AWS

AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty (MLS-C01): The Ultimate 2025 Guide

Master the AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty (MLS-C01) exam with mock exam.
Written by Farrukh Mehmood

Machine Learning (ML) is at the forefront of technological innovation, driving advancements from predictive analytics to generative AI. The AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty (MLS-C01) certification is designed for individuals who perform a development or data science role and want to validate their ability to design, implement, deploy, and maintain ML solutions for given business problems using Amazon Web Services. This is an advanced certification that signifies deep expertise in the ML lifecycle on AWS.

What is the AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty (MLS-C01)?

The AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty (MLS-C01) certification validates your comprehensive understanding of how to build, train, tune, and deploy machine learning models on AWS. It demonstrates your ability to select appropriate ML approaches, identify relevant AWS services to implement ML solutions, and design and implement scalable, cost-optimized, reliable, and secure ML solutions. A significant focus is placed on Amazon SageMaker and its ecosystem of tools.

Who Should Consider the MLS-C01?

This certification is intended for:

  • Data Scientists: Professionals who design and build ML models.
  • Machine Learning Engineers: Individuals focused on operationalizing and scaling ML models.
  • Developers with an ML Focus: Software engineers building ML-powered applications.
  • AI/ML Researchers: Those looking to apply their research using AWS tools.

AWS recommends one to two years of experience developing, architecting, or running ML/deep learning workloads on the AWS Cloud. Candidates should have experience with ML algorithms, data preprocessing, model training, model evaluation, and deployment strategies.

AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty (MLS-C01) Exam Deep Dive

This specialty exam requires a deep and broad understanding of ML on AWS:

  • Exam Code: MLS-C01 (Always verify the current code on the AWS website, as certifications can evolve)
  • Level: Specialty
  • Format: 65 questions, a mix of multiple-choice and multiple-response types.
  • Duration: 180 minutes.
  • Passing Score: A scaled score of 750 out of 1000 is required.
  • Cost: $300 USD (may vary based on location).
  • Languages: Available in English, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese.
  • Delivery Method: Pearson VUE testing center or online proctored exam.

Exam Content Domains and Weighting:

The MLS-C01 exam covers four key domains:

  1. Data Engineering (20%): Focuses on creating data repositories for ML; identifying and implementing data-ingestion solutions; and identifying and implementing data-transformation solutions. This involves services like S3, Glue, Kinesis, and SageMaker data preparation tools.
  2. Exploratory Data Analysis (24%): Covers sanitizing and preparing data for modeling; performing feature engineering; and analyzing and visualizing data for ML.
  3. Modeling (36%): This is the largest domain. It tests your ability to frame business problems as ML problems; select appropriate models and algorithms; train ML models (using SageMaker); perform hyperparameter optimization; and evaluate ML models.
  4. Machine Learning Implementation and Operations (20%): Focuses on building ML solutions for performance, availability, scalability, resiliency, and fault tolerance; recommending and implementing appropriate ML services and features for a given problem; applying MLOps practices; and ensuring security and governance of ML solutions.

For the most accurate and detailed information, always refer to the official AWS MLS-C01 Exam Guide.

Why Earn the MLS-C01 Credential?

  • Validates Expert ML Skills on AWS: Proves your ability to handle the end-to-end ML lifecycle on the AWS platform.
  • High-Demand Specialization: Skilled ML professionals are in extremely high demand across all industries.
  • Significant Career Advancement: Opens doors to senior data science, ML engineering, and AI research roles.
  • Increased Earning Potential: This specialty certification is often associated with top-tier salaries.
  • Deepen Your ML Expertise: The preparation process itself will significantly enhance your understanding of practical ML implementation.

Preparing for the MLS-C01 Exam

  • Master Amazon SageMaker: This is crucial. Understand its built-in algorithms, how to bring your own algorithms, training jobs, hyperparameter tuning, inference endpoints (real-time and batch), SageMaker Studio, Pipelines, Feature Store, and Model Monitor.
  • Strong Data Engineering Foundation: Be proficient with data ingestion (Kinesis, S3), data transformation (Glue, Spark on EMR or SageMaker Processing), and feature engineering techniques.
  • Understand Core ML Concepts & Algorithms: Know various supervised and unsupervised algorithms, evaluation metrics (accuracy, precision, recall, F1, AUC, RMSE), and when to apply them.
  • Hands-On Model Building: Build, train, tune, deploy, and monitor several ML models on AWS.
  • Study AWS Whitepapers & Documentation: Focus on SageMaker documentation, ML best practices, and relevant AI/ML service guides.
  • Practice Exams: Use high-quality mock tests extensively to test your knowledge across all domains and get used to the scenario-based questions.

Become an AWS Machine Learning Expert!

The AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty is a challenging but highly prestigious certification. It confirms your advanced ability to design, build, and operate sophisticated ML solutions on AWS. With deep study, extensive hands-on practice, and a solid understanding of ML principles, you can achieve this elite credential and become a leader in the field of machine learning.

About the author

Farrukh Mehmood

An expert in standardized testing, Farrukh Mehmood brings over 6 years of valuable teaching experience. His expertise spans the GRE, GMAT, and SATs, providing students with the insights and strategies needed to excel on these crucial exams.

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