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Prioritize Cloud Technology and Services (34%) and Security and Compliance (30%), then Cloud Concepts (24%) and Billing, Pricing, and Support (12%). These are the scored-content weights in AWS’s 2026 CLF-C02 exam guide. Use them to guide study time, but cover all four domains: the exam is scored overall, not as four separate pass-or-fail tests.
CLF-C02 domains and exam weights
| Domain | Share of scored content | Study priority |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud Concepts | 24% | Benefits, architecture principles, adoption, and cloud economics |
| Security and Compliance | 30% | Shared responsibility, access, governance, and security resources |
| Cloud Technology and Services | 34% | Cloud infrastructure, service purposes, and common scenarios |
| Billing, Pricing, and Support | 12% | Purchase options, cost management, billing, and support resources |
The weights are from the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam guide. They indicate the relative share of scored content, not a promise that a particular number of questions will come from each domain. AWS says the exam uses compensatory scoring: you need to pass the overall exam, not each domain independently. The guide reports a scaled score from 100 to 1,000 and a minimum passing score of 700.
Domain 1: Cloud Concepts (24%)
Focus on why organizations use cloud computing, how cloud architecture supports business outcomes, and how cloud economics differ from owning infrastructure. The goal is to connect a concept to the result it enables, rather than memorize isolated definitions.
Benefits and value of the AWS Cloud
- Recognize global infrastructure and global reach, and how they can support serving users in different locations.
- Understand speed of deployment and agility: teams can provision resources more quickly and adapt as needs change.
- Know high availability as designing for continued service when a component or location fails.
- Understand elasticity as adjusting resources to changing demand; it is not the same as choosing the right baseline capacity.
Well-Architected Framework and adoption
Know the six pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework: operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, cost optimization, and sustainability. Be prepared to recognize which pillar a design decision supports. Study migration and adoption strategies and the concepts in the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework; focus on the purpose of a structured cloud transition rather than treating migration as a single technical step.
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Cloud economics
- Compare fixed costs associated with owning infrastructure against variable costs that change with usage.
- Account for on-premises costs, rather than comparing cloud charges only with hardware purchase prices.
- Distinguish bring-your-own-license arrangements from services where licenses are included.
- Understand rightsizing as matching resources to actual workload needs, automation as reducing manual operational effort, and economies of scale as a source of potential cost advantages.
AWS’s Domain 1 task statements provide the official scope. Treat examples of business outcomes as ways to understand those topics, not as separate exam guarantees.
Domain 2: Security and Compliance (30%)
Study who is responsible for which security tasks in a cloud scenario. Running a workload on AWS does not transfer every security responsibility to AWS; the division depends partly on the service being used.
Shared responsibility model
Separate AWS responsibilities from customer responsibilities, and recognize areas where duties are shared. AWS’s guide uses Amazon EC2, Amazon RDS, and AWS Lambda as examples: the service model affects which underlying layers AWS operates and which configuration or data responsibilities remain with the customer. In scenario questions, identify the specific task at issue before deciding who owns it.
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Security, governance, and compliance
Review foundational security, governance, and compliance concepts, including the role of policies and controls in managing a cloud environment. Learn the purpose of access-management capabilities and how they relate to deciding who can access which resources.
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Security components and resources
Recognize the role of AWS security components and resources at a foundational level. The exam guide does not make a candidate responsible for advanced implementation detail simply by naming a security topic; prioritize identifying what a control or resource is for and how it fits a scenario. See the AWS Domain 2 task statements for the current official outline.
Domain 3: Cloud Technology and Services (34%)
This is the largest domain. Study how people provision and access AWS services, how the global infrastructure is organized, and what broad job each service category performs. Build recognition by matching a workload need to a service purpose; an undigested list of product names is harder to use in scenario questions.
Provisioning and access methods
- Distinguish the AWS Management Console, APIs, software development kits (SDKs), and command line interface (CLI) as ways to interact with services.
- Understand infrastructure as code as a way to define and repeat infrastructure deployments.
- Compare a one-time manual operation with a repeatable, automated process; know why repeatability can help with consistency and scale.
Regions, Availability Zones, and edge locations
Know the relationship among AWS Regions, Availability Zones, and edge locations. A Region is a geographic area; Availability Zones are separate locations within a Region; edge locations support delivery closer to users. Understand why a design might span multiple Availability Zones or Regions: high availability, disaster recovery, business continuity, latency needs, or data-sovereignty requirements can lead to different choices.
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Compute: choose a hosting or processing approach
- Amazon EC2: virtual servers for workloads that need configurable compute resources.
- AWS Elastic Beanstalk: an application deployment approach that helps manage the environment around an application.
- Amazon Lightsail: a simplified way to get started with common cloud resources.
- AWS Batch: running batch computing jobs.
- AWS Outposts: AWS infrastructure and services used in an on-premises location for workloads with local needs.
For this domain, distinguish the kinds of needs each example addresses; the task statements call for service recognition rather than a deep configuration guide.
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Databases: match the data workload
- Amazon RDS and Amazon Aurora: managed relational database needs.
- Amazon DynamoDB: managed key-value and NoSQL use cases.
- Amazon ElastiCache: in-memory caching.
- Amazon DocumentDB: document database needs.
- Amazon Neptune: graph database needs.
Be able to tell these broad workload categories apart. The exam’s service examples are a recognition guide, not a requirement to memorize every feature or configuration option.
Networking and content delivery
- Amazon VPC: a logically isolated network environment.
- Amazon Route 53: domain name system and routing needs.
- Amazon CloudFront: content delivery to users through a global edge network.
- AWS Direct Connect and AWS VPN: connectivity between networks and AWS, using distinct connection approaches.
- AWS Transit Gateway: connecting multiple networks through a central hub.
- AWS PrivateLink: private connectivity to services.
- Amazon API Gateway: creating and managing APIs.
Study the reason for using each service rather than treating networking names as interchangeable.
Storage: object, block, file, archive, and hybrid
- Amazon S3: object storage.
- Amazon EBS: block storage associated with compute workloads.
- EC2 instance store: temporary instance-attached storage.
- Amazon EFS and Amazon FSx: managed file storage options.
- Amazon S3 storage classes: options that include archival use cases.
- AWS Storage Gateway: connecting on-premises environments with AWS storage.
Know the distinction between object, block, and file storage, and recognize when archival or hybrid/cached storage is relevant.
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AI, machine learning, and analytics
- Amazon SageMaker AI: building, training, and using machine-learning models.
- Amazon Lex: conversational interfaces such as chatbots and voice assistants.
- Amazon Athena: querying data for analytics.
- Amazon Kinesis: working with streaming data.
- AWS Glue: data integration and preparation.
- Amazon QuickSight: business intelligence and visual analytics.
These examples represent different jobs in an analytics or AI workflow; learn the broad purpose of each instead of assuming all are general-purpose analytics tools.
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Other service categories
The official outline also expects foundational awareness of other AWS service categories, including messaging and workflow services, business applications, support, developer tools, end-user computing, frontend and mobile tools, and IoT services. Use the category and scenario to infer the type of capability needed, then check the live AWS service and technology references for the examples in scope.
AWS explicitly describes its in-scope services list and in-scope technologies and concepts list as non-exhaustive and subject to change. The exam guide also says its content outline is not comprehensive. Therefore, a memorized list of named services cannot guarantee that no other relevant concept will appear.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Domain 4: Billing, Pricing, and Support (12%)
Learn how AWS purchase and pricing choices relate to workload duration, predictability, flexibility, capacity needs, and cost visibility. You should be able to distinguish the options at a foundational level and identify which consideration matters in a scenario.
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| Option | What to recognize |
|---|---|
| On-Demand | Use without a long-term commitment; consider for flexible or less predictable needs. |
| Reserved Instances | Commitment-based option; study flexibility and how it behaves in an AWS Organizations context. |
| Spot Instances | Uses spare compute capacity; consider whether the workload can tolerate interruption. |
| Savings Plans | Commitment-based pricing; distinguish the commitment from instance-specific capacity planning. |
| Dedicated Hosts | Physical server capacity dedicated to a customer, relevant to licensing or host-level needs. |
| Dedicated Instances | Instances running on hardware dedicated to a single customer. |
| Capacity Reservations | Reserve compute capacity for a specified need; distinguish capacity assurance from a pricing discount. |
These distinctions are study-level descriptions, not a substitute for checking current AWS pricing terms. The exam task statements call for understanding the options and their use cases.
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Storage, data transfer, and cost management
Review storage options and tiers, plus examples of inbound versus outbound data transfer costs. Think about direction and location of data movement rather than assuming all transfer is priced alike. Know the purpose of billing, budget, and cost-management resources: billing tools help understand charges, while budgets and cost tools can support visibility and monitoring.
Technical resources and support
Recognize the difference between technical information resources and AWS Support options. Match the level of help sought—self-service technical information, account or billing guidance, or technical assistance—to the relevant resource category. AWS’s Domain 4 task statements define the specific scope to review.
How to turn the domains into a study plan
- Read the current exam guide. Map every task statement to one of the four domains above, and use the guide as the controlling outline. Start with the official CLF-C02 exam guide.
- Check your baseline with official-style questions. Note whether mistakes come from confusing a concept, assigning responsibility incorrectly, mixing up service purposes, or misunderstanding pricing and support.
- Fill specific gaps with learning resources. AWS says no particular training course is required. Its exam-preparation guidance describes options such as Skill Builder learning resources, digital courses, Cloud Quest, Builder Labs, and practice materials. The blog was published in 2023, so check AWS for current availability and subscription terms before relying on a particular resource.
- Take a practice exam and revisit weak areas. Use the result to focus review, weighted by the domain shares, while continuing to cover all four domains. A practice score is a readiness signal, not a guarantee of the result on the certification exam.
A book can be optional support for reviewing domains and practicing questions, but check that its edition matches the current CLF-C02 guide. AWS’s service scope and exam references can change.
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