AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
(CLF-C02) — Last-Minute Power Sheet
A clean, practical review sheet focused on the concepts, comparisons, and facts most useful for final
exam revision.
Quick review tip
Use this sheet for recall, not first-time learning. Pay special attention to service differences, responsibility
boundaries, pricing models, and the numbers that are easy to mix up.
Straight to the exam hotspots – no filler, just the stuff that actually shows up
---
1. EXAM AT A GLANCE – KNOW THE WEIGHTS
Domain Weight What They Test
Cloud Concepts 24% Cloud fundamentals, benefits, AWS
global infrastructure
Security & Compliance 30% Shared Responsibility, IAM, encryption,
compliance
Cloud Technology & Services 34% Core AWS services – compute, storage,
databases, networking
Billing, Pricing & Support 12% Pricing models, cost management,
support plans
Format: 65 questions, 90 minutes, passing score 700/1000
---
2. CLOUD ECONOMICS – CAPEX vs OPEX & THE 6
ADVANTAGES
CAPEX vs OPEX – The Shift
Traditional (On-Premises) Cloud (AWS)
Type CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) – upfront OPEX (Operational Expenditure) – pay
investment as you go
Cost behavior Fixed, upfront, sunk cost Variable, based on usage
Risk High – overprovisioning wastes money Low – scale up/down with demand
The 6 Advantages of Cloud Computing – Memorize These
1. Trade fixed expense for variable expense – pay only for what you use, no data centers to build
2. Benefit from massive economies of scale – AWS passes savings to you
3. Stop guessing capacity – scale up or down based on actual demand
4. Increase speed and agility – deploy resources in minutes
5. Stop spending money on running and maintaining data centers – focus on your business
6. Go global in minutes – deploy worldwide with a few clicks
---
AWS CLF-C02 • Last-Minute Power Sheet Page 1
, 3. AWS WELL-ARCHITECTED FRAMEWORK – THE 6 PILLARS
Exam loves this. You'll get scenarios asking which pillar a practice belongs to.
Pillar What It Means Exam Clue
Operational Excellence Run, monitor, and improve workloads "automation", "observability", "incident
response"
Security Protect data, systems, and assets "encryption", "IAM", "least privilege"
Reliability Recover from failures and meet demand "Multi-AZ", "fault tolerance", "disaster
recovery"
Performance Efficiency Use compute resources efficiently "right-sizing", "serverless", "scaling"
Cost Optimization Deliver business value at the lowest "Spot Instances", "S3 lifecycle",
price "budgets"
Sustainability Minimize environmental impact "energy efficiency", "carbon footprint"
Memory trick: Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, Cost Optimization,
Sustainability – O S R P C S
---
4. AWS GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE – REGIONS, AZs, EDGE
The Hierarchy
Region → Availability Zone (AZ) → Data Center
Component What It Is Exam Facts
Region Geographic area (e.g., us-east-1, Fully isolated from other regions
eu-west-1)
Availability Zone (AZ) One or more data centers in a region Isolated from failures in other AZs
Edge Location Content delivery endpoint (CloudFront Not in a region – closer to users
PoP)
Current numbers (2026): ~39 Regions, ~123 AZs, 750+ Edge Locations
CloudFront – What You Need to Know
• Content Delivery Network (CDN) – caches content at Edge Locations
• Reduces latency by serving from closest Edge Location to the user
• Works with S3, EC2, and custom origins
• Can protect against DDoS attacks (with AWS Shield)
---
5. EC2 PRICING MODELS – THE BIG 4
Model Discount Commitment Interruption Risk Best For
On-Demand 0% (baseline) None No Short, spiky,
unpredictable
workloads
Savings Plans Up to 72% 1 or 3 years No Steady compute across
instance families
Reserved Instances Up to 72% 1 or 3 years No Fixed, known capacity
in one region
Spot Instances Up to 90% None YES (2-min warning) Fault-tolerant,
restartable jobs
AWS CLF-C02 • Last-Minute Power Sheet Page 2
(CLF-C02) — Last-Minute Power Sheet
A clean, practical review sheet focused on the concepts, comparisons, and facts most useful for final
exam revision.
Quick review tip
Use this sheet for recall, not first-time learning. Pay special attention to service differences, responsibility
boundaries, pricing models, and the numbers that are easy to mix up.
Straight to the exam hotspots – no filler, just the stuff that actually shows up
---
1. EXAM AT A GLANCE – KNOW THE WEIGHTS
Domain Weight What They Test
Cloud Concepts 24% Cloud fundamentals, benefits, AWS
global infrastructure
Security & Compliance 30% Shared Responsibility, IAM, encryption,
compliance
Cloud Technology & Services 34% Core AWS services – compute, storage,
databases, networking
Billing, Pricing & Support 12% Pricing models, cost management,
support plans
Format: 65 questions, 90 minutes, passing score 700/1000
---
2. CLOUD ECONOMICS – CAPEX vs OPEX & THE 6
ADVANTAGES
CAPEX vs OPEX – The Shift
Traditional (On-Premises) Cloud (AWS)
Type CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) – upfront OPEX (Operational Expenditure) – pay
investment as you go
Cost behavior Fixed, upfront, sunk cost Variable, based on usage
Risk High – overprovisioning wastes money Low – scale up/down with demand
The 6 Advantages of Cloud Computing – Memorize These
1. Trade fixed expense for variable expense – pay only for what you use, no data centers to build
2. Benefit from massive economies of scale – AWS passes savings to you
3. Stop guessing capacity – scale up or down based on actual demand
4. Increase speed and agility – deploy resources in minutes
5. Stop spending money on running and maintaining data centers – focus on your business
6. Go global in minutes – deploy worldwide with a few clicks
---
AWS CLF-C02 • Last-Minute Power Sheet Page 1
, 3. AWS WELL-ARCHITECTED FRAMEWORK – THE 6 PILLARS
Exam loves this. You'll get scenarios asking which pillar a practice belongs to.
Pillar What It Means Exam Clue
Operational Excellence Run, monitor, and improve workloads "automation", "observability", "incident
response"
Security Protect data, systems, and assets "encryption", "IAM", "least privilege"
Reliability Recover from failures and meet demand "Multi-AZ", "fault tolerance", "disaster
recovery"
Performance Efficiency Use compute resources efficiently "right-sizing", "serverless", "scaling"
Cost Optimization Deliver business value at the lowest "Spot Instances", "S3 lifecycle",
price "budgets"
Sustainability Minimize environmental impact "energy efficiency", "carbon footprint"
Memory trick: Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, Cost Optimization,
Sustainability – O S R P C S
---
4. AWS GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE – REGIONS, AZs, EDGE
The Hierarchy
Region → Availability Zone (AZ) → Data Center
Component What It Is Exam Facts
Region Geographic area (e.g., us-east-1, Fully isolated from other regions
eu-west-1)
Availability Zone (AZ) One or more data centers in a region Isolated from failures in other AZs
Edge Location Content delivery endpoint (CloudFront Not in a region – closer to users
PoP)
Current numbers (2026): ~39 Regions, ~123 AZs, 750+ Edge Locations
CloudFront – What You Need to Know
• Content Delivery Network (CDN) – caches content at Edge Locations
• Reduces latency by serving from closest Edge Location to the user
• Works with S3, EC2, and custom origins
• Can protect against DDoS attacks (with AWS Shield)
---
5. EC2 PRICING MODELS – THE BIG 4
Model Discount Commitment Interruption Risk Best For
On-Demand 0% (baseline) None No Short, spiky,
unpredictable
workloads
Savings Plans Up to 72% 1 or 3 years No Steady compute across
instance families
Reserved Instances Up to 72% 1 or 3 years No Fixed, known capacity
in one region
Spot Instances Up to 90% None YES (2-min warning) Fault-tolerant,
restartable jobs
AWS CLF-C02 • Last-Minute Power Sheet Page 2
