Exam date: Friday, Sept 11, 2026 Training starts: Thursday, Aug 6, 2026 Resources: AWS Skill Builder (Individual subscription active) + Pocket Prep app (Premium active)
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| 1. Cloud Concepts | 24% |
| 2. Security and Compliance | 30% |
| 3. Cloud Technology and Services | 34% |
| 4. Billing, Pricing, and Support | 12% |
- Thu 8/6 — Set up and baseline.
- Create Skill Builder account
- Install Pocket Prep
- Read the CLF-C02 exam guide content outline start to finish
- Pocket Prep: Build Your Own Quiz — all subjects selected, ~40 Q, untimed, to baseline yourself
- Fri 8/7 — Unavailable.
- Sat 8/8 — Unavailable.
- Sun 8/9 — Missed.
- Mon 8/10 — Intro to the cloud & compute in the cloud.
- Essentials Module 1: Introduction to the Cloud
- Essentials Module 2: Compute in the Cloud
- Tue 8/11 — Global infrastructure: Regions, AZs, edge locations.
- Essentials Module 4: Going Global
- Whitepaper: "Overview of Amazon Web Services"
- Wed 8/12 — Cloud value proposition; first pass on the Well-Architected Framework.
- Essentials Module 13: Well-Architected Solutions — taken out of order to match this week's Domain 1 focus
- Thu 8/13 — Watch the intro videos, then quiz and review every explanation, right or wrong.
- Skill Builder: Exam Prep Plan Overview, 15m
- Skill Builder: Exam Prep Overview, 20m
- Pocket Prep: Build Your Own Quiz — Domain 1 only, untimed
- Skill Builder: Domain 1 Practice — exam-style questions & flashcards, 40m
- Fri 8/14 — Recap day.
- Skill Builder: Domain 1 Review, 1h 5m
- Sat 8/15 — Finish Domain 1 recap.
- Skill Builder: Domain 1 Practice: AWS SimuLearn, 1h
- Re-read Domain 1 bullets in the exam guide
- Pocket Prep: Build Your Own Quiz — Domain 1 only, second pass, target ≥80%
- Sun 8/16 — Shared Responsibility Model in depth; IAM: users, groups, roles, policies, MFA, root account best practices.
- Essentials Module 9: Security
- AWS docs: IAM overview
- Mon 8/17 — Security services survey: GuardDuty, Inspector, Macie, Shield, WAF, Security Hub, KMS.
- Essentials Module 9: Security, continued
- AWS "What is…" pages
- Builder Labs: browse the catalog for an IAM hands-on lab, e.g. creating users/policies
- Tue 8/18 — Compliance programs and AWS Artifact; AWS vs. customer responsibility for GDPR/HIPAA-type frameworks.
- Essentials Module 10: Monitoring, Compliance, and Governance — compliance section
- Wed 8/19 — Quiz and review every explanation.
- Pocket Prep: Build Your Own Quiz — Domain 2 only, untimed
- Skill Builder: Domain 2 Practice — exam-style questions & flashcards, 40m
- Thu 8/20 — Break day. No new material.
- Fri 8/21 — Break day. No new material.
- Sat 8/22 — Recap day + Compute: EC2 instance families, Lambda, Elastic Beanstalk, containers at a glance (ECS/EKS/Fargate).
- Skill Builder: Domain 2 Review, 1h 5m
-
Skill Builder: Domain 2 Practice: AWS SimuLearn, 1h— skipped - Re-read Domain 2 bullets in the exam guide
-
Pocket Prep: Build Your Own Quiz — Domain 2 only, second pass, target ≥80%— skipped - Essentials Module 3: Exploring Compute Services
- Sun 8/23 — Storage: S3 storage classes, EBS vs. EFS, Storage Gateway, Snow Family (conceptual). Networking: VPC, subnets, internet/NAT gateways, Route 53, CloudFront, Direct Connect.
- Essentials Module 6: Storage
- Essentials Module 5: Networking
- Mon 8/24 — Databases: RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, Redshift — relational vs. NoSQL vs. warehouse, conceptually.
- Essentials Module 7: Databases
- Tue 8/25 — Missed. Domain 3 quiz carried forward to 8/28.
- Wed 8/26 — Missed. Domain 3 review carried forward to 8/30; SimuLearn and service-page re-skim dropped.
- Thu 8/27 — Management & monitoring: CloudWatch, CloudTrail, AWS Config, Trusted Advisor, Systems Manager.
- Essentials Module 10: Monitoring, Compliance, and Governance — monitoring section — completed 8/18 alongside the compliance section
- Fri 8/28 — Migration & deployment: CloudFormation, Snow Family, DMS, Organizations; light pass on ML/analytics awareness.
- Essentials Module 12: Migrating to the AWS Cloud
- Essentials Module 8: AI/ML and Data Analytics
- Sat 8/29 — Pricing models: On-Demand vs. Reserved vs. Spot vs. Savings Plans. Build one estimate hands-on.
- Essentials Module 11: Pricing and Support
- AWS Pricing Calculator
- Sun 8/30 — Support plans (Basic/Developer/Business/Enterprise); billing tools: Cost Explorer, Budgets, Consolidated Billing.
- Essentials Module 11: Pricing and Support, continued
- Whitepaper: "How AWS Pricing Works"
- Mon 8/31 — Domain 3 quiz and practice, carried forward from 8/25.
- Pocket Prep: Build Your Own Quiz — Domain 3 only, untimed
- Skill Builder: Domain 3 Practice — exam-style questions & flashcards, 1h
- Review your notes — Domain 3
- Tue 9/1 — Domain 4 quiz and practice.
- Pocket Prep: Build Your Own Quiz — Domain 4 only, untimed
- Skill Builder: Domain 4 Practice — exam-style questions & flashcards, 45m
- Review your notes — Domain 4
- Wed 9/2 — Rest day. No material.
- Thu 9/3 — Domain 3 and Domain 4 review.
- Skill Builder: Domain 3 Review, 1h 5m — carried forward from 8/26
- Skill Builder: Domain 4 Review, 1h 5m — no Domain 4 SimuLearn exists, only Domains 1–3
- Review your notes — Domains 3 & 4
- Fri 9/4 — Full-topic review via the gamified escape room.
- Skill Builder: AWS Escape Room: Exam Prep for CLF-C02, ~2–3h practice mode
- Review your notes — all domains
- Sat 9/5 — First full-length timed exam simulation, now that all four domains are covered.
- Skill Builder: Official Pretest, 65 Q, 90 min timed, per-domain scoring
- Review your notes — all domains
- Sun 9/6 — Rest day. No material.
- Mon 9/7 — Another full-length timed exam; compare score trend against Saturday's Pretest.
- Pocket Prep: Build Your Own Quiz — all domains, 65 Q, self-timed to 90 min
- Review your notes — all domains
- Tue 9/8 — Closest simulation to the real thing — treat it like exam day.
- Skill Builder: Official Practice Exam, 65 Q, 90 min timed
- Review your notes — all domains
- Wed 9/9 — Review every miss.
- Re-skim the Well-Architected Framework's 6 pillars and the shared-responsibility diagram
- Essentials Module 13: Well-Architected Solutions, re-watch
- Review your notes — weakest domains from today's misses
- Thu 9/10 — Light review only, no new material.
- Pocket Prep: Weakest Subject Quiz on your weakest domain
- One top-to-bottom skim of the exam guide outline
- Skill Builder: Exam Prep Summary, 5m
- Review your notes — weakest domain
- Confirm exam logistics
- Sleep early
- Fri 9/11 — EXAM DAY — Check in (or complete online proctoring check-in) 30 minutes early. No new material — trust the prep.
Hands-on Builder Labs pulled out of the Week 3 daily schedule to keep it realistic. Do these only once the day's core material is done with time to spare — they reinforce Domain 3 service concepts but aren't required for exam-style question practice, since SimuLearn already covers hands-on scenario practice per domain.
- Builder Lab: "Introduction to Amazon EC2"
- Builder Lab: "Introduction to Amazon S3"
- Builder Lab: "Introduction to Amazon VPC"
- Builder Labs: browse the catalog for a DynamoDB or RDS hands-on lab
Official AWS — cross-checked against the official Exam Prep Plan: AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) outline (19 trainings, 32h 20m total), captured Aug 12, 2026 — every training in that plan is now used somewhere in the schedule above
- AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials — Skill Builder, self-paced, 13 modules (Introduction to the Cloud, Compute in the Cloud, Exploring Compute Services, Going Global, Networking, Storage, Databases, AI/ML and Data Analytics, Security, Monitoring/Compliance/Governance, Pricing and Support, Migrating to the AWS Cloud, Well-Architected Solutions) — covers all 4 exam domains, not just Domain 1; this plan pulls modules out of native order to match each week's domain focus
- Exam Prep Plan Overview (15m) + Exam Prep Overview (20m) — Skill Builder — short intro videos, watched 8/13
- Domain 1–4 Review videos — Skill Builder, ~1h 5m each — exam-specific topic review per domain, distinct from the Essentials modules; used on each domain's recap day
- Domain 1–4 Practice — Skill Builder, 40m–1h each — exam-style questions + flashcards per domain; used alongside Pocket Prep on each domain's quiz day
- Domain 1–3 Practice: AWS SimuLearn — Skill Builder, 1h each, AI-guided scenario + hands-on console lab per domain — no Domain 4 version exists; used on each domain's recap day
- AWS Escape Room: Exam Prep — Skill Builder, ~2–3h practice mode (listed as 5h) — gamified full-topic review; used 9/4
- Official Pretest — Skill Builder, 65 questions, 90 min timed, per-domain scoring — used 9/5, the week of the exam, once all four domains are covered
- CLF-C02 Exam Guide (PDF) — content outline & domain weightings
- Official Practice Question Set — Skill Builder, 20 questions
- Official Practice Exam — Skill Builder, 65 questions, 90 min timed (corrected from 50 Q)
- Exam Prep Summary (5m) — Skill Builder — closing video, watched 9/10
- AWS Builder Labs — Skill Builder, 200+ hands-on sandboxed labs; the IAM lab was completed on its scheduled day (8/17), the Compute/Storage/Networking/Database labs were moved to the optional "If time available" section, alongside SimuLearn's domain-level scenarios
- Whitepapers: Overview of Amazon Web Services, AWS Well-Architected Framework (the standalone PDF is archived — this is now living documentation, updated continuously rather than versioned), How AWS Pricing Works
- AWS Pricing Calculator — hands-on tool
- Pocket Prep — Build Your Own Quiz (filtered to one domain, untimed) for Weeks 1–4 domain quizzes and the Day 1 baseline; Weakest Subject Quiz for rest-day light review; Build Your Own Quiz (all domains, 65 Q, self-timed to 90 min with an external clock) for the Week 5 exam simulations; Missed Questions Quiz after every quiz and exam to review explanations, even on correct answers
| Date | Item | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Mon 8/10 | Essentials Module 1: Introduction to the Cloud — knowledge check | 88% ✅ |
| Tue 8/11 | Essentials Module 2: Compute in the Cloud — knowledge check | 93% ✅ |
| Tue 8/11 (afternoon) | Individual subscription started | ✅ |
| Tue 8/11 | Pocket Prep Premium started (monthly plan) | ✅ |
| Tue 8/11 | Essentials Module 4: Going Global — knowledge check | 83% ✅ |
| Tue 8/11 | Whitepaper "Overview of Amazon Web Services" — read | ✅ |
| Wed 8/12 | Essentials Module 13: Well-Architected Solutions — knowledge check | 100% ✅ |
| Thu 8/13 | Exam Prep Plan Overview (15m) intro video — watched | ✅ |
| Thu 8/13 | Exam Prep Overview (20m) intro video — watched | ✅ |
| Thu 8/13 | Pocket Prep: Build Your Own Quiz — Domain 1 only, untimed, 60 Q | 73% ✅ |
| Thu 8/13 | Official Practice Question Set — 20 Q | 65% ✅ |
| Thu 8/13 | Skill Builder: Domain 1 Review video (1h 5m) — watched | ✅ |
| Fri 8/14 | Skill Builder: Domain 1 Practice — exam-style questions & flashcards, 40m | ✅ |
| Sat 8/15 | Skill Builder: Domain 1 Practice: AWS SimuLearn, 1h — completed | ✅ |
| Sat 8/15 | Re-read Domain 1 bullets in the exam guide | ✅ |
| Sun 8/16 | Pocket Prep: Build Your Own Quiz — Domain 1 only, second pass, 60 Q | 90% ✅ |
| Sun 8/16 | Essentials Module 9: Security — knowledge check | 100% ✅ |
| Sun 8/16 | AWS docs: IAM overview — read | ✅ |
| Mon 8/17 | Essentials Module 9: Security, continued — knowledge check | 100% ✅ |
| Mon 8/17 | AWS "What is…" pages — read | ✅ |
| Mon 8/17 | Builder Labs: IAM hands-on lab — completed | ✅ |
| Tue 8/18 | Essentials Module 10: Monitoring, Compliance, and Governance — knowledge check (both compliance and monitoring sections) | ✅ |
| Sat 8/22 | Essentials Module 3: Exploring Compute Services — knowledge check | 100% ✅ |
| Sun 8/23 | Essentials Module 5: Networking — knowledge check | 93% ✅ |
| Sun 8/23 | Essentials Module 6: Storage — knowledge check | 100% ✅ |
| Mon 8/24 | Essentials Module 7: Databases — knowledge check | 100% ✅ |
| Fri 8/28 | Essentials Module 12: Migrating to the AWS Cloud — knowledge check | 89% ✅ |
| Fri 8/28 | Essentials Module 8: AI/ML and Data Analytics — knowledge check | 80% ✅ |
| Sun 8/30 | Essentials Module 11: Pricing and Support — knowledge check | 100% ✅ |
| Sun 8/30 | AWS Pricing Calculator — reviewed | ✅ |
| Sun 8/30 | Whitepaper "How AWS Pricing Works" — read | ✅ |
- Confirmation email reviewed — registered exam is CLF-C02
- Government-issued photo ID name matches registration exactly
- Testing center address confirmed, or online proctoring system check completed
- Plan to arrive / check in 30 minutes before the scheduled start
- Phone, smartwatch, and notes stowed away — not on the desk or in the room