AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Exam CLF – C01 vs. CLF-C02

The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner validates foundational, high-level understanding of AWS Cloud, services, and terminology.  This is a good starting point on the AWS Certification journey for individuals with no prior IT or cloud experience switching to a cloud career or for line-of-business employees looking for foundational cloud literacy.

Exam Updates:

This exam is changing starting September 19, 2023. The last date to take the current exam is September 18, 2023.

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02 Exam Domains

The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C01) and CLF-C02 are both entry-level cloud computing certifications offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). However, there are some key differences between the two exams.

CLF-C01

Exam duration: 90 minutes

Number of questions: 65

Passing score: 700 out of 1000

Domains:

Cloud Concepts (26%)

Security and Compliance (25%)

Technology and Services (24%)

Billing, Pricing, and Support (15%)

CLF-C02

Exam duration: 90 minutes

Number of questions: 65

Passing score: 700 out of 1000

Domains:

Cloud Concepts (24%)

Security and Compliance (30%)

Cloud Technology and Services (28%)

Billing, Pricing, and Support (18%)

Here is a table summarizing the key differences between the two exams:

As you can see, the biggest difference between the two exams is the weight given to the Security and Compliance domain. In CLF-C02, this domain accounts for 30% of the exam, while in CLF-C01 it only accounts for 25%. This is because AWS is increasingly emphasizing the importance of security in the cloud.

Another difference between the two exams is the name of the third domain. In CLF-C01, this domain is called “Technology and Services,” but in CLF-C02 it is called “Cloud Technology and Services.” This is a minor change, but it reflects the fact that the exam now covers a wider range of AWS services.

Here is a comparison between the services covered on the CLF-C01 and CLF-C02 exams:

As you can see, the CLF-C02 exam covers a wider range of AWS services, including some that were not covered in the CLF-C01 exam, such as Amazon SageMaker, Amazon Rekognition, Amazon Lex, Amazon Chime, Amazon Managed Blockchain, Amazon Managed Grafana, and Amazon Managed Service for Prometheus.

There are a few other deprecated services that will be removed from the new exam, CLF-C02. These services include:

• Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) Classic
• Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) SMS
• Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS) Long Polling
• Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) Classic
• AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) Access Analyzer
• AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) Private Certificate Authority

These services are either no longer available or have been superseded by newer services. For example, Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) Classic is a service that was superseded by Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS). Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) SMS is a service that was superseded by Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) Voice.

If you are planning to take the CLF-C02 exam, you do not need to worry about these services. However, if you are interested in learning more about them, you can refer to the AWS documentation.

Here is a table summarizing all the deprecated services that will be removed from the CLF-C02 exam:

It is important to note that this is not an exhaustive list of all the services covered on the two exams. The exam content changes frequently, so it is always best to refer to the latest exam guide for the most up-to-date information.

Written by: Mohamed Sallam