AWS Cloud Practitioner Training What to Expect from the Exam

The year before, Amazon Web Services exceeded $7 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter up by more than 45 percent from the year prior. With growth this impressive as this, the demand for cloud experts is increasing rapidly.

Training and certification is the best option to start your career in the world of cloud computing and with average salaries of $100k per year, there has been a massive growth in training over the last few years. In order to get a job in a highly competitive field, you must be able to differentiate yourself by acquiring a variety of AWS certifications is a great option to start.

A lot of cloud engineers aspiring to become cloud engineers begin their journey to learning by passing the AWS cloud practitioner certification exam. The exam is the most fundamental level of AWS's AWS training program and is a great start on the path toward mastering the cloud.

In this post, I'm going to go over the training route in more detail, so you have a better understanding of what to anticipate during the exam. I will also discuss the recommended learning, experience, and preparation that you must do prior to taking the exam.

Are you willing to test your skills with some practice questions? Download our no-cost AWS Practice Test

AWS Exam Blueprint AWS Exam Blueprint

As a basic exam AWS Certified Cloud Specialist exam is designed for those who have the capability to, "effectively demonstrate an overall knowledge regarding AWS Cloud" AWS Cloud". This certification is rather general and does not test the abilities required for specific jobs like Developers, Sysops Administrators and Solutions Architects.

AWS recommends that you have a minimum of six months' previous experience using AWS Cloud. AWS Cloud. Although you do not have to be an IT-related job. exposure to cloud computing AWS Cloud in the sales, managerial purchase or financial role is acceptable too.

The exam contains 65 questions and an exam duration that is 90 minutes. You must get a minimum score 700 of 1000 points (70 percent) in order to clear to pass the exam.

The format of questions on the exam is a multiple-choice (one correct response out of four choices) as well as multiple response (two correct answers from five choices).

As you'll be able to see from the sample questions in the next section the questions are pretty simple and not scenario-based, as other exams like the Professional and Associate levels of certifications.

in the AWS cloud practitioner certification exam outline It states that passing the exam certifies an examinee's capability in:

• Define what AWS Cloud is and the fundamental global infrastructure
• Define fundamental AWS Cloud architectural principles
• Define what the AWS cloud value proposition
• Define the most important services available that are offered on the AWS platform, and their typical usage cases(for instance, compute and analytics)
• Define the basic security and compliance features that are part of the AWS platform, as well as AWS's shared security model
• Define the account management, billing as well as pricing model
• Find the sources of documentation or technical assistance (for instance, whitepapers as well as ticket support)
• Define the fundamental/core features of operating and deploying within AWS Cloud. AWS Cloud

In the remainder of this post we'll go over the knowledge requirements in greater specific detail. I'll also try to provide you with a clear understanding of what to expect from this exam.

domains, goals, and examples

The required knowledge is divided by four tests "domains". Within each test area, there are a variety of goals that outline the skills and knowledge required to be able to pass the exam.

Test Domain 1: Cloud Concepts

This domain is 28 percent in the exam and comprises the three goals listed below:

• 1.1 Definition of the AWS Cloud and its value proposition
• 1.2 Define elements that are part of AWS Cloud economy
• 1.3 The different cloud design principles for cloud architecture

What do you need to be aware of

You should be able explain the advantages of cloud services that are public and be able define the kinds of services offered in AWS (think IaaS, PaaS, SaaS). You should be aware of the six advantages of cloud:

1. Trade capital expense for variable expense
2. Profit from massive economics of scale
3. Stop guessing about capacity
4. Improve the speed of your computer and increase agility
5. Stop spending money running and maintaining data centers
6. Go global in minutes

It is important to understand the benefits of cloud in terms of financial benefits and be aware of the differences in CAPEX and OPEX This is related to the first item in the above list.

You must be aware of the fundamentals of designing cloud architectures. This can include loose coupling as well as the ability to scale (vertically as well as horizontally) bootstrapping, automation and to mention just some.

AWS blog post "The Five Pillars of a well-designed framework" is a must read and the whitepaper "Architecting for the Cloud Best Methods".

Example questions

Questions: What feature of AWS lets you build an entirely new application, for which the requirements can alter in time?

1. Elasticity
2. Fault tolerance
3. Disposable resources
4. High-availability

Answer: 1. Elasticism lets you deploy your application with no concern about whether it will require more or fewer resources in the near future. With elasticity, your infrastructure is able to scale according to demand.

What benefits do you gain from AWS cloud? AWS cloud? (choose 2)

1. Trade capital expense for variable expense
2. Stop guessing about capacity
3. Capital expenditures are increased
4. Gain more control over the layer of infrastructure
5. Conform to any local compliance program for local security.

Answer 1.+2 With public cloud services like AWS they can be paid on the basis of a variable (OPEX) per resource you utilize and scale as needed, meaning you do not have to figure out how many resources you'll need to put in.

Test Domain 2: Security

This domain comprises 24 percent of the exam and comprises the following four goals:

• 2.1 Set AWS Shared Responsibility mode AWS Mode of Shared Responsibility
• 2.2 Definition AWS Cloud concepts for security and compliance
• 2.3 Identify AWS access management capabilities
• 2.4 Find sources of security assistance

What do you need to be aware of

You must be aware of how to use the AWS sharing responsibility framework that specifies the person responsible for various components of the stack of technologies, from the data center all the way to firewall rules, servers and encryption of data.

AWS provides tools and services that can be used to implement security by assessing your security level as well as generating reports and alerts. It is important to know these tools and services enough to explain their use and advantages. This includes tools like KMS, CloudTrail and AWS Artifact.

It is also important to know the applications that are utilized to authenticate, authorize as well as access control. This includes services like AWS IAM, Amazon Cognito as well as the use of access keys as well as key pairs and authenticated URLs.

Support services provide real-time information via AWS Trusted Advisor and proactive support and advocacy through Technical Account Manager (TAM). You should be aware of what support packages come with the TAM.

Example questions

Question What is the responsibility of the AWS shared responsibility model, what is the responsibility of the customer? (choose 2)

1. Security of physical security in the data centre
2. Disposal and replacement from disk drives
3. Security groups can be configured
4. Patch management for infrastructure
5. Customer data is encrypted

Answer 3, AWS is responsible for things like the physical protection of the DC as well as the replacement of older disk drives, as well as patch management for the infrastructure, whereas customers are accountable for things such like configuring security groups ACLs for their network as well as updating their operating systems, and encryption of your data.

Answer: Which AWS service is used to allow the multi-factor authentication?

1. Amazon STS
2. AWS IAM
3. Amazon EC2
4. AWS KMS

Answer 2. IAM can be used for securing group and individual access to AWS resources. It is also utilized for managing the multifactor security of authentication.

Test Domain 3: Technology

This domain is 36 percent of the exam and comprises the four following goals:

• 3.1 Define the methods for setting up and operating in AWS Cloud. AWS Cloud
• 3.2 The definition of AWS world infrastructure
• 3.3 Determine the main AWS services
• 3.4 Find the sources of support for technology

What you should know to be aware of

It is important to be aware of the basic AWS services and the purposes they're used to serve. There isn't a need for an in-depth understanding about the particulars of a service, but it is important to know its function, advantages and application instances.

Core services comprise EC2, ECS, Lambda, LightSail, EBS, EFS, S3, RDS, DynamoDB, RedShift, ElastiCache, Elastic Load Balancing, Auto Scaling, CloudFront, Route 53, CloudWatch, CloudTrail, and SNS.

It is important to understand the global infrastructure that is the basis of the AWS Cloud. This includes availability zones, regions and edges. Be sure to know what services are globally or specifically defined for a region.

You must also be aware of the customizable building blocks for customers of cloud-based services like subnets and VPCs and connectivity options like Internet Gateways VPN Direct Connect, and VPN Direct Connect. Make sure you understand the distinction between NAT instances as well as NAT Gateways along with the respective advantages of each.

Example questions

Question What are the advantages of having Availability Zones? (choose 2)

1. They enable the recovery of disasters in a regional area.
2. They are used to provide fault isolation
3. They permit the caching of information for speedier delivery to the end-user
4. They are linked by high-quality network connections
5. They let you connect your on-premises network to AWS to create an hybrid cloud

Answer: 2+4, Every AWS region is comprised of several distinct locations, referred to as availability Zones (AZs). Each AZ is designed to be protected from any failures that occur in other AZs. An AZ is the name of a data center. sometimes the AZ comprises several data centers. A region's AZs provide cheap, low-latency connection to other zones within similar regions. This allows you to transfer your data across different data centers in a time-synchronized manner to ensure that failover is automated and transparent to the users.

Question What AWS support plans can provide support via chat, email or phone? (choose 2)

1. Basic
2. Business
3. Developer
4. Global
5. Enterprise

Answer: 2+5 Only the enterprise and business plans have assistance via chat, email and telephone.

Testing Domain 4. Pricing and Billing

This domain is 12 percent of the exam and comprises the three goals listed below:

• 4.1 Review and compare the different pricing models available for AWS
• 4.2 Know the different account structures that are related to AWS pricing and billing
• 4.3 Find resources to support billing

What do you need to be aware of

The majority of services offered provided by AWS are provided through a pay-per-use model However, there are alternatives to lower costs by locking in one- or three-year contracts, with a variety of choices for payment. It is essential to be aware of these models and the services they cover.

It is important to understand the charges AWS charges you and what's absolutely free. For example, inbound data transfer is completely free, while outbound data transfer usually incurs expenses.

Some services , like VPC, CloudFormation, and IAM are completely free, but the content you create using these could not be. It is important to know what costs might be involved.

AWS Accounts can be divided into Organizations for central control of policies and consolidating billing. It is important to know the different structures of accounts and their benefits as well as scenarios for their implementation.

For example You may want to create separate accounts to handle different policies for non-production and production resources, or use consolidated billing to benefit from discount on volume.

For support with billing it is essential to understand the tools and services available to you , as well as the level of help you could receive via AWS Support plans.

Toolkits consist of AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Simple Monthly Calculator and the The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculator.

Example questions

Question What are two ways that an AWS customer can lower the amount they spend each month? (choose 2)

1. Shut off resources that aren't being utilized
2. Utilize more efficient power-efficient instances of types
3. Reserve capacity where appropriate
4. Make use of HTML0 of Security Groups
5. Diminish the volume of information that ingress costs

Answer: 1-3. switching off resources that aren't being used could reduce expenditure. You may also reserve instances to cut down on expenditure per month, at the expense of having to commit to an agreement for 1 or 3 years which is ideal for steady work loads.

The company wants to maximize the volume of their business and discounts on multiple accounts. They implement service control policies on the member accounts. What is the best way to to gain these advantages?

1. AWS Budgets
2. AWS Cost Explorer
3. AWS IAM
4. AWS Organizations

Answer: 4. AWS Organizations lets you set up groups of AWS accounts and centrally manage policies across these accounts. AWS Organizations provides consolidated billing with both feature sets that allows you to set up one payment method within the master account of your organization and be able to receive an invoice for every transactions in each member's account. Discounts for volume pricing are available for resources.

AWS cloud practitioner certification Training

If you're brand new to AWS or cloud computing generally and find it somewhat overwhelming, do not fret. There are many excellent methods of training that will have you ready for your AWS exam.

The most efficient option to begin is to join our comprehensive exam training, which includes an online video course, exam practice (including our well-known exam simulator) and an eBook to study offline. Our comprehensive training will give the most thorough information in all areas that comprise cloud practitioner certification exam.

Our Practice Exams reflect the layout and complexity of the actual AWS exam. They are an excellent way to not only test your exam level however, they also help you learn the concepts since we provide clear explanations and reference links to each question. Do not wait until the last minute. begin with The AWS-cloud practitioner certification Practice Exams earlier to be sure that you're prepared.

It is also possible to go to the aws training website. AWS offer a variety of online courses for free, like the "AWS cloud practitioner certification Essentials "AWS Cloud Specialist Essentials" course, which is the perfect opportunity to master the basics about cloud computing using the AWS Cloud. Make sure to note that the information available on aws.training website will not be sufficient to get through the exam and you'll require additional resources for training.

The last thing to do is ensure you have an account on the AWS Cloud platform and start practicing. AWS offers a free-tier can be used to set up a myriad of services! If you prefer, sign up to the cloud-based challenge labs to learn about cloud computing in a safe sandbox without having to worry about unexpected cloud charges