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AWS Cloud Practitioner Study Guide 2026: Pass CLF-C02 on Your First Try (Free)

By Citadel Cloud Management ·

AWS Cloud Practitioner Study Guide 2026: Pass CLF-C02 on Your First Try

The AWS Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) is the most popular cloud certification in the world. Over 1.4 million professionals hold it. The exam costs $100, takes 90 minutes, and covers four domains.

I passed the CLF-C02 with a score of 920/1000. This guide shares exactly how I studied, what resources I used (all free), and the 4-week plan.

CLF-C02 Exam Overview

Duration: 90 min | Questions: 65 | Passing: 700/1000 | Cost: $100 | Validity: 3 years

The Four Exam Domains

Domain 1: Cloud Concepts (24%)

Six advantages of cloud computing, deployment models (public, private, hybrid), service models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS), AWS Well-Architected Framework six pillars.

Domain 2: Security and Compliance (30%)

Shared Responsibility Model, IAM (users, groups, roles, policies), MFA, AWS Organizations, compliance (AWS Artifact), security services (Shield, WAF, GuardDuty, Inspector, CloudTrail).

Domain 3: Cloud Technology and Services (34%)

Compute: EC2, Lambda, ECS/EKS, Elastic Beanstalk. Storage: S3, EBS, EFS, Glacier. Database: RDS, DynamoDB, Aurora, ElastiCache, Redshift. Networking: VPC, Route 53, CloudFront, Direct Connect.

Domain 4: Billing and Pricing (12%)

Pricing models (On-Demand, Reserved, Savings Plans, Spot), Free Tier, AWS Budgets, Cost Explorer, support plans.

4-Week Study Plan

Week 1: Cloud Concepts + Security

Week 2: Core AWS Services

Week 3: Billing + Gaps

  • Study pricing models and support plans

  • Take 2 full practice exams on AWS Skill Builder

Week 4: Review + Exam

  • Focus on weakest domain

  • Final practice exam 2 days before

Exam Tips

  1. 83 seconds per question — flag and move on

  2. Eliminate two wrong answers first

  3. "Most cost-effective" = managed or serverless

  4. Shared Responsibility appears on 5-8 questions

FAQ

Can I pass with only free resources?

Yes. I scored 920 using Citadel courses and AWS Skill Builder. No paid courses needed.

How hard is CLF-C02?

Moderate. Security weight increased to 30%. Same 700/1000 passing score.

What score do I need?

700/1000 scaled. Usually 72-75% correct answers is sufficient.

Start with free Cloud Fundamentals course — covers every CLF-C02 domain. Use code CLOUDPATH for 20% off premium tools.