Course · Beginner

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

Learn what the AWS Cloud is, what it costs and who secures what, by touring the console, setting a budget and pricing a workload, then answering exam-style questions across all four domains of the Cloud Practitioner exam.

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44 itemsLast updated October 2026

aws-cloud-practitioner / at a glance

  • 8modules
  • 29lessons
  • 8labs and projects
  • 505practice questions

The Cloud Practitioner exam checks that you understand the AWS Cloud well enough to talk about it with confidence: what it is for, how AWS keeps it secure and who is responsible for the rest, what the main services do, and how AWS charges for them. It does not ask you to write code or design systems. This course teaches exactly that, in plain language, for people who have never used AWS.

Each module explains a group of ideas and services, then has you see them for yourself in the AWS console, safely and within the Free Tier, or with no account at all. Every lesson and lab ends with ten exam-style questions, and the course closes with a full-length, 65-question practice exam weighted like the real one.

The exam’s four domains, and where the course covers them:

Domain Weight Modules
Cloud concepts 24% 2
Security and compliance 30% 3
Cloud technology and services 34% 2, 4, 5, 6
Billing, pricing and support 12% 7

Older study material often teaches services and support plans that AWS has since changed or closed to new customers. This edition was checked against AWS’s own documentation in October 2026. AWS changes services and exam versions over time, so before you book, read the current exam guide linked above; if it has changed, tell us and we will update the course.

This edition

What's new as of October 2026

  • The new AWS Support plans, Business Support+, Enterprise Support and Unified Operations, which replace Developer, Business and Enterprise On-Ramp
  • The Free Tier for new accounts: a free plan or a paid plan, both with credits, instead of the old twelve-month offers
  • Current service names: SageMaker AI, Amazon Quick Sight, Amazon WorkSpaces Applications (formerly AppStream 2.0), AWS Transform MGN (formerly Application Migration Service) and Amazon Q Developer (formerly CodeWhisperer), including the 2027 end of support for its IDE plugins
  • A single S3 object can now be up to 50 TB, up from 5 TB
  • The new Security Hub, which correlates findings from GuardDuty, Inspector and Macie, and centralized root access for accounts in an organization
  • The charge for every public IPv4 address, CUR 2.0 in AWS Data Exports, and the AWS Health Dashboard
  • Services closed to new customers that older courses still teach as current: the Snow Family, the original Glacier vault service and Migration Hub
  • A 65-question practice exam weighted like the real one

Prepares you for

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02)

Every module maps to the domains in AWS's published exam guide.

You book and take the exam yourself with AWS. We do not run exams or sell exam vouchers. Pontelon is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or an authorized training partner of AWS. Practice questions are our own, written against the published exam guide, never leaked exam content. Certification names are trademarks of their owners.

Outcomes

By the end, you can

  • Explain the value of the cloud in terms of agility, elasticity, global reach and variable rather than fixed cost
  • Name the six pillars of the Well-Architected Framework, the six perspectives of the Cloud Adoption Framework and the seven migration strategies
  • Say who is responsible for what under the shared responsibility model for EC2, RDS and Lambda
  • Protect an account's root user and give people least-privilege access with IAM and IAM Identity Center
  • Match a requirement to the right AWS service for compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, AI and messaging
  • Compare pricing models, estimate a workload with the Pricing Calculator, and control spend with Budgets, Cost Explorer and tags
  • Choose the right AWS Support plan and find official help, documentation and partners
  • Read a Cloud Practitioner question, spot the words that decide it, and rule out the distractors

Syllabus

Modules, lessons and labs

Work through them in order: each one builds on the last, and each module ends with a checkpoint. Module 1 (2 items) is open to everyone. After that, sign in and pass each lesson's questions (70% or better) to unlock the next one. Your progress is saved to your account.

  1. Module 1

    Getting started

    How the course and the exam work, and an AWS account that cannot surprise you with a bill.

    1. Course orientation: how this course works and how the exam is builtLesson · 10 questions
    2. Lab: an AWS account that cannot surprise youLab · 10 questions

  2. Module 2

    Cloud concepts and global infrastructure

    Why organizations move to the cloud, how AWS is built around the world, the Well-Architected and Cloud Adoption frameworks, and the economics.

    1. What the cloud is and why organisations use itLesson · 10 questions
    2. Regions, Availability Zones and edge locationsLesson · 10 questions
    3. Console, CLI, SDKs and infrastructure as codeLesson · 10 questions
    4. The Well-Architected FrameworkLesson · 10 questions
    5. Cloud economics: fixed vs variable costLesson · 10 questions
    6. Moving to AWS: the Cloud Adoption Framework and the 7 RsLesson · 10 questions
    7. Lab: run a Well-Architected review and explore the global mapLab · 10 questions
    8. Module 2 checkpoint: cloud concepts and global infrastructureModule checkpoint · 10 questions

  3. Module 3

    Security and compliance

    Shared responsibility, identity and the root user, encryption, and the services that detect threats and prove compliance.

    1. The shared responsibility modelLesson · 10 questions
    2. IAM: users, groups, roles, policies and the root userLesson · 10 questions
    3. Identity Center, federation and storing secretsLesson · 10 questions
    4. Encryption at rest and in transitLesson · 10 questions
    5. Services that detect and block threatsLesson · 10 questions
    6. Governance, logging and complianceLesson · 10 questions
    7. Lab: a least-privilege group, user and roleLab · 10 questions
    8. Lab: find who did what, and get a compliance reportLab · 10 questions
    9. Module 3 checkpoint: security and complianceModule checkpoint · 12 questions

  4. Module 4

    Compute and networking

    EC2, containers and serverless, scaling and load balancing, then VPCs, connectivity, DNS and the edge.

    1. EC2 and the other ways to run serversLesson · 10 questions
    2. Containers and serverlessLesson · 10 questions
    3. Auto scaling and load balancingLesson · 10 questions
    4. VPCs and network securityLesson · 10 questions
    5. Route 53, CloudFront, Global Accelerator and API GatewayLesson · 10 questions
    6. Lab: run code without a serverLab · 10 questions
    7. Module 4 checkpoint: compute and networkingModule checkpoint · 12 questions

  5. Module 5

    Storage and databases

    Object, block and file storage, backup, and picking a managed database by the data it holds.

    1. Amazon S3 and its storage classesLesson · 10 questions
    2. Block, file and hybrid storageLesson · 10 questions
    3. Choosing a databaseLesson · 10 questions
    4. Lab: a private S3 bucket that tidies itselfLab · 10 questions
    5. Module 5 checkpoint: storage and databasesModule checkpoint · 12 questions

  6. Module 6

    Analytics, AI and other services

    Analytics and AI services, messaging, developer tools, end-user computing, business applications and IoT.

    1. Analytics servicesLesson · 10 questions
    2. AI and machine learning servicesLesson · 10 questions
    3. Messages, alerts and eventsLesson · 10 questions
    4. Developer, end-user, business and IoT servicesLesson · 10 questions
    5. Lab: send yourself an alertLab · 10 questions
    6. Module 6 checkpoint: analytics, AI and other servicesModule checkpoint · 12 questions

  7. Module 7

    Billing, pricing and support

    Pricing models, data transfer, Budgets, Cost Explorer and tags, consolidated billing, and the support plans.

    1. Compute and storage pricing modelsLesson · 10 questions
    2. Budgets, Cost Explorer, tags and consolidated billingLesson · 10 questions
    3. Support plans, help and partnersLesson · 10 questions
    4. Lab: price a workload and keep it in budgetLab · 10 questions
    5. Module 7 checkpoint: billing, pricing and supportModule checkpoint · 12 questions

  8. Module 8

    Exam preparation

    Exam strategy, a domain-by-domain review, and a full-length practice exam.

    1. Exam strategy and a domain-by-domain reviewLesson · 10 questions
    2. Full-length practice examModule checkpoint · 65 questions

Want it taught live, or to your team?

The course is free: module 1 to anyone, the rest with a free account. We also run it with an instructor, for a cohort or against your own systems. Ask us for the format and price.

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