AWS Specialty
Professional Level

AWS Certified Machine LearningSpecialty (MLS-C01)

Validate your expertise in building, training, tuning, and deploying machine learning models on AWS. This advanced certification demonstrates your ability to design and implement ML solutions using AWS services for data scientists and ML engineers.

Exam Duration

180 minutes

Exam Cost

$300 USD

Question Format

65 Questions

Exam Content Breakdown

Data Engineering

20%
Create data repositories for machine learning
Implement data ingestion and transformation solutions
Design secure data workflows for ML pipelines
Transform data for training and inference

Exploratory Data Analysis

24%
Sanitize and prepare data for modeling
Perform feature engineering and selection
Analyze and visualize data for machine learning
Detect data drift and model degradation

Modeling

36%
Frame business problems as machine learning problems
Select the appropriate model(s) for a given ML problem
Train machine learning models with best practices
Perform hyperparameter optimization
Evaluate machine learning models

Machine Learning Implementation and Operations

20%
Build ML solutions for performance, availability, scalability
Recommend and implement appropriate ML services
Apply basic AWS security practices to ML solutions
Deploy and operationalize machine learning solutions

Key AWS ML Services

Amazon SageMaker

ML Platform

AWS Glue

ETL

Amazon Kinesis Data Streams

Streaming

Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose

Data Delivery

Amazon S3

Storage

Amazon EMR

Big Data

AWS Batch

Compute

Amazon DynamoDB

Database

Amazon RDS

Database

Amazon Redshift

Data Warehouse

Amazon CloudWatch

Monitoring

AWS IAM

Security

Amazon VPC

Networking

AWS KMS

Security

Amazon API Gateway

API Management

AWS Lambda

Serverless

Amazon EC2

Compute

Amazon ECR

Container Registry

Amazon ECS

Container Service

AWS Step Functions

Orchestration

Study with Zertly

ML Algorithm Mastery

Deep dive into SageMaker built-in algorithms and when to use each for different ML problems.

Data Engineering Focus

Master data pipelines, feature engineering, and ETL processes for ML workflows.

Model Optimization

Learn hyperparameter tuning, model evaluation, and performance optimization techniques.

MLOps & Deployment

Understand model deployment, monitoring, and operational best practices in production.

SageMaker Built-in Algorithms & ML Concepts

Understand when and how to use these algorithms and ML techniques in your solutions.

Linear Regression

Supervised

Logistic Regression

Supervised

XGBoost

Ensemble

Random Forest

Ensemble

K-Means Clustering

Unsupervised

K-Nearest Neighbors

Supervised

Neural Topic Model

NLP

Latent Dirichlet Allocation

NLP

Principal Component Analysis

Dimensionality Reduction

Factorization Machines

Recommendation

Image Classification

Computer Vision

Object Detection

Computer Vision

Semantic Segmentation

Computer Vision

Text Classification

NLP

Sequence-to-Sequence

NLP

BlazingText

NLP

Expert Preparation Tips

Proven strategies to maximize your ML expertise and exam success rate.

Study Resources

  • Hands-on experience with SageMaker Studio and Jupyter notebooks
  • Practice with AWS ML services using sample datasets
  • Study machine learning theory and statistical concepts
  • Zertly's AI-generated practice questions and mock exams

Exam Day Strategies

  • Focus on scenario-based questions - think about real-world ML projects
  • Remember the ML workflow: data preparation → modeling → deployment
  • Consider cost optimization and performance trade-offs
  • Understand when to use different SageMaker algorithms and instance types

Frequently Asked Questions

Get answers to the most common questions about the AWS Machine Learning Specialty certification.

How long is the AWS Machine Learning Specialty certification valid?

The AWS Machine Learning Specialty certification is valid for 3 years from the date of certification. You can recertify by passing the current version of the exam or by completing continuing education activities.

What prerequisites are required for the MLS-C01 exam?

AWS recommends having at least 2 years of experience developing, architecting, or running machine learning/deep learning workloads on the AWS Cloud. Familiarity with basic ML concepts, statistics, and programming (Python recommended) is essential.

What is the exam format for AWS MLS-C01?

The MLS-C01 exam consists of 65 questions (multiple-choice and multi-answer) with 180 minutes (3 hours) to complete. The exam uses a pass/fail scoring system rather than a numerical score.

Which programming languages should I know for this exam?

While the exam does not test programming directly, familiarity with Python is highly recommended as it is the primary language used with AWS ML services. Knowledge of SQL for data querying and basic understanding of R or Scala can also be helpful.

How does Zertly help me prepare for the AWS ML Specialty exam?

Zertly provides AI-generated practice questions covering all four exam domains, detailed explanations with real-world scenarios, progress tracking across ML topics, and personalized study recommendations based on your performance.

Ready to become an AWS Certified ML Specialist?

Join data scientists and ML engineers who have advanced their careers with Zertly's comprehensive ML certification prep platform.

Explore Other Certifications