MOST", "BEST", "MUST", "NOT", "EXCEPT", "LEAST") and understand the business context.

Time management: ~2.5 minutes per question. Flag difficult ones and return later.

Focus on AWS best practices: Security first (IAM, encryption), cost optimization, reliability, operational excellence.

What Worked for Me

Deep focus over breadth: Instead of trying to cover everything, I spent 2 full days mastering specific topics that align with the exam guide's content domains. This focused approach was more valuable than trying to cover everything superficially.

Reading AWS docs actively: I didn't just skim the documentation. I took notes on specific details like chunking strategies, vector store trade-offs, and guardrail configuration options. The exam tests nuanced understanding, not surface-level knowledge.

Using the exam guide as a checklist: I went through each content domain and skill statement, ensuring I understood what AWS expects you to know. This helped me identify gaps in my knowledge early.

What to Avoid

Don't memorize—understand: The exam tests your ability to apply concepts, not recall facts. Focus on understanding why certain approaches are better than others.

Don't skip the Well-Architected Framework: The Generative AI Lens is crucial. Many questions test architectural best practices around security, cost, reliability, and operational excellence.

Don't underestimate Guardrails: Security and governance are a major content domain (20% according to the exam guide). Spend time understanding all guardrail types, not just content filters.

Don't rush through questions: With 215 minutes for 85 questions, you have time. Read each question twice, especially those with "NOT", "EXCEPT", or "LEAST" keywords.

Conclusion

The AWS GenAI Professional exam (beta) is challenging but achievable with focused preparation. Use the resources above to build a solid understanding of AWS GenAI services and best practices.

Recommendation: With strong AWS/GenAI experience, 3-5 days should suffice. If newer to either area, plan for 2-3 weeks.

Beta Exam Benefits: Half the price ($150), helps AWS improve the certification. Results may take longer, but you'll receive the same certification once live.

Questions or tips to share? If you've taken the exam or are preparing, I'd love to hear about your experience. Feel free to reach out or share your own study resources!

Disclaimer:

This post is a personal study guide based on publicly available information and my own exam preparation experience.

Important:

• NO exam questions, answers, or specific exam content are disclosed
• NO confidential or proprietary exam information is shared
• All information is from publicly available sources (AWS Exam Guide, AWS documentation, AWS blog posts)

This post complies with AWS Certification Program policies. It is intended solely as a resource-sharing post to help others prepare using publicly available materials.

For official exam information, please refer to the AWS Certification website and the official exam guide.