Exam Tip: The largest domain. Focus on knowing what each service does conceptually — not deep configuration. Pick the right service for the given scenario.

Billing, Pricing and Support 12%

AWS pricing models (On-Demand, Reserved, Spot, Savings Plans)
AWS Cost Management (Cost Explorer, Budgets, Cost & Usage Report)
AWS Support plans (Basic, Developer, Business, Enterprise)
AWS Marketplace and Partner Network
AWS Organizations and consolidated billing

Exam Tip: Know the 4 support plan tiers and their key differences. Understand when to use Reserved Instances vs. Savings Plans.

Sample CLF-C02 questions with explanations

Use these examples to check how the topics are tested. Read the explanation for every option you were unsure about, then start a scored practice set above.

Question 1 Domain 1: Cloud Concepts Choose 2

A company is planning a cloud migration. Which TWO are common motivations for migrating to the AWS Cloud? (Select TWO)

○ To eliminate all IT costs
✓ To improve business agility and innovation speed
○ To increase IT staff headcount
✓ To enhance security and compliance posture
○ To maintain complete physical control over all servers

Answer: B. To improve business agility and innovation speed | D. To enhance security and compliance posture

Common migration motivations include 'To improve business agility and innovation speed' (B) by using cloud services to experiment and deploy faster, and 'To enhance security and compliance posture' (D) by leveraging AWS's security expertise and compliant infrastructure. The cloud does not eliminate all IT costs (A); it changes the cost model. It often allows optimization of IT staff (C), not necessarily increasing headcount. Migrating to the cloud involves ceding physical control (E) to AWS.

Question 2 Domain 2: Security and Compliance

Which AWS service can you use to create a custom report of your resource configurations and compliance status?

✓ AWS Config
○ AWS CloudTrail
○ AWS Systems Manager
○ AWS Cost Explorer

Answer: A. AWS Config

AWS Config allows you to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of your AWS resources. It can generate compliance reports based on rules you define.

Question 3 Domain 3: Cloud Technology and Services

A company is deploying a new application using an Infrastructure as Code (IaC) template. Which AWS access method is best suited for creating and managing these repeatable deployments?

○ AWS Management Console
○ AWS CLI
○ AWS SDKs
✓ All of the above can be used with IaC.

Answer: D. All of the above can be used with IaC.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) involves managing infrastructure through machine-readable definition files. AWS provides multiple ways to work with IaC: The Console can launch CloudFormation stacks, the CLI can execute commands, and SDKs can programmatically manage resources. Therefore, all listed methods can be used in conjunction with IaC.

Question 4 Domain 4: Billing, Pricing, and Support

A developer wants to test a new application for a few hours without incurring costs. Which AWS offering should they use?

○ On-Demand Instances
✓ AWS Free Tier
○ Reserved Instances
○ Spot Instances

Answer: B. AWS Free Tier

The AWS Free Tier provides new customers with a limited amount of free usage for various services for 12 months, allowing them to experiment without cost. On-Demand, Reserved, and Spot Instances all incur costs, though Spot can be very cheap.

Question 5 Security and Compliance

When using Amazon RDS, a managed database service, who is responsible for performing backups and applying patches to the database engine?

○ The customer is responsible for both backups and patches.
○ AWS is responsible for both backups and patches.
✓ AWS is responsible for patches; the customer is responsible for configuring and managing backups.
○ The customer is responsible for patches; AWS is responsible for automated backups.

Answer: C. AWS is responsible for patches; the customer is responsible for configuring and managing backups.

For Amazon RDS, AWS manages the underlying infrastructure and the database engine software. This includes applying patches and updates to the database engine (security and version upgrades). However, the customer is responsible for configuring, enabling, and managing the backup retention policy and recovery processes, although AWS provides automated backup features that the customer must opt into and configure. This illustrates the shared responsibility model for a managed service.

Open the full CLF-C02 question-and-answer guide