aws-cloud-practitioner
Use when preparing for AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) — the exam domains and weights, cloud concepts, the shared responsibility model, core services by category, security and identity basi
SKILL.mdskills/certs/aws-cloud-practitioner/SKILL.md
GitHubAWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02)
Bottom line: this exam tests recognition — which service or concept fits a business scenario — not configuration. Learn categories and the "why" of each core service, and the shared responsibility split.
Exam shape (confirm on the official exam page)
- Multiple choice and multiple response; 90 minutes; scaled score with a passing mark of 700/1000; some unscored questions are included.
- Domains: Cloud Concepts, Security and Compliance, Cloud Technology and Services (largest), Billing, Pricing, and Support. Use the official exam guide for exact weights and task statements.
Primary sources: AWS Certification (https://aws.amazon.com/certification/), the official exam guide, AWS documentation, the Well-Architected Framework, and AWS Skill Builder's free practice question set.
What to know cold
| Area | Core points |
|---|---|
| Cloud value | Elasticity, pay-as-you-go, economies of scale, global reach, CapEx → OpEx |
| Global infrastructure | Regions, Availability Zones, edge locations; choosing a Region (compliance, latency, service availability, price) |
| Shared responsibility | AWS: security of the cloud; customer: security in the cloud — and how the split shifts between EC2, RDS and Lambda |
| Identity | IAM users, groups, roles, policies, least privilege, MFA, root user protection, IAM Identity Center |
| Compute | EC2 (instance families, purchase options: On-Demand, Savings Plans, Reserved, Spot), Lambda, containers (ECS, EKS, Fargate) |
| Storage | S3 (storage classes, lifecycle), EBS, EFS, Glacier tiers |
| Databases | RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, ElastiCache, Redshift — relational vs key-value vs analytics |
| Networking | VPC, subnets, security groups vs network ACLs, Route 53, CloudFront, Direct Connect, VPN |
| Security services | Shield, WAF, GuardDuty, Inspector, Macie, KMS, Secrets Manager, Artifact, Security Hub |
| Operations | CloudWatch, CloudTrail, Config, Trusted Advisor, Systems Manager |
| Cost | Pricing Calculator, Cost Explorer, Budgets, Cost and Usage Report, consolidated billing in Organizations |
| Support | Basic, Developer, Business, Enterprise On-Ramp, Enterprise — what each adds (response times, TAM) |
Study loop
- Read the exam guide's task statements; turn each into one question you can answer.
- For each service, write one line: "use it when ... / not when ...".
- Practise scenario questions; for every option, say why it is right or wrong.
- Check doubtful answers in AWS documentation, not in third-party dumps.
Writing practice questions
- Ground each option's explanation in an AWS documentation page.
- Prefer scenarios ("a company needs ...") over definitions; keep wording varied.
- Re-check facts that change (service names, support plan features) before publishing.
Pitfalls
- Security groups are stateful, network ACLs stateless.
- CloudTrail (who did what) vs CloudWatch (metrics/logs) vs Config (resource configuration history).
- Savings Plans vs Reserved Instances vs Spot — commitment and interruption trade-offs.
- Trusted Advisor checks available depend on the support plan.
- Old names in study material (services get renamed) — use current documentation.
Self-check
- A full practice set under 90 minutes with comfortable margin above the passing line.
- Explain the shared responsibility model for EC2, RDS and Lambda without notes.
- Name the right service for 20 random business needs in under 10 seconds each.