Realistic timelines
| Your background | Typical preparation time |
|---|---|
| No IT experience | 4 to 6 weeks, about 5 hours a week |
| Works in IT, new to cloud | 2 to 3 weeks |
| Uses AWS at work | 1 week of focused revision |
These are typical ranges, not guarantees. The real signal you're ready is consistently scoring well on exam-style practice questions across all four domains.
What the exam looks like
CLF-C02 has 65 questions in 90 minutes, and you need a scaled score of 700 out of 1,000 to pass. Fifteen questions are unscored, and you won't know which ones. The exam covers four domains: Cloud Concepts (24%), Security and Compliance (30%), Cloud Technology and Services (34%), and Billing, Pricing, and Support (12%).
A five-week plan for beginners
- Week 1: cloud concepts and AWS global infrastructure.
- Week 2: core services: compute, storage, databases and networking.
- Week 3: security: shared responsibility, IAM and security services.
- Week 4: billing, pricing and support plans.
- Week 5: full practice exams, review weak areas, then book.
What slows people down
- Reading without doing. Hands-on labs make services stick.
- Skipping billing and support, which many people find surprisingly tricky.
- Booking too early. Book once your practice scores are consistently strong.
Confirm current exam details on the official AWS Cloud Practitioner page.