AWS cloud practitioner Exam Questions (CLF–C02)

Thinking about getting AWS certified? Smart move! Whether you’re starting your cloud journey or aiming to validate your foundational knowledge, the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) is a great first step. This entry-level certification proves your understanding of core AWS concepts, security, pricing, and cloud computing fundamentals.

What will we cover in this blog?#

This blog is designed to help you prepare effectively for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) exam. Here’s what we’ll cover:

• Key exam domains, their weightage, and the ideal candidate profile

• Exam structure and question types

• Strategy for approaching exam questions effectively

• Sample questions with explanations

• Recommended study resources and practice exams

The sample questions will help you understand the exam format, key topics, and the knowledge required to succeed.

What does the exam cover?#

To effectively prepare for the CLF-C02 exam, it’s crucial to understand what the exam is designed to test. The AWS Cloud Practitioner exam consists of the following four domains:

Who should take this exam?#

AWS expects a candidate with up to six months of exposure to AWS cloud, implementation, or operations. This certification is ideal for individuals from non-IT backgrounds starting their AWS cloud career or collaborating with AWS professionals. The exam validates the foundational knowledge of AWS cloud concepts, security and compliance, core AWS services, and the economics of the AWS cloud.

Exam structure and question types#

The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) exam consists of 65 questions divided into two categories:

• Scored questions: 50 questions contribute to your final score.

• Unscored questions: The exam also contains 15 questions that do not affect your score. AWS analyzes these to determine candidates’ responses and suitability for future exams as scored questions. As a candidate, you are not informed about these questions, so you should treat every question as if it counts toward your final score.

The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) exam includes two types of multiple-choice questions:

• Single correct answer: Choose one correct answer from four options.

• Multiple correct answers: Select two or more correct answers from five or more options.

Sample CLF-C02 exam questions#

Without further ado, let’s dive into sample exam questions designed to enhance your understanding of the exam and prepare you for success.

Domain 1: Cloud concepts#

Cloud concepts focus on the foundational principles of cloud computing and the AWS cloud. You must understand the cloud’s value proposition, including cost savings, scalability, global infrastructure, and high availability. The domain also tests your knowledge of cloud adoption strategies, the benefits of AWS migration, and resources like the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (AWS CAF).

How to approach the question#

Let’s break down the steps to effectively approach and answer this type of question:

Step 1: Identify the key requirement#

This question asks you to select two primary benefits of cloud computing.

The key requirements are:

• Identify the primary benefits of cloud computing.

• You need to choose two correct answers.

Step 2: Eliminate incorrect options#

Only two of these five options are correct. Your next step is to identify and eliminate the incorrect options. Typically, you’ll find that a few options can be ruled out as implausible or irrelevant. Focusing on what remains increases your chances of reaching the correct answer. So, let’s review the options that we can eliminate here:

• Data sovereignty: This refers to the legal ownership and jurisdiction of data, making it more of a concern or challenge in cloud computing rather than a direct benefit. Hence, it’s not a valid option.

• Increased latency: Latency refers to delays in data transmission. Cloud computing typically aims to minimize latency, not increase it, making this a disadvantage rather than a benefit. Therefore, it should be eliminated.

Step 3: Compare the remaining options to see which one best fulfills the given requirement#

Now that we are left with three options, we compare them:

• Cost efficiency: Cloud computing reduces costs by eliminating upfront infrastructure investments and offering pay-as-you-go pricing, optimizing resource usage.

• Scalability: The cloud allows resources to scale up or down based on demand, ensuring efficient workload management and avoiding over- or under-provisioning.

• On-demand self-service: This feature provides flexibility, allowing users to provision resources automatically. While essential, it’s more about operational flexibility than a direct benefit.

The best answers are Cost efficiency and Scalability as they represent the primary benefits of cloud computing.

Now that you’ve learned how to approach this type of question, go ahead and apply a similar approach to answer the following question:

Domain 2: Security and compliance#

AWS Security and compliance focus on protecting data, managing access, and ensuring adherence to regulatory standards. The AWS shared responsibility model defines security roles between AWS and the customer.

AWS provides compliance tools like AWS Artifact and security services like AWS IAM, AWS Shield, AWS WAF, and AWS CloudTrail to enhance security posture. Customers are responsible for configuring security settings, implementing encryption, and managing access controls. Key security principles include least privilege access, encryption in transit and at rest, logging for audits, and industry compliance.

Let’s look at some sample questions from this domain:

Did you get this right? Here are two more questions to test your knowledge about security and compliance in the cloud.

Domain 3: Cloud technology and services#

Cloud technology and services cover the core AWS offerings, making up a significant portion of the exam. You are required to have a foundational knowledge of AWS’s on-demand compute (EC2, Lambda, Fargate), storage solutions (S3, EBS, EFS, FSx), database services (RDS, DynamoDB, Aurora), and networking VPC, Route 53, and CloudFront (options like) services.

Let‘s look at a question each from these main AWS offerings:

Domain 4: Billing, pricing, and support#

AWS pricing follows a pay-as-you-go model with options like on-demand, reserved, and spot instances. This allows you to optimize your costs based on your usage. AWS also provides cost management tools, including AWS Pricing Calculator, AWS Budgets, Cost Explorer, and Consolidated Billing. Lastly, if you need assistance from an AWS expert, you can utilize one of the range of support plans: Basic (free) to developer, business, and enterprise.

What’s next?#

By now, you should understand the questions you’ll encounter on the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam and how to approach them effectively.

If you’re beginning your journey and want to deepen your knowledge of AWS, check out our Master AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02 Exam preparation course.

This course covers all the foundational concepts needed to succeed. You’ll also find two sets of practice exams in the course to further sharpen your skills with additional hands-on practice. With the strategies and practice questions shared here, you’re well-equipped to confidently approach the exam. Best of luck on your journey to earning the AWS Cloud Practitioner certification!

Last but not least, while preparing for AWS certification is important, what truly makes a difference in real-world scenarios is hands-on experience. But don’t worry—Educative has you covered there. With over 150+ Cloud Labs, Educative provides an interactive, hands-on environment where you can practice real-world AWS tasks, experiment with different services, and build the confidence to tackle real cloud challenges.