CLF-C02 is the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam: 65 questions in 90 minutes, a passing score of 700 out of 1000, and a $100 fee. It tests whether you can explain what AWS is, what its main services do, how security is shared between you and AWS, and how billing works. You don’t need to build anything.
Facts verified November 2026 against the official AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam page and exam guide.
Table of Contents
CLF-C02 quick facts
| Item | CLF-C02 |
|---|---|
| Full name | AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner |
| Level | Foundational |
| Questions | 65 (50 scored, 15 unscored) |
| Question types | Multiple choice (one correct answer) and multiple response (two or more correct answers) |
| Time | 90 minutes |
| Passing score | 700 on a scaled score of 100–1000 |
| Fee | $100 USD (before tax) |
| Delivery | Pearson VUE test centre or online proctored |
| Recommended experience | Up to 6 months of exposure to the AWS Cloud |
| Results | Within 5 business days |
| Valid for | 3 years |
How is the CLF-C02 exam scored?
You pass with a scaled score of 700 or more, and you don’t need to pass each domain on its own. AWS uses compensatory scoring: a strong result in one domain can make up for a weaker one. The 15 unscored questions are mixed in with the scored ones and aren’t marked, so treat every question as if it counts.
There is no penalty for a wrong answer. Never leave a question blank.
What are the four CLF-C02 domains?
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| 1. Cloud Concepts | 24% |
| 2. Security and Compliance | 30% |
| 3. Cloud Technology and Services | 34% |
| 4. Billing, Pricing, and Support | 12% |
Domains 2 and 3 together make up almost two-thirds of the exam. Plan your time around that.
Domain 1: Cloud Concepts (24%)
This domain checks that you understand why companies move to the cloud and how AWS describes good design. Expect questions on:
- The benefits of the cloud: trading upfront capital spend for variable spend, economies of scale, speed and agility, and going global in minutes.
- The six pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework: operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, cost optimization and sustainability.
- Migration ideas such as the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (AWS CAF) and migration strategies like rehosting or replatforming.
- Cloud economics: what changes when you stop owning hardware.
How to reason about it: these questions usually describe a business goal in plain words. Match the words to the concept. “Pay only for what we use” points to variable expense. “Recover automatically from failure” points to the reliability pillar.
Domain 2: Security and Compliance (30%)
The largest single block after Domain 3. It covers:
- The AWS shared responsibility model: AWS secures the cloud itself, and you secure what you put in it.
- AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM): users, groups, roles, policies, MFA and the principle of least privilege. Protecting the root user.
- Where to find compliance reports (AWS Artifact).
- Security services at a “what is it for” level: AWS WAF, AWS Shield, Amazon GuardDuty, Amazon Inspector, AWS Security Hub, Amazon Macie, AWS KMS and AWS Secrets Manager.
How to reason about it: for shared-responsibility questions, ask “who can physically or logically touch this?” AWS manages data-centre hardware and the virtualisation layer. You manage your data, your IAM settings and, on Amazon EC2, the guest operating system and its patches.
Domain 3: Cloud Technology and Services (34%)
The biggest domain. It’s broad rather than deep: you need to recognise what a service is for, not how to configure it.
- Global infrastructure: Regions, Availability Zones, edge locations, and when to use more than one AZ or Region.
- Compute: Amazon EC2 and its pricing options, AWS Lambda, Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS and AWS Fargate, AWS Elastic Beanstalk.
- Storage: Amazon S3 and its storage classes, Amazon EBS, Amazon EFS, AWS Storage Gateway, AWS Backup.
- Databases: Amazon RDS, Amazon Aurora, Amazon DynamoDB and when to pick a managed database.
- Networking: Amazon VPC, Amazon Route 53, Amazon CloudFront, AWS Direct Connect, and VPN options.
- Management and monitoring: Amazon CloudWatch, AWS CloudTrail, AWS Config, AWS Trusted Advisor, AWS Systems Manager.
- Ways to work with AWS: the AWS Management Console, the AWS CLI, SDKs and infrastructure as code with AWS CloudFormation.
- AI/ML and analytics at a recognition level, for example Amazon SageMaker AI, Amazon Rekognition, Amazon Athena and Amazon QuickSight.
How to reason about it: read the noun in the question. “Recording API calls” is CloudTrail. “Metrics and alarms” is CloudWatch. “Recording configuration changes over time” is AWS Config. Many wrong options are real services that do something close but different.
Domain 4: Billing, Pricing, and Support (12%)
The smallest domain, but the questions are often easy marks if you’ve learned the names.
- Pricing models: On-Demand, Savings Plans, Reserved Instances, Spot Instances and Dedicated Hosts.
- Tools: AWS Pricing Calculator (estimate before you build), AWS Budgets (alert on spend), AWS Cost Explorer (analyse past spend), AWS Cost and Usage Reports, and consolidated billing with AWS Organizations.
- AWS Support plans and what each tier adds, plus the AWS Marketplace, AWS Partner Network and AWS re:Post.
How to reason about it: watch the tense. “Estimate the cost of a planned workload” is the Pricing Calculator. “Get alerted when we exceed a monthly amount” is AWS Budgets. “See which service drove last quarter’s bill” is Cost Explorer.
Is CLF-C02 hard?
CLF-C02 is AWS’s foundational exam, the entry level of AWS certification, but the wide service list catches people who only skim. The questions are short, there’s no hands-on part and you have about 80 seconds per question. The difficulty comes from options that name real AWS services with overlapping purposes.
What can you skip for CLF-C02?
The exam guide lists out-of-scope tasks. You won’t be asked to code, design a full architecture, troubleshoot, implement solutions, or run performance or load tests. Learn what services are for, not their settings.
A 3-week CLF-C02 study plan
This plan assumes about an hour a day. Stretch it if you’re new to IT.
| Week | Focus | Output |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cloud Concepts and Global Infrastructure. Shared responsibility and IAM. | Explain each Well-Architected pillar in one sentence. Draw a Region with three AZs. |
| 2 | Core services by category: compute, storage, databases, networking, monitoring. Security services. | One-line “used for” note per service. Group look-alike services into pairs. |
| 3 | Billing tools and Support plans. Full timed practice exams, then review every wrong answer. | Two full timed mocks with a stable score, ideally well above 700. |
In week 3, spend more time on reviewing answers than on taking tests. For every miss, write down which word in the question should have pointed you to the right service.
Common CLF-C02 traps
- CloudWatch vs CloudTrail vs Config. Metrics and alarms, API activity, and configuration history are three different jobs.
- AWS WAF vs AWS Shield. WAF filters web requests by rules (for example, SQL injection). Shield protects against DDoS attacks.
- Savings Plans vs Reserved Instances vs Spot. Spot is the cheapest but can be interrupted. Commitment-based models save money for steady workloads.
- Availability Zone vs Region vs edge location. High availability within a Region uses multiple AZs. Low-latency content delivery uses edge locations through CloudFront.
- “Most cost-effective” vs “most available”. Read the last line of the question. It decides between two technically valid answers.
- Multiple-response questions. The question tells you how many answers to pick. Count them before you submit.
CLF-C02 readiness checklist
You’re likely ready to book when you can:
- Explain the shared responsibility model for EC2, RDS and Lambda.
- Name the six Well-Architected pillars without looking.
- Say in one line what each core service is used for and which look-alike it’s often confused with.
- Pick the right pricing model for steady, spiky and interruptible workloads.
- Tell the Pricing Calculator, Budgets and Cost Explorer apart.
- Score consistently above the pass mark on full, timed practice exams, not just on short quizzes.
How does CLF-C02 compare with other AWS certifications?
CLF-C02 is the only foundational cloud exam in this set. The associate exams go deeper and use longer scenario questions:
- SAA-C03 exam guide: AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, 130 minutes, pass mark 720.
- SOA-C03 exam guide: AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer – Associate (formerly SysOps Administrator), 130 minutes, pass mark 720.
Passing any AWS exam earns a 50% discount voucher for your next exam or recertification.
Practice for CLF-C02
When you’re ready for full-length timed practice, our CLF-C02 practice exams mirror the real format: 65 questions in 90 minutes, with every answer explained.
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CLF-C02 FAQ
What is the CLF-C02 passing score?
700 on a scaled score from 100 to 1000. The score is scaled, so it isn’t the same as getting 70% of questions right.
How much does the CLF-C02 exam cost?
$100 USD, before tax. If you’ve passed an AWS exam before, you can use the 50% discount voucher from that certification.
How long is CLF-C02 valid?
3 years. You can then recertify by passing the current CLF exam or a higher-level AWS exam.
Do I need technical experience for CLF-C02?
No. AWS recommends up to 6 months of exposure to the AWS Cloud, which can be study rather than job experience. The exam doesn’t test coding or configuration.
Can I take CLF-C02 online?
Yes. You can sit it online with a remote proctor through Pearson VUE, or at a Pearson VUE test centre.
When will I get my CLF-C02 result?
AWS sends your result within 5 business days.
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Sources (checked November 2026): AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) exam page and exam guide · AWS Certification benefits
