#Certification
167 posts
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #2 Domain 1-1 Secure Architectures — IAM in Depth
The first post of the SAA-C03 security domain. After a quick review of the four IAM components (User/Group/Role/Policy), it covers the policy evaluation logic (explicit Deny wins), the difference between trust policies and permission policies, temporary credentials and AssumeRole via STS, cross-account access, and permission boundaries and SCPs at the SAA level. On the exam, the security domain carries the largest weight at 30%, and IAM is its core.
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) #9 Exam Tips and Common Mistake Patterns
A condensed read-once-more piece for the moments right before you walk into the CLF-C02 exam. Time management for 65 questions in 90 minutes; common pitfall question shapes like multiple-response and double negatives; pairs of services people confuse (S3 vs EBS, CloudTrail vs Config, ALB vs NLB, and so on); four techniques for narrowing down answers; and a final 30-minute pre-exam checklist. The next post, #10, is the full-scale mock exam.
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #1 Exam Introduction — Exam Structure and Study Roadmap
The opening post of the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) series. It covers the structure of 65 questions, 130 minutes, and a 720 passing score; the weight and meaning of the four domains (Security 30% , Resilience 26% , High Performance 24% , Cost 20%); how it differs from Cloud Practitioner; and a study strategy that turns the intuition built on the hands-on [AWS track](/en/posts/aws-basics-1) and [CLF-C02](/en/posts/aws-clf-1-exam-introduction) into design-oriented exam answers. This 16-part series targets a SAA-C03 pass, wrapping up with a full-scale mock exam in #16.
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) #8 Domain 4 Billing and Support — Pricing Models, Support Plans, TCO
The final CLF-C02 domain — Billing, Pricing, and Support (12%). The weight is small, but the question patterns are formulaic, so this is a domain you can take near-full marks on. We cover the four EC2 pricing models (On-Demand, Reserved, Savings Plans, Spot), the free tier, AWS Pricing Calculator and TCO Calculator, Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets, Cost and Usage Report, Consolidated Billing, the four Support Plan tiers (Basic, Developer, Business, Enterprise), and the check coverage of Trusted Advisor.
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) #7 Domain 3-2 Core Services — Networking and Databases
The second half of Domain 3. Networking (VPC, subnets, Route 53, CloudFront, the four ELB types, VPN, Direct Connect, Global Accelerator), databases (RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, ElastiCache, Redshift, DocumentDB, Neptune), and ops/management services (CloudWatch, CloudTrail, Trusted Advisor, Systems Manager, CloudFormation). The volume looks heavy, but it compresses into a single workload-to-service mapping table. #8 picks up with Domain 4, Billing and Support.
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) #6 Domain 3-1 Core Services — Compute and Storage
The front half of Domain 3 (34%), the widest-surface domain on the CLF-C02 exam. We classify the compute services (EC2, Lambda, ECS, Fargate, Elastic Beanstalk, Lightsail, Batch) by the kind of workload they fit, and lay out the storage services (S3 storage classes, EBS, EFS, FSx, Storage Gateway, Snow Family) by category and use case. The volume looks large, but it collapses into workload → service mappings. #7 continues with networking and databases.
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) #5 Domain 2-2 Compliance — Governance, AWS Artifact, GDPR/HIPAA
The second half of Domain 2. What AWS compliance certifications (SOC, ISO, PCI DSS, HIPAA, FedRAMP, GDPR) actually mean, how to pull certification documents through AWS Artifact, where governance tools (CloudTrail, Config, Organizations SCP) and security operations tools (GuardDuty, Inspector, Macie, Security Hub) sit, and finally data encryption (at rest and in transit) together with KMS and CloudHSM. In #6 we head into Domain 3 — Compute and Storage at 34% of the exam weight.
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) #4 Domain 2-1 Security — Shared Responsibility Model and IAM Basics
The first half of Domain 2 (30%), the largest-weighted domain of the CLF-C02 exam. Where the responsibility line falls between AWS and the customer (and how that shifts with the service model), the four IAM essentials — users, groups, roles, and policies — and how they differ, operating principles for MFA and access keys, and a root user guide that often appears as an exam trap. The next post #5 continues with compliance certifications, AWS Artifact, and encryption.
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) #3 Domain 1-2 Cloud Design — The Six Well-Architected Pillars
The second half of CLF-C02 Domain 1. We unpack the six pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework — Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, Cost Optimization, and Sustainability — and organize the design principles and exam-scenario mappings for each. We also fix the common mistake of memorizing only five pillars and forgetting Sustainability, which was added in December 2021. From #4 onward we head into Domain 2 Security, the 30% giant.
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) #2 Domain 1-1 Cloud Concepts — Value, Economics, and the Cloud Adoption Framework
The first half of CLF-C02 Domain 1. The six value propositions of the cloud that show up in the exam, the cost-structure shift from CapEx to OpEx, the six perspectives of the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework, and how the global infrastructure (regions, AZs, edge) gets reshaped into exam questions. Series #3 continues with the second half of the same domain — the six Well-Architected pillars.
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) #1: Exam Introduction — Structure and Study Strategy
The opening post of the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) series. The shape of 65 questions, 90 minutes, and a 700 passing score; the weight and meaning of the four domains; registration and the testing environment; and the study strategy that turns the hands-on feel from the [AWS track](/en/posts/aws-basics-1) into exam answers. This 10-part series targets a CLF-C02 pass, wrapping up with a full-scale mock exam in #10.