The AWS Cloud Practitioner exam is a certification for beginners, meant to confirm that a candidate understands the basics of the AWS Cloud. It is an ideal certification for those who are new to AWS and want to demonstrate their understanding of the AWS Cloud and its basic services.
The test includes 65 multiple-choice and multiple-response questions that you have to finish in 90 minutes. You can take the exam at a testing center or online. It costs $100, and you can take it in various languages. The exam tests the candidate’s understanding of the AWS Cloud and its core services, including AWS Cloud computing and basic global infrastructure, AWS Cloud architectural principles, AWS Cloud value proposition, key services and their common use cases, basic security and compliance, and billing and pricing.
The test also evaluates how well candidates can use AWS Cloud services to build simple structures and launch applications on the AWS Cloud. To do well, candidates need to know the basics of AWS services, like AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), and Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS).
In conclusion, the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam is an excellent starting point for anyone looking to validate their knowledge of AWS and cloud computing. It is an entry-level certification that provides a strong foundation for further AWS certifications. We hope that this blog has provided you with a detailed understanding of the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam format.
Glossary of AWS Cloud Practitioner Terminology
here’s a glossary of commonly used terms in AWS Cloud Practitioner:
- AWS: Amazon Web Services, a cloud computing platform that provides a range of services to customers.
- Cloud Computing: This refers t o providing computing resources, like servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence, via the Internet.
- Elasticity: The ability of a system to automatically scale its resources up or down based on demand.
- Availability Zone: A data center or cluster of data centers in a specific region that is engineered to be highly available, fault-tolerant, and scalable.
- S3: Simple Storage Service, a very scalable and durable storage service for objects that can save and fetch any amount of data from anywhere on the web.
- EC2: Elastic Compute Cloud, a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud.
- IAM: Identity and Access Management, a web service that helps you securely control access to AWS resources for your users.
- VPC: Virtual Private Cloud, a service that lets you create an isolated network environment in the cloud.
- RDS: Relational Database Service, a managed database service that lets you easily create, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud.
- Lambda: A serverless computing service that allows you to execute code without having to set up or handle servers.
- CloudFormation: A service that lets you create and manage AWS resources using templates.
- CloudTrail: A service that allows you to manage governance, compliance, operational auditing, and risk auditing for your AWS account.
- Auto Scaling: A service that automatically changes the number of EC2 instances in a group according to the varying demand.
- Route 53: A reliable and scalable web service for domain name systems (DNS) that converts domain names into IP addresses.
- CloudWatch: A monitoring service that offers information and useful insights for AWS resources.
Exam preparation resources for AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam
There are a variety of resources available to prepare for the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam. Here are some official AWS resources that you can use:
- AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials: This free, digital training course provides an overview of cloud computing and AWS, and helps you prepare for the Cloud Practitioner exam. It covers topics such as AWS core services, security, pricing and support, and more. You can access the course here: https://aws.amazon.com/training/course-descriptions/cloud-practitioner-essentials/
- AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Exam Guide: This official guide is designed to help you prepare for the Cloud Practitioner exam. It includes information about the exam format, content areas, and sample questions. You can access the guide here: https://d1.awsstatic.com/training-and-certification/docs-cloud-practitioner/AWS-Certified-Cloud-Practitioner_Exam-Guide.pdf
- AWS Cloud Practitioner Sample Exam Questions: These sample questions can help you familiarize yourself with the type of questions you can expect on the Cloud Practitioner exam. You can access the sample questions here: https://d1.awsstatic.com/training-and-certification/docs-cloud-practitioner/AWS-Certified-Cloud-Practitioner_Sample-Questions.pdf
- AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Practice Exam: This practice exam is designed to simulate the actual Cloud Practitioner exam experience. It includes 65 multiple-choice and multiple-response questions and is timed at 130 minutes. You can purchase the practice exam here: https://www.aws.training/certification?src=practitioner
- AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam Readiness Training: This free, digital training course helps you prepare for the Cloud Practitioner exam by providing an overview of AWS services and concepts covered in the exam, and sample questions to test your knowledge. You can access the course here: https://www.aws.training/Details/eLearning?id=34737
These resources should help you prepare for the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam. Good luck!
About the AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam
The AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification is a beginner-level certification that is currently in great demand in the market.People aspiring to become renowned Cloud Professionals go for this certification, as their first step in their careers. As per statistics, the Top-Paying IT Certifications report identifies the AWS Cloud Practitioner salary as one of the top ten best-paid IT certifications in the US, where the average base AWS cloud architect salary is approx $1,48,623. AWS This certification demonstrates your abilities and proficiency in cloud technology, in the following fields in particular –
- Firstly, understanding the value of the AWS Cloud.
- Secondly, understanding and explaining the AWS shared responsibility model.
- Then, understanding the AWS Cloud security best practices.
- Also, understanding the AWS Cloud costs, economics, and billing practices.
- Further, describing and positioning the core AWS services, including compute, network, databases, and storage.
- Finally, identifying the AWS services for common use cases.
AWS Cloud Practitioner Content Outline
Before you start preparing for the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam, you must know the domains in which the maximum number of questions will be asked. This will help you divide your time in preparing for each domain. We highly recommend studying the domain with the maximum weightage first. This will increase your chances of passing the exam, as you will be able to answer the maximum number of questions if your strength is the domain with the highest number of questions. So below, we have listed each domain in decreasing order of their respective weightage.
As per AWS Cloud Practitioner’s latest updated Course Outline 2021
Domain 1: Cloud Concepts
1.1 Define the AWS Cloud and its value proposition
- Define the benefits of the AWS cloud including:
- Security (AWS Documentation: Advantages of Cloud Security)
- Reliability (AWS Documentation: Reliability)
- High Availability
- Elasticity (AWS Documentation: Elasticity)
- Agility
- Pay-as-you go pricing (AWS Documentation: AWS Pricing)
- Scalability
- Global Reach
- Economy of scale
- Explain how the AWS cloud allows users to focus on business value
- Shifting technical resources to revenue-generating activities as opposed to managing infrastructure (AWS Documentation: Business Value on AWS)
1.2 Identify aspects of AWS Cloud economics
- Define items that would be part of a Total Cost of Ownership proposal
- Understand the role of operational expenses (OpEx)
- Understand the role of capital expenses (CapEx)
- Understand labor costs associated with on-premises operations (AWS Documentation: AWS Pricing/TCO Tools)
- Understand the impact of software licensing costs when moving to the cloud (AWS Documentation: Cost and licensing)
- Identify which operations will reduce costs by moving to the cloud
- Right-sized infrastructure (AWS Documentation: Right Sizing)
- Benefits of automation (AWS Documentation: Automation, Investing in Cloud Automation)
- Reduce compliance scope (for example, reporting) (AWS Documentation: Minimizing the PCI Compliance Burden Using Containerization, Microservices, and AWS)
- Managed services (for example, RDS, ECS, EKS, DynamoDB) (AWS Documentation: AWS Managed Services)
1.3 Explain the different cloud architecture design principles
- Explain the design principles
- Design for failure (AWS Documentation: Design for Failure)
- Decouple components versus monolithic architecture (AWS Documentation: Decomposing monoliths into microservices)
- Implement elasticity in the cloud versus on-premises (AWS Documentation: Elasticity)
- Think parallel
Domain 2: Security and Compliance
2.1 Define the AWS shared responsibility model
- Recognize the elements of the Shared Responsibility Model (AWS Documentation: Shared Responsibility Model)
- Describe the customer’s responsibility on AWS
- Describe how the customer’s responsibilities may shift depending on the service used (for example with RDS, Lambda, or EC2) (AWS Documentation: Shared Responsibility, Shared Responsibility Model)
- Describe AWS responsibilities Shared Responsibility Model)
2.2 Define AWS Cloud security and compliance concepts
- Identify where to find AWS compliance information (AWS Documentation:AWS Compliance Programs, Compliance Resources)
- Locations of lists of recognized available compliance controls (for example, HIPPA, SOCs) (AWS Documentation: HIPAA, SOC)
- Recognize that compliance requirements vary among AWS services (AWS Documentation: Security and compliance)
- At a high level, describe how customers achieve compliance on AWS (AWS Documentation:AWS Compliance)
- Identify different encryption options on AWS (for example, In transit, At rest) (AWS Documentation: Encryption of Data in Transit, Encryption of Data at Rest)
- Describe who enables encryption on AWS for a given service (AWS Documentation: importance of encryption and how AWS can help)
- Recognize there are services that will aid in auditing and reporting (AWS Documentation:AWS Audit Manager)
- Recognize that logs exist for auditing and monitoring (do not have to understand the logs) (AWS Documentation: Viewing HSM audit logs in CloudWatch Logs)
- Define Amazon CloudWatch, AWS Config, and AWS CloudTrail (AWS Documentation: Amazon CloudWatch, AWS Config, AWS CloudTrail)
- Explain the concept of least privileged access (AWS Documentation: Security best practices in IAM)
2.3 Identify AWS access management capabilities
- Understand the purpose of User and Identity Management
- Access keys and password policies (rotation, complexity) (AWS Documentation: Managing access keys for IAM users, Setting an account password policy for IAM users)
- Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) (AWS Documentation: Using multi-factor authentication (MFA) in AWS)
- AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) (AWS Documentation:AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM))
- Groups/users (AWS Documentation: IAM Identities (users, user groups, and roles))
- Roles (AWS Documentation: IAM roles)
- Policies, managed policies compared to custom policies (AWS Documentation: Policies and permissions in IAM, AWS managed policies)
- Tasks that require use of root accounts (AWS Documentation: AWS account root user credentials and IAM user credentials)
- Protection of root accounts (AWS Documentation: best practices for securing my AWS account)
2.4 Identify resources for security support
- Recognize there are different network security capabilities
- Native AWS services (for example, security groups, Network ACLs, AWS WAF) (AWS Documentation: Control traffic to subnets using Network ACLs, Control traffic to resources using security groups, AWS WAF)
- 3rd party security products from the AWS Marketplace
- Recognize there is documentation and where to find it (for example, best practices, whitepapers, official documents)
- AWS Knowledge Center, Security Center, security forum, and security blogs (AWS Documentation: AWS Knowledge Center)
- Partner Systems Integrators (AWS Documentation: Next-Gen MSP Meets Global Systems Integrator on AWS)
- Know that security checks are a component of AWS Trusted Advisor (AWS Documentation: AWS Trusted Advisor check reference)
Domain 3: Technology
3.1 Define methods of deploying and operating in the AWS Cloud
- Identify at a high level different ways of provisioning and operating in the AWS cloud
- Programmatic access, APIs, SDKs, AWS Management Console, CLI, Infrastructure as Code (AWS Documentation: AWS APIs, AWS SDK for JavaScript, AWS Management Console, AWS Command Line Interface, Infrastructure as Code)
- Identify different types of cloud deployment models
- All in with cloud/cloud native (AWS Documentation: Cloud-Native)
- Hybrid (AWS Documentation: Hybrid Cloud with AWS)
- On-premises (AWS Documentation: Deployments on an EC2/On-Premises Compute Platform)
- Identify connectivity options
- VPN (AWS Documentation: AWS VPN)
- AWS Direct Connect (AWS Documentation: AWS Direct Connect)
- Public internet (AWS Documentation: Connect to the internet using an internet gateway)
3.2 Define the AWS global infrastructure
- Describe the relationships among Regions, Availability Zones, and Edge Locations (AWS Documentation: Regions and Zones, Regions and Availability Zones)
- Describe how to achieve high availability through the use of multiple Availability Zones
- Recall that high availability is achieved by using multiple Availability Zones (AWS Documentation: Multi-AZ deployments for high availability, Amazon RDS Multi-AZ)
- Recognize that Availability Zones do not share single points of failure
- Describe when to consider the use of multiple AWS Regions (AWS Documentation:Multi-Region Application Architecture)
- Disaster recovery/business continuity (AWS Documentation: Disaster recovery options in the cloud, Business Continuity Plan (BCP))
- Low latency for end-users (AWS Documentation: Low-latency computing with AWS Local Zones)
- Data sovereignty (AWS Documentation: Embrace Data Sovereignty)
- Describe at a high level the benefits of Edge Locations (AWS Documentation:AWS for the Edge)
- Amazon CloudFront (AWS Documentation: Amazon CloudFront)
- AWS Global Accelerator (AWS Documentation: AWS Global Accelerator)
3.3 Identify the core AWS services
- Describe the categories of services on AWS (compute, storage, network, database) (AWS Documentation: AWS Cloud Products)
- Identify AWS compute services
- Recognize there are different compute families (AWS Documentation: Amazon EC2 Instance Types)
- Recognize the different services that provide compute (for example, AWS Lambda compared to Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS), or Amazon EC2, etc.) (AWS Documentation: Compute Services)
- Recognize that elasticity is achieved through Auto Scaling
- Identify the purpose of load balancers (AWS Documentation: Application Load Balancer)
- Identify different AWS storage services
- Describe Amazon S3 (AWS Documentation: Amazon S3)
- Describe Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) (AWS Documentation: Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS))
- Describe Amazon S3 Glacier (AWS Documentation: Amazon S3 Glacier)
- Describe AWS Snowball (AWS Documentation: AWS Snowball)
- Describe Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) (AWS Documentation: Use Amazon EFS with Amazon EC2)
- Describe AWS Storage Gateway (AWS Documentation: Amazon S3 File Gateway)
- Identify AWS networking services
- Identify VPC (AWS Documentation: Finding information to connect to a VPC)
- Identify security groups (AWS Documentation: Finding information to connect to a VPC)
- Identify the purpose of Amazon Route 53 (AWS Documentation: Amazon Route 53)
- Identify VPN, AWS Direct Connect (AWS Documentation: Identifying a Site-to-Site VPN connection, AWS Direct Connect)
- Identify different AWS database services
- Install databases on Amazon EC2 compared to AWS managed databases (AWS Documentation: Choosing between Amazon RDS, Amazon EC2, or VMware Cloud)
- Identify Amazon RDS (AWS Documentation: Amazon RDS DB instances)
- Identify Amazon DynamoDB (AWS Documentation: Amazon DynamoDB)
- Identify Amazon Redshift (AWS Documentation: Getting started with Amazon Redshift)
3.4 Identify resources for technology support
- Recognize there is documentation (best practices, whitepapers, AWS Knowledge Center, forums, blogs) (AWS Documentation: Follow Security Best Practices, AWS Knowledge Center, AWS Whitepapers & Guides)
- Identify the various levels and scope of AWS support
- AWS Abuse (AWS Documentation: report abuse of AWS resources)
- AWS support cases (AWS Documentation: Creating support cases and case management)
- Premium support
- Technical Account Managers (AWS Documentation: AWS Enterprise Support)
- Recognize there is a partner network (marketplace, third-party) including Independent Software Vendors and System Integrators (AWS Documentation: AWS Partner Network, AWS Partner Paths)
- Identify sources of AWS technical assistance and knowledge including professional services, solution architects, training and certification, and the Amazon Partner Network (AWS Documentation: technical support from AWS, AWS Professional Services, Successful solutions architects do these five things)
- Identify the benefits of using AWS Trusted Advisor (AWS Documentation: AWS Trusted Advisor)
Domain 4: Billing and Pricing
4.1 Compare and contrast the various pricing models for AWS (for example, On-Demand Instances, Reserved Instances, and Spot Instance pricing) (AWS Documentation: Amazon EC2 pricing)
- Identify scenarios/best fit for On-Demand Instance pricing (AWS Documentation: Amazon EC2 On-Demand Pricing, On-Demand Instances)
- Identify scenarios/best fit for Reserved-Instance pricing (AWS Documentation:Reserved Instances, Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances)
- Describe Reserved-Instances flexibility (AWS Documentation: Instance Size Flexibility for EC2 Reserved Instances)
- Describe Reserved-Instances behavior in AWS Organizations (AWS Documentation: Reserved Instances)
- Identify scenarios/best fit for Spot Instance pricing (AWS Documentation: Spot Instances)
4.2 Recognize the various account structures in relation to AWS billing and pricing
- Recognize that consolidated billing is a feature of AWS Organizations (AWS Documentation: Consolidated billing for AWS Organizations)
- Identify how multiple accounts aid in allocating costs across departments (AWS Documentation: AWS Cost Allocation For Customer Bills, Cost Allocation Basics)
4.3 Identify resources available for billing support
- Identify ways to get billing support and information (AWS Documentation:AWS Billing and Cost Management)
- Cost Explorer, AWS Cost and Usage Report, Amazon QuickSight, third-party partners, and AWS Marketplace tools (AWS Documentation: Analyzing your costs with AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Cost and Usage Reports, Amazon QuickSight, AWS Managed Service Provider Partners)
- Open a billing support case (AWS Documentation: Creating support cases and case management)
- The role of the Concierge for AWS Enterprise Support Plan customers (AWS Documentation: AWS Enterprise Support)
- Identify where to find pricing information on AWS services
- AWS Simple Monthly Calculator (AWS Documentation: AWS Pricing Calculator console)
- AWS Services product pages (AWS Documentation: Using the Products page)
- AWS Pricing API (AWS Documentation: AWS Price List API)
- Recognize that alarms/alerts exist (AWS Documentation: Creating a billing alarm to monitor your estimated AWS charges)
- Identify how tags are used in cost allocation (AWS Documentation: Using Cost Allocation Tags)
AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam Format
First and foremost, knowing the AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam format is very important to get your plan in mind. It can certainly help you do well in an exam. Moreover, knowing the kind of questions that will be asked, helps you manage your time with ease, during the exam. So, without further ado, let’s have a look at the exam format of the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam.
- The AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam comprises around 65-68 questions in total. Candidates will be given a total of 90 minutes to complete the examination.
- Additionally, to accommodate candidates with various native languages, the exam will be available in four different languages—English, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese.
- Moreover, two types of questions are asked in the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam, namely –
- Multiple Choice Questions: Such questions have only one correct response and the other three are incorrect responses (distractors).
- Multiple Response Questions: Such questions have two or more correct responses out of a total of five or more options.
- Negative Marking – If the answer you selected is wrong, there won’t be any deduction of marks. So, you can take a guess without worrying. If your guess is correct, you’ll get more points. If not, it’s okay because there’s no penalty for wrong answers.
- Unscored Content – While giving your exam, you might come across certain unscored questions. Attempting or not attempting such questions will not affect your scores in any manner. These unscored questions are placed in the question paper only to gather statistical information.
Guide to Answering AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam Questions Efficiently
While answering these questions, it is advisable that the candidates choose the best response to the given question. Given the type of question, whether it’s a multiple-choice one or multiple responses one, you must decide which of the given options suits them best. However, choosing the best suitable answer might not be that easy, as it may seem to be. This is because the incorrect answers are framed in such a way that if you have incomplete knowledge or skill, you will end up choosing the incorrect answer. However, most of the questions will not be that tricky, and you’ll be able to answer them correctly after reading them carefully.
Step 1 – Review all the Possible Answers
Once you’ve read the question, take your time and carefully read each and every option given. You’ll get four to six options for one particular question. Make sure you don’t skip over any option, as it will help you make an informed decision.
Prepare with AWS Cloud Practitioner Study Guide
Step 2 – Eliminate the Answers that Appear Incorrect
Sometimes one or more options will appear to be completely out of the box. Look for possible answers that have “always,” “never,” and “none of the above” in them, as they are usually incorrect. You must eliminate such options, as this will save a lot of time, as you will not be pondering over such options in that case.
Step 3 – Look for an Answer that is Fully Addressing the Question
In case of options that are partly correct, you must give valid and chose the best suitable option that fully answers the aws cloud practitioner exam questions. However, in case of multi-response questions, where you can choose more than one options, you can choose the partly correct ones as well.
Step 4 – Answer the Questions in Order
This saves a lot of your time, especially in exams like the AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam, which is timed and requires strict time management. You need to go through each question one by one. This way, you make sure to answer all of them.
Step 5 – Do Not Leave any Question Unanswered
Since there is no negative marking in the exam, it’ll be a wise decision to answer every AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam question. Try guessing the best suitable answers in case you lack enough knowledge. This will do no harm, and instead might increase your score, if your guesswork goes right.
Step 6 – Take the AWS Cloud Practitioner Online Course
The aim of this AWS Cloud Practitioner Online Course is to assist and prepare the candidates for the potential questions that the candidates can anticipate. Moreover, it provides a comprehensive summary of cloud theories, AWS services, architecture, security, and also support and pricing.
Step 7 – AWS Cloud Practitioner Tutorial
For a well-strategized preparation guide, candidates can refer to the AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam Tutorial, which is designed for aspiring candidates to help them with collecting suitable learning resources and online AWS Cloud Practitioner training to strengthen their grasp on cloud computing, and hence achieve excellence.
Refer: AWS Cloud Practitioner White Papers
Step 8 – Take Practice Tests
The best way to familiarize yourself with the exam format of any exam is to take a sufficient number of AWS Cloud Practitioner Practice Exam. This will not only help you manage your time during the exam but will also improve your answering skills to a great extent.