2. Foundation Model Integration, Data Management & Compliance (31%)

Domain 1 is the heaviest domain on the exam at 31% — but it's also the most misunderstood. Candidates who study it as a list of Bedrock features fail the scenario questions, which demand architectural reasoning: given these constraints, which model, which deployment pattern, which data pipeline?

The three sections in this phase build on each other deliberately. You cannot choose a deployment strategy until you've chosen a model. You cannot build a data pipeline until you understand what format the chosen model expects. Every decision here creates downstream constraints.

⚠️ Common Misconception: Domain 1 is mostly about Amazon Bedrock. Bedrock is the central service, but Domain 1 also tests SageMaker model lifecycle management, Glue Data Quality, SageMaker Data Wrangler, and Lambda-based preprocessing — the full data pipeline from raw source to FM-ready input.