The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner is an exam provided by Amazon to help professionals verify their skills in working with Amazon Web Services. It leads to the Foundational certification that was designed for anyone with knowledge of AWS and keen to validate their competence at the most basic level.

About the Related Certificate

Passing the named exam, also coded CLF-C01 is the only requirement for obtaining the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification. It targets students who demonstrate a sound understanding of the AWS platform. These cover all the critical aspects such as account security, compliance, cloud economics, and architectural principles.

Exam Details

The AWS CLF-C01 exam deepens and proves one’s foundational knowledge of the AWS platform. It does this using four broad domains that focus on cloud concepts, security and compliance, technology, and billing and pricing. The exam format comprises 65 questions of both multiple-choice and multiple response types. Also, this test can either be taken at one of the AWS testing centres across the globe or online, at the comfort of your home while being supervised via a proctored device.

Usually, candidates must pay $100 to take this exam and they will be given a maximum of 90 minutes to attempt all questions. It's fair to say that Amazon has tried to promote flexibility and diversity by allowing students to take this exam in their most preferred language. These include English, Japanese, Indonesian, Simplified Chinese, and Korean.

However, one must score 700 points and above to obtain the certificate given the fact grading will be done from 100-1000 points. To conclude, there are no prerequisites for enrolling in this training. However, candidates are strongly encouraged to have at least 6 months of working experience in AWS cloud and a basic understanding of IT services with AWS to increase their chances of success in this test.

Topics Covered

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner covers the general and basic knowledge areas related to the AWS cloud platform. Generally, the exam will require the candidates to prove their abilities in the following areas:

• Explaining the significance of the AWS cloud
• Explaining the shared responsibility model in AWS
• Understanding the security best practices in the AWS Cloud
• Understanding AWS Cloud economics, costs, and billing
• Describing and positioning the main AWS services such as databases, network, storage, and compute
• Identifying AWS services in common use

Exam Domains

• Cloud concepts

  This domain has 26% of the total weight. It focuses on the key aspects related to the AWS Cloud economics and different principles for cloud architecture design. It is therefore essentially the introductory domain, requiring candidates to demonstrate the knowledge of general concepts. Also, it asks professionals to show their awareness of the benefits of AWS to businesses in its financial and operational efficiency.

• Security and compliance

  Contributing to about 25% of the exam, this section focuses on aspects of cloud security and the models applied in AWS, in particular. These include defining the model of shared responsibility in AWS, the concepts of AWS Cloud security and compliance, identifying the capabilities of AWS access management, and the resources that support security. That being said, this domain requires an understanding of the organization of hardware, software, and infrastructure in the AWS cloud as aimed towards security. There is also the need to distinguish between customer and provider responsibility in AWS services.

• Technology

  This domain comprises 33% of the test. It assesses the candidate’s ability to define methods related to the deployment and operation of the AWS cloud, describe the details of the AWS global infrastructure, and recognize the fundamental AWS services. Also tested is the candidate's capability in identifying resources necessary for supporting technology in AWS and its various services. Thus, the learners should demonstrate their familiarity with key tools for the configuration and monitoring of AWS resources.

• Billing and pricing

  The final domain of this exam will account for 16% of the exam questions. It tests the student’s ability to compare and contrast different pricing models for the AWS cloud platform, recognize account structures associated with AWS billing and pricing, and identify resources that support billing. With that in mind, one may argue that this section covers the financial aspects of the AWS Cloud computing platform.

Career Opportunities

Nobody can deny the fact the demand for cloud computing skills is ever increasing. This means your ability to prove you can manage AWS and are familiar with its fundamental concepts positions you as a valuable performer in many organizations. In summary, your prospective job opportunities with the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certificate will be centered on the following roles with an average compensation as per PayScale:

• Cloud Architect ($129k)
• Cloud Software Engineer ($99k)
• Cloud System Integrator ($80k)
• Cloud Developer ($95k)

Also, current statistics by ZipRecruiter estimate that the average annual salary for a typical AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification holder is $90k. Of course, this could be influenced by a ton of factors such as the state you are working in if you live in the US, the size of your company, and experience. But, generally speaking, the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certificate is universal recognition of your fundamental cloud computing skills and one of the easiest ways to increase your earning potential.

Certification Path

The AWS certification path is structured to focus on specific roles at different career levels. It is intended to help beginner-level cloud computing professionals build the perfect foundation that will bring ultimate success in this field. By obtaining it, you can advance your skills using one of the AWS Associate or Specialty certifications.

If you opt to follow the associate-level training, you will need at least one year of professional experience working with the AWS Cloud to get one of the following certificates:

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
• AWS Certified Developer – Associate
• AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate

Remember, the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam is not necessarily a prerequisite for completing any of the above-mentioned certifications but it is designed to streamline your transition into a new learning path.