# Study Guide - [Study Guide](#study-guide) - [Target candidate description](#target-candidate-description) - [Recommended AWS knowledge](#recommended-aws-knowledge) - [What is considered out of scope for the target candidate?](#what-is-considered-out-of-scope-for-the-target-candidate) - [Exam content](#exam-content) - [Response types](#response-types) - [Unscored content](#unscored-content) - [Exam results](#exam-results) - [Domain 1: Cloud Concepts](#domain-1-cloud-concepts) - [Define the AWS Cloud and its value proposition](#define-the-aws-cloud-and-its-value-proposition) - [Identify aspects of AWS Cloud economics](#identify-aspects-of-aws-cloud-economics) - [Explain the different cloud architecture design principles](#explain-the-different-cloud-architecture-design-principles) - [Domain 2: Security and Compliance](#domain-2-security-and-compliance) - [Define the AWS shared responsibility model](#define-the-aws-shared-responsibility-model) - [Define AWS Cloud security and compliance concepts](#define-aws-cloud-security-and-compliance-concepts) - [Identify AWS access management capabilities](#identify-aws-access-management-capabilities) - [Identify resources for security support](#identify-resources-for-security-support) - [Domain 3: Technology](#domain-3-technology) - [Define methods of deploying and operating in the AWS Cloud](#define-methods-of-deploying-and-operating-in-the-aws-cloud) - [Define the AWS global infrastructure](#define-the-aws-global-infrastructure) - [Identify the core AWS services](#identify-the-core-aws-services) - [Identify resources for technology support](#identify-resources-for-technology-support) - [Domain 4: Billing and Pricing](#domain-4-billing-and-pricing) - [Compare and contrast the various pricing models for AWS (for example, On-Demand Instances, Reserved Instances, and Spot Instance pricing)](#compare-and-contrast-the-various-pricing-models-for-aws-for-example-on-demand-instances-reserved-instances-and-spot-instance-pricing) - [Recognize the various account structures in relation to AWS billing and pricing](#recognize-the-various-account-structures-in-relation-to-aws-billing-and-pricing) - [Identify resources available for billing support](#identify-resources-available-for-billing-support) The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C01) exam is intended for individuals who can effectively demonstrate an **overall knowledge of the AWS Cloud** independent of a specific job role. **The exam validates a candidate’s ability to complete the following tasks:** - Explain the value of the AWS Cloud - Understand and explain the AWS shared responsibility model - Understand security best practices - Understand AWS Cloud costs, economics, and billing practices - Describe and position the core AWS services, including compute, network, databases, and storage - Identify AWS services for common use cases ## Target candidate description **The target candidate should have 6 months, or the equivalent, of active engagement with the AWS Cloud**, with exposure to AWS Cloud design, implementation, and/or operations. Candidates will demonstrate an understanding of well-designed AWS Cloud solutions. ### Recommended AWS knowledge **The target candidate should have the following knowledge:** - AWS Cloud concepts - Security and compliance within the AWS Cloud - Understanding of the core AWS services - Understanding of the economics of the AWS Cloud ### What is considered out of scope for the target candidate? The following is a non-exhaustive list of related job tasks that the target candidate is not expected to be able to perform.**These items are considered out of scope for the exam:** - Coding - Designing cloud architecture - Troubleshooting - Implementation - Migration - Load and performance testing - Business applications (for example, Amazon Alexa, Amazon Chime, Amazon WorkMail) ## Exam content ### Response types There are two types of questions on the exam: - **Multiple choice:** Has one correct response and three incorrect responses. - **Multiple response:** Has two or more correct responses out of five or more response options. **Unanswered questions are scored as incorrect; there is no penalty for guessing. The exam includes 50 questions that will affect your score.** ### Unscored content **The exam includes 15 unscored questions that do not affect your score.** AWS collects information about candidate performance on these unscored questions to evaluate these questions for future use as scored questions. These unscored questions are not identified on the exam. ## Exam results **The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam is a pass or fail exam.** The exam is scored against a minimum standard established by AWS professionals who follow certification industry best practices and guidelines. **Your results for the exam are reported as a scaled score of 100–1,000. The minimum passing score is 700.** Your score shows how you performed on the exam as a whole and whether or not you passed. Scaled scoring models help equate scores across multiple exam forms that might have slightly different difficulty levels. Your score report may contain a table of classifications of your performance at each section level. This information is intended to provide general feedback about your exam performance. The exam uses a compensatory scoring model, which means that **you do not need to achieve a passing score in each section.** You need to pass only the overall exam. **Each section of the exam has a specific weighting, so some sections have more questions than others.** The table contains general information that highlights your strengths and weaknesses. Use caution when interpreting section-level feedback. Passing candidates will not receive this additional information. ![Domain](./images/domain.png) ## Domain 1: Cloud Concepts ### Define the AWS Cloud and its value proposition - Define the benefits of the AWS cloud including: - Security Reliability - High Availability - Elasticity - Agility - Pay-as-you go 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 ### 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 - Understand the impact of software licensing costs when moving to the cloud - Identify which operations will reduce costs by moving to the cloud: - Right-sized infrastructure - Benefits of automation - Reduce compliance scope (for example, reporting) - Managed services (for example, RDS, ECS, EKS, DynamoDB) ### Explain the different cloud architecture design principles - Explain the design principles: - Design for failure - Decouple components versus monolithic architecture - Implement elasticity in the cloud versus on-premises - Think parallel ## Domain 2: Security and Compliance ### Define the AWS shared responsibility model - Recognize the elements of the Shared Responsibility Model - Describe the customer’s responsibly on AWS: - Describe how the customer’s responsibilities may shift depending on the service used (for example with RDS, Lambda, or EC2) - Describe AWS responsibilities ### Define AWS Cloud security and compliance concepts - Identify where to find AWS compliance information: - Locations of lists of recognized available compliance controls (for example, HIPPA, SOCs) - Recognize that compliance requirements vary among AWS services - At a high level, describe how customers achieve compliance on AWS: - Identify different encryption options on AWS (for example, In transit, At rest) - Describe who enables encryption on AWS for a given service - Recognize there are services that will aid in auditing and reporting: - Recognize that logs exist for auditing and monitoring (do not have to understand the logs) - Define Amazon CloudWatch, AWS Config, and AWS CloudTrail - Explain the concept of least privileged access ### Identify AWS access management capabilities - Understand the purpose of User and Identity Management - Access keys and password policies (rotation, complexity) - Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) - AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) - Groups/users - Roles - Policies, managed policies compared to custom policies - Tasks that require use of root accounts - Protection of root accounts ### Identify resources for security support - Recognize there are different network security capabilities - Native AWS services (for example, security groups, Network ACLs, 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 - Partner Systems Integrators - Know that security checks are a component of AWS Trusted Advisor ## Domain 3: Technology ### 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 - Identify different types of cloud deployment models: - All in with cloud/cloud native - Hybrid - On-premises - Identify connectivity options - VPN - AWS Direct Connect - Public internet ### Define the AWS global infrastructure - Describe the relationships among Regions, Availability Zones, and Edge Locations - Describe how to achieve high availability through the use of multiple Availability Zones: - Recall that high availability is achieved by using multiple Availability Zones - Recognize that Availability Zones do not share single points of failure - Describe when to consider the use of multiple AWS Regions: - Disaster recovery/business continuity - Low latency for end-users - Data sovereignty - Describe at a high level the benefits of Edge Locations - Amazon CloudFront - AWS Global Accelerator ### Identify the core AWS services - Describe the categories of services on AWS (compute, storage, network, database) - Identify AWS compute services: - Recognize there are different compute families - Recognize the different services that provide compute (for example, AWS Lambda compared to Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS), or Amazon EC2, etc.) - Recognize that elasticity is achieved through Auto Scaling - Identify the purpose of load balancers - Identify different AWS storage services: - Describe Amazon S3 - Describe Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) - Describe Amazon S3 Glacier - Describe AWS Snowball - Describe Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) - Describe AWS Storage Gateway - Identify AWS networking services - Identify VPC - Identify security groups - Identify the purpose of Amazon Route 53 - Identify VPN, AWS Direct Connect - Identify different AWS database services: - Install databases on Amazon EC2 compared to AWS managed databases - Identify Amazon RDS - Identify Amazon DynamoDB - Identify Amazon Redshift ### Identify resources for technology support - Recognize there is documentation (best practices, whitepapers, AWS Knowledge Center, forums, blogs) - Identify the various levels and scope of AWS support: - AWS Abuse - AWS support cases - Premium support - Technical Account Managers - Recognize there is a partner network (marketplace, third-party) including Independent Software Vendors and System Integrators - Identify sources of AWS technical assistance and knowledge including professional services, solution architects, training and certification, and the Amazon Partner Network - Identify the benefits of using AWS Trusted Advisor ## Domain 4: Billing and Pricing ### Compare and contrast the various pricing models for AWS (for example, On-Demand Instances, Reserved Instances, and Spot Instance pricing) - Identify scenarios/best fit for On-Demand Instance pricing - Identify scenarios/best fit for Reserved-Instance pricing: - Describe Reserved-Instances flexibility - Describe Reserved-Instances behavior in AWS Organizations - Identify scenarios/best fit for Spot Instance pricing ### Recognize the various account structures in relation to AWS billing and pricing - Recognize that consolidated billing is a feature of AWS Organizations - Identify how multiple accounts aid in allocating costs across departments ### Identify resources available for billing support - Identify ways to get billing support and information: - Cost Explorer, AWS Cost and Usage Report, Amazon QuickSight, third-party partners, and AWS Marketplace tools - Open a billing support case - The role of the Concierge for AWS Enterprise Support Plan customers - Identify where to find pricing information on AWS services: - AWS Simple Monthly Calculator - AWS Services product pages - AWS Pricing API - Recognize that alarms/alerts exist - Identify how tags are used in cost allocation **AWS Official Guide Reference Link:** - [AWS Official Website](https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-cloud-practitioner/) - [AWS Reference PDF](https://d1.awsstatic.com/training-and-certification/docs-cloud-practitioner/AWS-Certified-Cloud-Practitioner_Exam-Guide.pdf)