Study the five AIF-C01 exam domains
Each guide explains what the domain measures, the concepts to distinguish and an official AWS reference. Start with Domain 3, the largest at 28%.
A practical 14-day AIF-C01 study plan
Days 1–7 build concepts; Days 8–14 convert them into exam decisions through questions and targeted review.
| Day | Focus and deliverable |
|---|---|
| 1 | AI/ML use cases, learning types and a one-page concept map. |
| 2 | Training, inference, overfitting and evaluation metrics. |
| 3 | Tokens, embeddings, transformers and prompt structure. |
| 4 | Amazon Bedrock, parameters, prompt engineering and model selection. |
| 5 | RAG vs fine-tuning; Knowledge Bases, Agents and evaluation. |
| 6 | Bias, fairness, transparency and explainability. |
| 7 | IAM, encryption, privacy, logging and compliance. |
| 8 | Take the fixed 20-question diagnostic; record every misconception. |
| 9 | Review Domains 1–2 and compare confusing terms. |
| 10 | Deep review of Domain 3 and cost scenarios. |
| 11 | Review Domains 4–5 with scenarios. |
| 12 | Complete a larger app question set; tag uncertain answers. |
| 13 | Review weak questions and replay audio faster. |
| 14 | Final recall and official-guide check; no new topics. |
Author, review and content method
Question banks and explanations follow 2026 official sources. Last reviewed: 2026-09-13.
Author and reviewer: ChengYuan Chang, software developer and AiCert creator; passed AIF-C01 with 936/1000 on 25 August 2026.
Method: Scope follows the public AWS exam guide. Explanations are checked against AWS documentation. The free set stays fixed at 20 questions.
Disclosure: AiCert is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by AWS. These are study questions, not official or live exam questions.
Change log: 5 September 2026 — added five domain guides, a 14-day plan and fixed 20-question practice.
My Prepare Tips
Tips for self-studying AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF-C01):
The most direct benefit of self-study is saving a lot on tuition. Use the tools you already have.
Here is my method:
- Pass Microsoft AI-901 first. It builds the basic concepts. (This exam is not hard, and you can learn it the same way.)
- I used ChatGPT first to generate a 7-day AIF-C01 plan and the content. You can also ask ChatGPT for a 14-day or 30-day course. It depends on your background.
- Use a tool to turn the ChatGPT course into MP3 audio files.
- I used Cursor to build a small app that can play the audio lessons on repeat.
- For the first 7 days, listen to the voice lessons anytime, anywhere. This was the most important part for me.
- Ask ChatGPT when you don’t understand something.
- Do lots of practice questions.
How I passed the AWS AIF-C01 exam with 936 in 14 days
AIF-C01 is the exam code for AWS Certified AI Practitioner — a foundational certification on how AI is used in real business scenarios.
Searchers sometimes omit the hyphen and write AIFC01; both names refer to the same AWS Certified AI Practitioner exam, whose official code is AIF-C01.
Written by ChengYuan Chang · passed with 936/1000 · ·
On 25 August 2026 I passed the AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF-C01) exam with 936 out of 1000 (700 is the passing score).
I was overconfident at first and assumed seven days would be enough. By day five, staring at a large question bank, it was clear I could not finish. Rather than memorize answers I rescheduled and gave myself a full 14 days, aiming not just to pass but to actually understand the concepts.
⚠️ Rescheduling lesson: if you realize you are not ready, change the date at least 24 hours before the exam. After that the system locks and a no-show forfeits the US$100 fee.
1. Is this certification worth it?
AIF-C01 is a foundational exam. It does not test coding or math; it tests how AI is applied to real business scenarios. If you want to move from “I use ChatGPT” to “I understand AI product architecture”, it is a good base.
The exam is 90 minutes with 65 questions. Official domain weights:
- Domain 1: fundamentals of AI and ML (Machine Learning) — 20%
- Domain 2: fundamentals of generative AI — 24%
- Domain 3: applications of foundation models — 28% (the core)
- Domain 4: guidelines for responsible AI — 14%
- Domain 5: security, compliance and governance for AI solutions — 14%
💰 How to save on two certifications (read before you register):
- 50% off code: enter AIF2CLOUD when booking and the fee drops from US$100 to US$50 (exam must be taken before 2026-09-30).
- Buy one get one: pass AIF-C01 before 2026-09-30 and AWS gives you a free CLF-C02 (Cloud Practitioner) voucher worth US$100, valid until 2026-11-30.
- Cost of failing: you must wait 14 days to retake, and the free CLF-C02 voucher is gone — so aim to pass with a high score the first time.
- Half-price voucher for your next exam: after passing, AWS adds a 50%-off voucher to your Certification account, valid for three years — useful for Solutions Architect – Associate and beyond.
2. At the test center: details nobody tells you
Whether you test at a center or at home, these can get you turned away:
- Language: Traditional Chinese is not offered. I recommend choosing Simplified Chinese, because the interface lets you toggle to the original English at any time, so translation drift is not a problem.
- Identity check: they photograph you on site. Besides your ID card, bring a passport or a credit card with the same Latin-alphabet name, or you will be stuck at the check-in desk.
- Exam technique: do not agonize over ambiguous questions — use the Flag function and jump back to them before submitting.
- Environment: each candidate gets their own machine plus an erasable whiteboard for sketching out the logic.
3. The 14-day sprint: understand, do not memorize
AIF-C01 is full of scenario questions, which is hard without hands-on experience. My plan: build concepts in the first seven days, then work through a question bank in the last seven.
1. See through the filler first sentence. AWS-style scenarios usually open with background noise. When you study, mark the actual requirement first; the opening story is often just scene-setting.
Made-up study example (not from any exam or question bank): “A neighborhood clinic has stored five years of visit notes in object storage. (the first sentence is usually background you can ignore) The team wants clinicians to ask everyday-language questions and receive a short written brief. (the later sentences are the actual exam focus)”
2. Keep the metrics that look alike straight. I was still mixing these up the day before the exam. Concept notes only, not answers:
- F1-Score: a classic ML (Machine Learning) classification metric that balances precision and recall.
- BLEU (Bilingual Evaluation Understudy): compares generated text with a reference; often discussed with translation quality.
- ROUGE (Recall-Oriented Understudy for Gisting Evaluation): a recall-oriented overlap score; often discussed with summarization.
- BERTScore: compares meaning with embeddings rather than counting matching words.
- Algorithms: time series (Time Series) models values over time; logistic regression (Logistic Regression) is a common yes/no classifier.
4. My Cursor experiment: an audio study side project
The question bank was too large, and I did not want to stare at a screen all day. As a developer I used Cursor with an LLM (Large Language Model) to build a study tool as a side project. It got me to 936, so I published it.
- Seven-day core course: the five domains split into seven focused days; 30 minutes of audio (summary plus two halves) while commuting or walking pushes about 70% of the service-positioning concepts into your head by ear.
- “Known vs needs work” dual question bank: once the weak pile drops below 100 questions, one tap starts a weakness analysis.
- Plain-language AI explanations: for ambiguous scenario questions, the AI assistant breaks down the AWS product logic behind each option.
Day 1 in the app is the same repair loop:
- Find the Days that will cost points
- Study only those lessons
- Keep a public Day ranking
- Audio for commute repair
- Day 1 free, then one unlock
The complete Day 1 course is completely free. Download the app and start now — you do not need to buy anything first.
Get it on Google Play Get it on the App Store
Closing
Certifications are not about memorizing question banks; they are a ticket toward becoming an AI architect.
With no AI background, start with Microsoft AI-900 / AI-901 — it reads like a map of the AI landscape and builds the vocabulary. AWS AIF-C01 then teaches you to break those AI services apart and design them into a product.
Good luck passing both before the 2026-09-30 deadline and saving US$150.
AIF-C01 exam facts
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Official name | AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF-C01) |
| Questions | 65 |
| Time | 90 minutes |
| Passing score | 700 / 1000 |
| Exam fee | USD 100 |
| Recommended prep | 14 days (concepts first, then a question bank) |
Verify current details with the official AWS sources:
AIF-C01 exam FAQ
What is the AIF-C01 exam?
AIF-C01 is the exam code for AWS Certified AI Practitioner. It is a foundational AWS certification. It does not test coding or math; it tests how AI, ML (Machine Learning), and generative AI are applied to business scenarios on AWS.
What is the AIF-C01 passing score?
The passing score is 700 out of 1000. The author’s result on 25 August 2026 was 936/1000.
How many questions, how long, and how much does AIF-C01 cost?
The AIF-C01 exam has 65 questions in 90 minutes. The standard fee is USD 100. AWS sometimes offers a 50% code (for example AIF2CLOUD, exam by 2026-09-30) that drops the fee to USD 50.
How long does it take to prepare for AIF-C01?
For most people, 14 days is a realistic sprint: seven days to build concepts across the five domains, then seven days with a question bank. Seven days alone is usually not enough if you want to understand the ideas rather than memorize answers.
What are the AIF-C01 exam domains?
Official weights: Domain 1 AI and ML fundamentals 20%; Domain 2 generative AI fundamentals 24%; Domain 3 applications of foundation models 28% (the largest); Domain 4 responsible AI 14%; Domain 5 security, compliance and governance 14%.
Is AIF-C01 available in Traditional Chinese? How is it different from AI-901?
Traditional Chinese is not offered. Simplified Chinese is available and the exam UI can toggle to the English original. Microsoft AI-901 (Azure AI Fundamentals) maps the AI landscape; AWS AIF-C01 then trains you to place those AI services into an AWS product design.
If my exam is in 3–7 days, is this still useful?
Yes. The analysis ranks Day lessons by option scores so you spend remaining days on the lowest-scoring topics instead of rereading the whole outline.
Do the questions follow the current exam guide?
Yes. Diagnostic items and daily lessons follow the public AWS exam guide and are maintained by the author who scored 936/1000 on 25 August 2026. They are independent study questions, not official or live AWS items.