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AWS Certified Security – Specialty

Standardize your team on AWS Certified Security – Specialty with a structured AWS training path — a blueprint-weighted practice exam and team admin reporting included on every CBT Nuggets Teams seat.

Book a DemoAll AWS certs
1
Course
1
Practice exam
5
Core skills
$300
Exam fee (AWS)
AWS cloud engineering team reviewing architecture diagrams together
Difficulty
Difficulty: 4 of 5 (Advanced)
Advanced
Exam fee (AWS)
$300
Courses on path
1
Official source
AWS’s official exam page
Exam code
  • SCS-C03

Exam datasheet

Format
Multiple choice, multiple response
Prerequisites
None, but AWS recommends having at least five years of IT security experience in designing and implementing security solutions and at least two years of hands-on experience securing AWS workloads.
Recommended experience
At least two years of hands-on experience securing AWS workloads
Recertification
3 years
Testing center

Exams

Exams for this certification

Exam fees per engineer, paid to the exam vendor$300

Exam — Required

Every engineer on the AWS Certified Security – Specialty path takes SCS-C03.

  1. SCS-C03AWS Certified Security – SpecialtyPractice exam included on every Teams seat
    Exam fee
    $300
    Exam length
    170 minutes
    Questions
    65
    Passing score
    750/1000

    Exam blueprint: SCS-C03

Skills your team builds

Incident responseLogging and monitoringInfrastructure securityIdentity and access managementData protection

Training path

Your team's training path

One CBT Nuggets course covers the full AWS Certified Security – Specialty path. Your team can start today and have admin reporting visible from day one.

  1. Start here · primary course

    AWS Certified Security Specialty

    Prepare for the AWS Certified Security Specialty (SCS-C03) certification with expert-led training. Learn to secure AWS environments by managing access controls with IAM Roles Anywhere, protecting data through Amazon Security Lake, and responding to threats using Amazon CodeGuru Security. In this course, you'll cover securing GenAI applications and leveraging Amazon Q Developer alongside advanced networking like AWS Verified Access and Layer 3-7 firewall rules. This course covers essential tools and techniques, including AWS Verified Permissions, to safeguard cloud systems and make you stand out as a candidate for cloud security roles. This AWS training is ideal for cloud administrators and teams looking to enhance security skills or onboard new team members.

    Scott Pletcher
    140 videosPractice exam17h
    Open course

Every certification course includes

  • Expert-led video training
  • Certification practice exams
  • Per-team completion reporting

AWS career ladder

Where AWS Certified Security – Specialty sits in your team's AWS progression

The cert your team is on now, plus the levels above and below. Use this to map an engineer's next-step credential or to plan headcount coverage across tiers.

  1. Entry level

    2 certs

    AWS Certified AI Practitioner

    AIF-C01

    AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

    CLF-C02

  2. Associate level

    5 certs

    AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer – Associate

    SOA-C03

    AWS Certified Data Engineer – Associate

    DEA-C01

    AWS Certified Developer – Associate

    DVA-C02

    AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer - Associate

    MLA-C02

    AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate

    SAA-C03

  3. Professional level

    2 certs

    AWS Certified Generative AI Developer - Professional

    AIP-C01

    AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional

    SAP-C02

  4. Specialist level

    2 certs

    AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty

    ANS-C01

    AWS Certified Security – Specialty

    SCS-C03

    You are here

Compliance frameworks this training supports

Where AWS Certified Security – Specialty skills fit your compliance program

The compliance frameworks whose controls draw on the skills AWS Certified Security – Specialty training builds, with the control families the certification’s learning objectives address. A planning aid for mapping training to your program, not evidence that a requirement is met.

  • FrameworkSOC 2
    Control families
    CC6CC7
  • FrameworkPCI DSS
    Control families
    Req 1Req 2Req 4Req 7
  • FrameworkHIPAA
    Control families
    164.312
  • FrameworkNIST 800-53
    Control families
    ACSCAU

Mappings reflect the certification’s stated learning objectives against published framework control families. CBT Nuggets is a training platform. Our courses build the skills these frameworks depend on, and our completion records document the workforce training many of them require. Training supports a compliance program; it does not by itself make an organization compliant. Your compliance program and its assessors decide what counts as evidence. Pair this table with your auditor’s control crosswalk for the mapping your review requires.

Customer outcome

Build AWS capability across the whole team, not one engineer

Assign the AWS Certified Security – Specialty course to the engineers who need it, and the team report shows who has started, who has finished, and who has passed the practice exam — the view leadership uses to see AWS skills coverage across the team and where the gaps are.

See team pricing

Team capability

Make AWS a number on your team capability sheet, not a single engineer’s certificate.

Standardizing your team on AWS gives leadership a clear picture of AWS skills coverage — who has completed the training, who is still on the path, and where the gaps are — so staffing and escalation plans rest on known capability instead of on one engineer.

Credential: AWS Certified Security – Specialty

Exam
  • SCS-C03

Frequently asked questions about AWS Certified Security – Specialty training

Common questions IT directors ask when evaluating AWS Certified Security – Specialty training for their team.

How does AWS Certified Security – Specialty fit a compliance or governance program?

Teams commonly cite this credential when documenting training coverage for cloud security controls such as identity and access management, logging with CloudTrail and CloudWatch, encryption, and multi-account governance through AWS Organizations. The formal mapping to any control framework is decided by the auditor's crosswalk for the organization's environment and audit scope. CBT Nuggets team reporting provides completion exports that IT leaders can add to the audit evidence packet.

Who on the team should hold AWS Certified Security – Specialty, and what can a certified team own?

IT leaders usually assign it to the cloud security engineers and architects responsible for AWS workloads. A certified team can own IAM policy design and advanced access controls, multi-account security strategy, network and edge protection with CloudFront and WAF, data encryption, domain and certificate management, configuration monitoring, and zero trust architectures on AWS.

What does CBT Nuggets AWS Certified Security – Specialty training include for a team?

CBT Nuggets AWS Certified Security – Specialty courses are built by named expert trainers. Where a course includes hands-on virtual labs or a practice exam mapped to AWS's published exam objectives, the course list on this page says so. Team admin reporting tracks assignment, completion and exam readiness per engineer — the view managers use to run a team training program.

How do I assign and track AWS Certified Security – Specialty training for my team?

From the admin console, managers assign the AWS Certified Security – Specialty courses directly to specific engineers or role groups and track completion and practice-exam scores per learner. Team-wide reporting rolls up to a single dashboard you can review or export for leadership reviews or compliance reporting.

How long does it take to certify a team on AWS Certified Security – Specialty?

The linked courses add up to about 42 hours of video. Actual time to certify depends on each engineer's starting point with AWS security, so many IT leaders assign the training with a target date and track per-learner progress and completion in team reporting.

What if AWS updates the AWS Certified Security – Specialty exam objectives?

CBT Nuggets updates AWS course content as exam objectives refresh, and this page shows the current exam's status and any retirement date the vendor has announced. When AWS restructures or renames a track, the assigned training stays aligned with the same team training plan, and the training stays current without anyone losing their progress mid-stream.

Ready to AWS Certified Security – Specialty-certify your team?

Build AWS Certified Security – Specialty capability across your team

See how CBT Nuggets helps IT leaders plan and track AWS Certified Security – Specialty training across the team — a practice exam and reporting included.

Book a Demo