AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam — FAQs

The CLF-C02 exam contains 65 questions and must be completed in 90 minutes. Of those 65 questions, 50 are scored and 15 are unscored. The unscored questions are experimental items AWS uses to evaluate future exam content — they look identical to scored questions and are not labelled during the exam, so treat every question as if it counts.

That works out to roughly 83 seconds per question on average. Flag questions you're unsure about and return to them; nearly all candidates have time to review flagged items before the 90-minute limit.

The passing score for the CLF-C02 exam is 700 out of 1000. AWS uses a scaled scoring model where reported scores range from 100 to 1000 — you cannot score below 100 regardless of how many questions you miss.

There is no penalty for wrong answers. Unanswered questions count the same as incorrect ones, so always submit an answer for every question rather than leaving any blank. Your score report breaks down performance by domain so you can see where you were stronger or weaker, regardless of whether you pass.

The CLF-C02 exam covers four domains as defined in the official AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam guide:

Domain 1 — Cloud Concepts (24%): Benefits and economics of cloud computing, cloud architecture design principles, and the AWS Cloud value proposition.

Domain 2 — Security and Compliance (30%): The AWS shared responsibility model, security and governance concepts, and access management. This is the second-largest domain by weight.

Domain 3 — Cloud Technology and Services (34%): AWS global infrastructure, core services across compute, storage, databases, and networking, plus managed and serverless services. This is the largest domain.

Domain 4 — Billing, Pricing, and Support (12%): AWS pricing models, billing tools, cost management strategies, and AWS Support plan tiers.

Together, Domains 2 and 3 account for 64% of the exam — focus your preparation there first.

CLF-C02 is a foundational-level certification — there are no technical prerequisites and no hands-on lab component. The exam tests broad knowledge of AWS Cloud concepts rather than deep implementation skills, and it is designed to be accessible to people without a technical background.

That said, it covers a wide surface area: four domains, dozens of AWS services, security concepts, pricing models, and support tiers. The Security and Compliance domain alone is 30% of the exam, and candidates who underestimate it are often surprised on exam day.

Deliberate preparation makes the difference. Studying each domain systematically, taking full-length timed practice tests, and reviewing every explanation — including questions you got right — puts you in a strong position. The free 15-question test on this site gives you a calibrated sense of your current readiness before committing to the full course.

The exam uses two question types:

Multiple-choice: One correct answer from four options. Incorrect options (distractors) are plausible — the exam tests understanding, not elimination of obvious wrong answers.

Multiple-response: Two correct answers from four or five options. You must select exactly the right two; partial credit is not awarded. These questions are identified with "(Select TWO)" in the stem.

Both types appear in this course's practice tests, in roughly the same proportion as the real exam. The 15 unscored questions use both types and are indistinguishable from scored questions.

Scores are reported on a scale of 100 to 1000. The passing score is 700. There is no penalty for incorrect answers — unanswered questions count the same as wrong ones, so always select an answer for every question.

AWS applies a scaled scoring methodology that accounts for question difficulty. The 15 unscored questions are excluded from your final score. Your result is either Pass or Fail, with a domain-by-domain performance breakdown included in your score report.

The standard exam fee is $100 USD. Pricing may vary by country and is subject to change — the authoritative price is shown during checkout on the AWS registration portal.

To register:

1. Go to the official AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner page and click Schedule Exam.

2. Sign in or create a free AWS account if you don't have one.

3. Choose your testing format: in-person at a Pearson VUE or PSI testing centre, or online proctored from home.

4. Select your preferred date, pay the exam fee, and receive a booking confirmation by email.

Some employers offer AWS exam vouchers through training programmes — check with your employer before paying out of pocket. AWS also offers a free practice exam attempt for candidates who have completed specific AWS training.

A one-time payment of $49 unlocks all timed practice test lengths:

30-question test (40 minutes) · 45-question test (60 minutes) · 65-question full exam (90 minutes, matching the real CLF-C02 format)

Access never expires and includes all future question bank updates. Each attempt draws a fresh randomised subset from the 400-question bank, weighted to match the official domain percentages, so no two tests are identical.

Training mode — domain-by-domain study content with explanations, comparison tables, and quick quizzes — is free and does not require payment. The 15-question quick test is also always free.

We offer a 10-day money-back guarantee. If you are not satisfied within 10 days of purchase, contact us for a full refund — no questions asked.

Practice scores are a useful directional indicator but not a direct prediction of your real exam score. The real CLF-C02 exam uses AWS's proprietary scaled scoring methodology — a third-party question bank cannot replicate this exactly.

What practice scores tell you: consistently scoring above 700/1000 on full 65-question timed tests suggests you have internalized the material at roughly the right level. Consistently scoring below 600 points to areas that still need work.

We recommend reviewing every explanation after each test, including questions you got right by instinct. Understanding the reasoning behind each answer is more predictive of real exam readiness than the score number alone.

No. This is an independent, third-party exam preparation resource. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its affiliates. AWS, Amazon Web Services, and related marks are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc.

AWS provides its own official training through AWS Skill Builder (skillbuilder.aws), including a free Cloud Practitioner Essentials course developed and maintained by AWS. This site is a complementary study tool — practice questions and domain-based training content — designed to reinforce your understanding and build exam confidence alongside whatever primary resources you use. It is not a substitute for the official AWS exam guide or AWS's own training offerings.