Comprehensive study notes, diagrams, and resources covering the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification.
Organized to provide a clear reference for AWS core concepts, services, pricing models, security, and architectural best practices.
- Certification: AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
- Issued: August 2025
- Skills Covered: AWS global infrastructure, core services, pricing models, security, and the AWS Well-Architected Framework.
- Core AWS Concepts
- AWS Services
- Security & Compliance
- Pricing & Billing
- Well-Architected Framework
- Diagrams & Visuals
- Resources & Links
Quick summaries of foundational AWS ideas:
- Cloud computing models: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS
- AWS global infrastructure: Regions, Availability Zones, Edge Locations
- Shared Responsibility Model: AWS manages the cloud, customers manage what’s in the cloud
- CapEx vs OpEx vs Variable Expense: Capital vs operational costs, and scaling costs with usage
Service overviews organized by category:
Compute
- EC2: Resizable virtual servers
- Lambda: Serverless compute for event-driven apps
- Elastic Beanstalk: Managed app deployment
- Lightsail: Simplified VPS hosting
Storage
- S3: Object storage
- EBS: Block storage for EC2
- EFS: Scalable file storage
- Glacier: Low-cost archival
Database
- RDS: Managed relational databases
- DynamoDB: NoSQL database
- Aurora: High-performance MySQL/PostgreSQL-compatible DB
Networking
- VPC: Isolated virtual network
- Route 53: DNS and domain registration
- CloudFront: Global content delivery
Security
- IAM: User and permission management
- Cognito: User authentication
- KMS: Key management
- WAF: Web application firewall
Key AWS security features:
- IAM policies, roles, and groups
- MFA and secure access key practices
- AWS Artifact for compliance reports
- AWS Organizations for multi-account governance
Main AWS pricing models:
- Pay-as-you-go
- Reserved Instances
- Savings Plans
- Free Tier
AWS pricing tools:
- AWS Pricing Calculator
- Cost Explorer
- Budgets
Six pillars of AWS best practices:
- Operational Excellence – Operations as code, continuous improvement
- Security – Protect data and systems
- Reliability – Recovery from failures
- Performance Efficiency – Use resources efficiently
- Cost Optimization – Avoid unnecessary costs
- Sustainability – Minimize environmental impact
Example AWS architecture diagram:
