How I Cleared the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (My Beginner-Friendly Journey)
Oct 29, 2024 — by Himanshu Singh
The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) was the first cloud certification I ever attempted, and clearing it laid the foundation for everything I built afterward — including my own portfolio website, hosted on AWS as part of the Cloud Resume Challenge. Earning this certification on October 29, 2024 gave me the confidence to move deeper into cloud engineering and begin my AWS Developer Associate journey. Here's exactly how I prepared, what resources I used, and how the whole process shaped my growth.
1. Why I Started with Cloud Practitioner
I wanted a clear and structured entry into cloud engineering. Before diving into serverless services, automation, and building cloud-native applications, I needed: A strong understanding of AWS fundamentals, A beginner-friendly introduction to cloud concepts, A way to validate my skills with an official certification, A foundation to begin the AWS Cloud Resume Challenge, which later became my complete personal portfolio website. CLF-C02 was the perfect gateway — accessible, practical, and deeply rewarding.
2. What the Exam Covers
This certification focuses on concepts, not code. The most important topics include: Core AWS services (EC2, S3, Lambda, RDS, VPC, DynamoDB), Global AWS infrastructure, IAM + basic security principles, Billing, cost management, and support plans, Shared Responsibility Model, Best practices for cloud architecture, When to choose which AWS service. Understanding why a service is used matters far more than memorizing facts.
3. My Preparation Strategy (Simple & Effective)
I followed a structured, three-step approach that made the learning journey smooth.
Step 1: AWS SkillBuilder + YouTube
I began with AWS's official learning modules, covering: Cloud fundamentals, Foundational architecture, Basic networking and storage. To reinforce concepts visually, I watched short explainer videos about: S3 storage classes, IAM policies, High-level VPC structure. This helped build intuition quickly.
Step 2: Hands-On Practice Using AWS Free Tier
This was the most valuable part of my preparation. I practiced: Launching EC2 instances, Uploading objects to S3, Creating IAM users, groups, and MFA, Testing Lambda functions, Using CloudWatch for monitoring, Exploring VPC subnets & routing. Hands-on exploration made everything real and memorable.
Step 3: Practice Exams by Stéphane Maarek (My Only Exam Source)
For exam-style questions, I used only: ✔ Stéphane Maarek's Practice Exams (Udemy). These practice tests were incredibly accurate, both in style and difficulty. I repeated them until I consistently scored above 80%. The explanations helped me understand: Service comparisons, Real-world use cases, AWS best practices. This single step boosted my confidence more than any other resource.
4. The Exam Experience — Oct 29, 2024
On the day of the exam, everything felt manageable. Most questions were short scenarios like: A company wants secure, scalable storage for large files. Which service should they use? Nothing tricky — just real-world cloud reasoning. I took my time, reviewed answers, and felt clear about almost every question. Passing on October 29, 2024 felt incredibly rewarding.
5. How the Certification Powered My Portfolio Website
Right after clearing CLF-C02, I applied everything I learned by starting the AWS Cloud Resume Challenge. This challenge led me to: Build my entire portfolio website, Host it using Amazon S3, Distribute it through CloudFront, Configure my domain via Route 53, Track visitors through Lambda + DynamoDB, Deploy changes through CI/CD on GitHub Actions. This real project reinforced every concept from the exam and transformed those theoretical lessons into practical skills. It is the same portfolio website where you are reading this blog today.
6. What I Learned from Achieving CLF-C02
Cloud fundamentals are the backbone of every AWS service. Real learning happens through hands-on experimentation. Pricing and cost awareness are essential. AWS's global infrastructure is designed for flexibility and speed. Certifications build confidence, but real projects build mastery. Most importantly, this certification opened the path to more advanced AWS learning, including my AWS Developer Associate preparation.
Conclusion
Clearing the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner on October 29, 2024 was the first real milestone in my cloud journey. It strengthened my fundamentals, pushed me into hands-on AWS building, and inspired me to create my own portfolio website hosted entirely on AWS. If you're planning to start your cloud journey, there's no better launchpad than the Cloud Practitioner exam — and no better way to apply it than through the Cloud Resume Challenge.