AWS Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) Study Guide
Everything you need to pass the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam the first time — the exact blueprint, what each domain tests, a realistic study plan, and free practice resources.
Exam facts you need to know
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Exam code | CLF-C02 |
| Questions | 65 (multiple choice and multiple response) |
| Time limit | 90 minutes |
| Scoring | Scaled 100–1000, passing score 700 |
| Cost | $100 USD |
| Validity | 3 years |
| Prerequisite | None — designed for anyone, even non-technical roles |
The four exam domains
The exam is weighted across four domains. Match your study time to the weights, not to how much you like the topic:
| Domain | Weight | What you must know |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud Concepts | 24% | Value proposition of cloud: pay-as-you-go, elasticity, agility, global reach. CAPEX vs OPEX. The AWS Well-Architected Framework pillars. Regions, Availability Zones and edge locations. |
| Security & Compliance | 30% | The shared responsibility model. IAM: users, groups, roles, policies, least privilege, MFA. Security groups. Encryption at rest and in transit. Compliance programs and the AWS compliance reports. |
| Cloud Technology & Services | 34% | Core services by category: compute (EC2, Lambda, Auto Scaling), storage (S3, EBS, EFS, Glacier), databases (RDS, DynamoDB, Aurora, ElastiCache), networking (VPC, Route 53, CloudFront), security (WAF, Shield, GuardDuty, KMS), and integration (SQS, SNS, API Gateway). |
| Billing, Pricing & Support | 12% | Pricing models: On-Demand, Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, Spot. Cost Explorer, Budgets, Pricing Calculator, consolidated billing, AWS Free Tier, support plans, Trusted Advisor. |
Concepts that are guaranteed to appear
A handful of topics show up on almost every CLF-C02 exam. Master these and you cover a big share of the marks:
- The shared responsibility model — AWS is responsible for security of the cloud; the customer is responsible for security in the cloud. You'll see 2–4 questions on this.
- Regions vs. Availability Zones vs. edge locations — a Region is a geographic area with 3+ AZs; AZs are isolated data centers; edge locations are CloudFront cache sites.
- The six Well-Architected pillars — Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, Cost Optimization, Sustainability.
- EC2 purchasing options — On-Demand (flexible, most expensive), Reserved/Savings Plans (commitment, biggest discount), Spot (up to 90% off, interruptible).
- Storage classes — S3 Standard vs. infrequent access vs. Glacier for archives vs. Glacier Deep Archive (cheapest).
- The "choose the right service" questions — you're given a scenario and must pick among RDS, DynamoDB, SQS, SNS, EFS, EBS, CloudFront, Route 53, etc. This is the largest group of questions.
A realistic 4-week study plan
- Week 1 — Baseline and Cloud Concepts. Take the free mock exam cold. Study Cloud Concepts (24%): the value proposition, Well-Architected pillars, Regions/AZs. Answer the domain 1 questions until you hit 80%.
- Week 2 — Security & Compliance (30%). The shared responsibility model, IAM, security groups, encryption, compliance. This is the most testable domain per hour studied.
- Week 3 — Technology & Services (34%). The biggest domain. Learn each core service with one "what does it do + when to pick it" fact. Drill the service-selection questions hardest.
- Week 4 — Billing & Pricing (12%) + mocks. Pricing models, Cost Explorer, Budgets, support plans. Then retake mocks until you pass twice in a row above 70%.
Free resources to study with
- Free AWS Cloud Practitioner practice questions — all 60 questions with explanations.
- Free timed mock exam — 20 questions in 30 minutes with the official 70% pass line.
- CLF-C02 cheat sheet — a one-page quick reference for last-minute review.
- AWS flashcards — spaced-repetition-style cards for key terms.
The honest exam advice
The Cloud Practitioner exam is genuinely achievable for a non-technical person — but the wording is tricky. The exam loves "best" and "most" questions where several answers are technically true and you must pick the most correct one. The way to prepare for that is not memorizing, but reading hundreds of explanations. Every explanation you read teaches you why a wrong answer is wrong — which is exactly what the exam rewards.
Put the study guide into action
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