Response Types

There are two types of questions on the examination:

• Multiple choice: Has one correct response and three incorrect responses (distractors).
• Multiple response: Has two or more correct responses out of five or more options.

Select one or more responses that best complete the statement or answer the question. Distractors, or incorrectanswers, are response options that an examinee with incomplete knowledge or skill would likely choose. However,they are generally plausible responses that fit in the content area defined by the test objective.

Unanswered questions are scored as incorrect; there is no penalty for guessing

Unscored Content

Your examination may include unscored items that are placed on the test to gather statistical information. Theseitems are not identified on the form and do not affect your score.

Exam Results

The Certified Alexa Skill Builder – Specialty (AXS-C01) examination is a pass or fail exam. The examination isscored against a minimum standard established by Cloud Vendors Alexa professionals who are guided by certificationindustry best practices and guidelines.

Your results for the examination are reported as a score from 100–1,000, with a minimum passing score of 750.Your score shows how you performed on the examination as a whole and whether or not you passed. Scaledscoring models are used to equate scores across multiple exam forms that may have slightly different difficultylevels.

Your score report contains a table of classifications of your performance at each section level. This information isdesigned to provide general feedback concerning your examination performance. The examination uses acompensatory scoring model, which means that you do not need to “pass” the individual sections, only the overallexamination. Each section of the examination has a specific weighting, so some sections have more questions thanothers. The table contains general information, highlighting your strengths and weaknesses. Exercise caution wheninterpreting section-level feedback.

Content Outline

This exam guide includes weightings, test domains, and objectives only. It is not a comprehensive listing of thecontent on this examination. The table below lists the main content domains and their weightings.

Domain 1: Voice-First Design Practices and Capabilities

• 1.1 Describe how users interact with skills
• 1.2 Map features and capabilities to use cases

Domain 2: Skill Design

• 2.1 Design and develop an interaction model
• 2.2 Design a multi-turn conversation
• 2.3 Use built-in intents and slots
• 2.4 Handle unexpected conversational requests or responses
• 2.5 Design multi-modal skills using one or more service interfaces (for example, audio, video, and gadgets)

Domain 3: Skill Architecture

• 3.1 Identify Cloud Vendors services for extending Alexa skill functionality (CloudFront, S3, CloudWatch, and DynamoDB)
• 3.2 Use Cloud Vendors Lambda to build Alexa skills
• 3.3 Follow Cloud Vendors and Alexa security and privacy best practices

Domain 4: Skill Development

• 4.1 Implement in-skill purchasing and Cloud Vendors Pay for Alexa Skills
• 4.2 Use Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) for expression and MP3 audio
• 4.3 Implement state management
• 4.4 Implement Alexa service interfaces (audio player, video player, and screens)
• 4.5 Parse Alexa JSON requests and provide responses

Domain 5: Test, Validate, and Troubleshoot

• 5.1 Debug and troubleshoot using CloudWatch or other tools
• 5.2 Use the Alexa developer testing tools
• 5.3 Perform beta testing
• 5.4 Troubleshoot errors in the interaction model

Domain 6: Publishing, Operations, and Lifecycle Management

• 6.1 Describe the skill publishing process
• 6.2 Add and remove users in the developer console
• 6.3 Perform analysis of skill analytics in the developer console
• 6.4 Differentiate among the statuses/versions of skills (for example, In Development, In Certification, andLive)