Exam Overview
Exam Details
- Duration: 90 minutes
- Questions: 65
- Passing Score: 700/1000
- Format: Multiple choice & multiple response
- Cost: ~$150-300 USD
- Validity: 3 years
Exam Domains
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| Cloud Concepts | 24% |
| Security & Compliance | 30% |
| Cloud Technology & Services | 34% |
| Billing, Pricing & Support | 12% |
Cloud Concepts
The 6 Advantages of Cloud Computing
1. Trade CapEx for Variable Expense
Pay only for what you consume instead of investing upfront in data centers and servers.
2. Massive Economies of Scale
AWS pools usage from hundreds of thousands of customers — passes savings to you.
3. Stop Guessing Capacity
Scale up or down in minutes. No over/under provisioning ever again.
4. Increase Speed & Agility
Deploy resources in minutes vs weeks. Experiment faster, fail cheaper.
5. Stop Spending on Data Centers
Focus on your business, not racking servers and running cables.
6. Go Global in Minutes
Deploy in multiple Regions worldwide instantly. Low latency globally.
Cloud Service Models
| Model | You Manage | AWS Manages | AWS Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Servers, storage, networking, virtualization | EC2, VPC, EBS |
| PaaS | Apps, data | OS, runtime, middleware | Elastic Beanstalk, RDS |
| SaaS | Nothing (just use it) | Everything | WorkMail, Chime |
AWS Global Infrastructure
🌍 Regions
Geographically separate areas (e.g., us-east-1). Each has 2+ AZs. Choose by: latency, compliance, cost, services available. AWS has 34+ Regions.
🏠 Availability Zones
One or more data centers in a Region with redundant power/networking. Deploy across 2+ AZs for high availability. 108+ AZs globally.
🌐 Edge Locations
400+ CDN endpoints globally for CloudFront & Route 53. Cache content close to users for low latency.
IAM — Identity & Access Management
Components
- Root User — master account; enable MFA; never use for daily tasks
- Users — individual people or service accounts
- Groups — collections of users sharing policies
- Roles — temporary permissions assumed by services/users
- Policies — JSON documents defining Allow/Deny
Best Practices
- 🔒 Never use root for daily tasks
- 🔒 Enable MFA on root and admins
- 🔒 Grant least privilege
- 🔒 Use IAM Roles for EC2/Lambda (not keys)
- 🔒 Rotate access keys regularly
- 🔒 Use Organizations for multi-account
Core Services Cheat Sheet
| Service | Category | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| EC2 | Compute | Virtual servers. Many types: General, Compute, Memory, Storage, GPU. |
| Lambda | Serverless | Run code without servers. Pay per invocation. Max 15 min timeout. |
| S3 | Storage | Object storage. Unlimited capacity. 11 9s durability (99.999999999%). |
| EBS | Storage | Block storage for EC2. Like a hard drive attached to your server. |
| RDS | Database | Managed relational DB. MySQL, PostgreSQL, Aurora, Oracle, SQL Server. |
| DynamoDB | Database | Serverless NoSQL. Single-digit ms latency. Auto-scaling. |
| VPC | Networking | Isolated virtual network. Subnets, route tables, security groups, NACLs. |
| CloudFront | CDN | Content delivery network. 400+ edge locations globally. |
| Route 53 | DNS | Scalable DNS service. Domain registration. Health checking. |
| SNS | Messaging | Pub/sub. Push to email, SMS, Lambda, SQS. |
| SQS | Messaging | Message queue. Decouple microservices. Standard & FIFO. |
| CloudWatch | Monitoring | Metrics, logs, alarms, dashboards. Monitor everything. |
| CloudTrail | Governance | Audit log of all API calls. Who did what, when, from where. |
Billing & Pricing
EC2 Pricing Models
On-Demand
Pay per hour/second. No commitment. Best for: testing, unpredictable workloads.
Reserved (1 or 3 year)
Up to 72% off. Best for: steady-state predictable workloads.
Spot Instances
Up to 90% off spare capacity. Can be interrupted with 2-min notice. Best for: fault-tolerant batch jobs.
Savings Plans
Commit to $/hr for 1-3 years. Flexible. Covers EC2, Lambda, Fargate.
AWS Support Plans
| Plan | Price | Critical Response | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Free | No tech support | 7 Trusted Advisor checks, docs, forums |
| Developer | $29+/mo | Business hours | Email, general guidance |
| Business | $100+/mo | 24/7, 1 hour | Phone, all TA checks, Health API |
| Enterprise On-Ramp | $5,500+/mo | 30 minutes | Pool of TAMs, concierge |
| Enterprise | $15,000+/mo | 15 minutes | Dedicated TAM, architectural reviews |
📋 Study Checklist
- Explain the 6 advantages of cloud computing
- Describe IaaS, PaaS, SaaS with AWS examples
- Explain the Shared Responsibility Model perfectly
- Know Regions, AZs, Edge Locations differences
- Understand IAM: Users, Groups, Roles, Policies
- Know IAM best practices (MFA, least privilege, no root)
- Know core services: EC2, S3, RDS, Lambda, VPC, DynamoDB
- Explain S3 storage classes (Standard, IA, Glacier)
- Know EC2 pricing: On-Demand, Reserved, Spot, Savings Plans
- Explain AWS Support plans and response times
- Know AWS Organizations and SCPs
- Know AWS Well-Architected Framework 6 pillars
- Understand Trusted Advisor 5 categories
- Know cost tools: Cost Explorer, Budgets, Pricing Calculator
- Know difference between CloudTrail vs CloudWatch
- Understand AWS Shield, WAF, Inspector, Macie
- Know the AWS Free Tier limits
- Explain SNS vs SQS use cases
- Understand Auto Scaling and Elastic Load Balancing
- Know AWS Artifact and compliance programs