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AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) study guide

What the CLF-C02 exam tests, domain by domain, and how to tell the right answer from the nearly right one. Each topic links to fuller study notes and free practice questions.

Last checked against the official exam guide and AWS documentation · How we write our content

About the CLF-C02 exam

The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam checks that you understand the AWS Cloud as a whole: why companies use it, how security and responsibility are shared, what the main services do, and how AWS charges for them. It doesn’t test hands-on configuration. AWS aims it at people with up to 6 months of exposure to AWS, including people in sales, finance, project and management roles who work alongside technical teams.
Questions 65: 50 scored and 15 unscored, which aren’t marked
Time 90 minutes
Question types Multiple choice (one answer from four) and multiple response (two or more from five or more)
Score Scaled from 100 to 1,000; 700 to pass
Scoring model Compensatory: you need to pass overall, not in each domain
Guessing An unanswered question counts as wrong, and there is no penalty for a wrong answer, so answer everything

Check the official certification page for the current price, languages and booking options before you book.

What the exam really tests

Most Cloud Practitioner questions describe a short business need and ask which AWS service, feature or concept fits it. The hard part isn’t depth, it’s breadth: the options are often four real services that sound alike, such as CloudTrail, CloudWatch, Config and Trusted Advisor. You pass by knowing, in one sentence each, what every common service is for.

A few ideas come up in every domain:

  • Who is responsible. The shared responsibility model decides many security questions: AWS secures the cloud itself, you secure what you put in it.
  • Managed beats self-managed when the question asks for less operational effort.
  • Pay for what you use. Cost questions reward matching a pricing model to how something is used.
  • More than one Availability Zone is the basic answer to “highly available”.

How to read a question

  1. Find the verb in the last line. “Which service records API calls” and “which service monitors performance” have different answers.
  2. Look for the one detail that separates the options: a user, an application, a document, a cost, a time.
  3. Cross out the options that do a different job. Usually two go quickly.
  4. For “Choose two” questions, pick two options that each meet the need on their own or that cover different parts of it.

With 90 minutes for 65 questions you have just under 1.5 minutes each, which is plenty for most people. Flag anything you are unsure of and come back to it.

How the domains add up

Cloud Technology and Services is the largest domain, and it is mostly about knowing which service does what. Security and Compliance is close behind. Billing, Pricing, and Support is the smallest, but its questions are some of the easiest marks once you know the pricing models and support plans.

Domain 1: Cloud Concepts 24%

This domain asks why organizations move to AWS and how they do it: the benefits of cloud computing (agility, elasticity, global reach, economies of scale), the six pillars of the Well-Architected Framework, the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework, the migration strategies, and the economics of trading upfront spending for pay-as-you-go. Expect definitions in scenario form: a company describes what it wants, and you name the benefit, pillar or strategy.

Domain 2: Security and Compliance 30%

Security is the second-largest domain. It starts with the shared responsibility model, then covers how access is controlled (IAM users, groups, roles and policies, MFA, the root user, IAM Identity Center), how activity is recorded and audited (CloudTrail, CloudWatch, Config), how data is protected (encryption with KMS), where compliance documents come from (AWS Artifact), and what each security service detects. Most questions ask you to pick the right service or the right owner of a task.

The AWS shared responsibility model Two layers. The customer is responsible for security in the cloud: their data, identity and access management, operating system patches and firewall settings on EC2, and encryption choices. AWS is responsible for security of the cloud: data centers and hardware, the global network, the virtualization layer, and the software of managed services. Customer: security in the cloud Your data and who can access it IAM users, roles MFA, policies EC2 guest OS patches, firewall Encryption turn it on, pick keys AWS: security of the cloud Data centers buildings, hardware Global network Regions, AZs, edge Virtualization the hypervisor Managed services e.g. RDS patching
AWS secures the cloud itself; you secure what you put in it. The line moves with the service: on EC2 you patch the operating system, while on a managed service such as RDS or Lambda, AWS patches it for you. Your data, who can access it, and how it is encrypted are always your job.

Domain 3: Cloud Technology and Services 34%

The largest domain is a tour of AWS services: how you work with AWS (console, CLI, SDKs, infrastructure as code), the global infrastructure (Regions, Availability Zones, edge locations), compute, databases, networking, storage, AI and analytics, application integration and a few other categories. You don’t need to configure any of them. You need to know what each one is for, and which of two similar services fits a stated need.

AWS global infrastructure: Regions, Availability Zones and edge locations A Region contains three Availability Zones, and each Availability Zone contains one or more data centers. Separately, many edge locations around the world run CloudFront and Route 53 close to users. Region, e.g. us-east-1 AZ a Data center Data center AZ b Data center Data center AZ c Data center Data center Edge locations, worldwide Edge CloudFront, DNS Edge CloudFront, DNS Edge CloudFront, DNS
A Region is a geographic area with at least three Availability Zones. Each AZ is one or more data centers with its own power and networking, close enough to the others for fast links but far enough apart that one failure doesn’t take out the rest. Edge locations are separate, far more numerous sites that serve CloudFront caches and Route 53 DNS close to users.

Domain 4: Billing, Pricing, and Support 12%

The smallest domain covers how AWS charges (On-Demand, Savings Plans, Reserved Instances, Spot, data transfer), the tools for watching and controlling spending (Pricing Calculator, Cost Explorer, Budgets, Cost and Usage Reports), how AWS Organizations combines bills, and where to get help (AWS Support plans, Trusted Advisor, re:Post, documentation and partners).

The four EC2 pricing models, from most flexible to cheapest On-Demand has no commitment and full price. Savings Plans commit to a dollar amount per hour for one or three years, for up to 72 percent off. Reserved Instances commit to a specific instance configuration for one or three years, also up to 72 percent off. Spot uses spare capacity for up to 90 percent off but can be interrupted. On-Demand no commitment pay by the second full price Savings Plans $ per hour, 1 or 3 yrs any instance family up to 72% off Reserved Instances 1 or 3 years set instance type up to 72% off Spot spare capacity can be interrupted up to 90% off
Match the pricing model to the workload. On-Demand suits short or unpredictable work, Savings Plans and Reserved Instances suit steady use you can commit to for one or three years, and Spot suits work that can stop and restart, such as batch jobs. Savings Plans are the more flexible commitment because they apply across instance types.

A 4-week study plan

This plan assumes 30 to 60 minutes on most days. If you already work with AWS, two weeks may be enough; if technology is new to you, take six.

Week Focus Do this
1 Baseline and cloud concepts Take the free practice exam in review mode to see where you stand. Then learn the cloud benefits, the six Well-Architected pillars, the migration strategies and the Cloud Adoption Framework perspectives.
2 Security and compliance Shared responsibility, IAM (users, groups, roles, policies, MFA), the root user, CloudTrail vs CloudWatch vs Config, KMS, Artifact, and the security services (GuardDuty, Inspector, Macie, Security Hub, Shield, WAF).
3 Services Global infrastructure, compute, databases, networking, storage, AI and analytics, and application integration. Make a one-line description for every service you meet.
4 Billing and practice Pricing models, cost tools, Organizations and support plans. Then take full timed practice exams and review every wrong answer.

How to use practice questions well

  • Read every explanation, including for questions you got right. The wrong options teach you what the other services do.
  • Make your own “which service” list. Write one line per service in your own words. If two lines sound the same, look up the difference.
  • Don’t memorize questions. The real exam won’t reuse them, and the scenarios will be worded differently.
  • Aim for 80% or more on a few full timed practice exams before you book.

Optional: try the console

You don’t need hands-on skills for this exam, but five minutes in the AWS console makes services easier to remember. With a free account and a budget alert set, create an S3 bucket, launch and stop a small EC2 instance, and open Cost Explorer. Delete what you create.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Cloud Practitioner exam hard?

It is the most approachable AWS exam. It is broad rather than deep, and most people who study the services and pricing models pass on their first attempt. The main challenge is telling similar services apart.

Do I need technical experience?

No. The exam is designed for people in technical and non-technical roles. Knowing basic IT terms (server, database, network, storage) helps.

Should I take Cloud Practitioner or go straight to an Associate exam?

If you are new to AWS, Cloud Practitioner is a good first step and its material carries into the Associate exams. If you already build on AWS, you can go straight to an Associate exam; there are no prerequisites.

Are the practice questions the real exam questions?

No. Every question on this site is original, written from the public exam guide and checked against AWS documentation. Using real exam questions breaks the AWS Certification Program Agreement and won’t teach you what the exam is testing.

Test yourself

The free CLF-C02 practice exam has 65 questions with an explanation for every option. No sign-up needed.

Take the free practice examReview questions untimed

Want to be sure you're ready? The 5 full-length practice sets add 325 new questions, none of them in the free exam. One payment of $14.99, no subscription. See the practice sets