So you’ve decided to snag the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner badge—smart move. Whether you’re a developer crossing into cloud, a project manager who needs to translate dev‑speak, or a student hunting that first job, this entry‑level credential opens doors. Trouble is, sorting through dozens of whitepapers, re:Invent videos, and blog posts can feel like wrangling a loose S3 bucket. That’s why this AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials Cheat Sheet 2025: Pass the Foundational Exam Fast compresses the must‑know topics, numbers, and mental models into one marathon guide. Read it, practice with the inline memory hooks, and you’ll stride into the exam with confidence instead of crossing fingers.
You’ll find every exam domain—Cloud Concepts, Security & Compliance, Technology & Infrastructure, and Billing & Pricing—broken into bite‑size sections. We’ve embedded two keyword‑rich H2s (hello, SEO), peppered in sticky mnemonics, tossed in study tables, and ended with a concise FAQ. By the end you’ll have a 2 000‑plus‑word road map plus picture ideas for your own blog or study deck.
How the Exam Is Structured
- Duration: 90 minutes
- Format: 65 questions (50 scored, 15 unscored)
- Passing Score: 700/1000
- Cost: $100 (practice exam $20)
- Domains:
- Cloud Concepts (26 %)
- Security & Compliance (25 %)
- Technology (33 %)
- Billing & Pricing (16 %)
Pro tip: questions are scenario‑based but shallow—breadth beats depth. Memorize core service purpose, default limits, and cost levers rather than niche CLI flags.
AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials Cheat Sheet 2025: Pass the Foundational Exam Fast – Cloud Concepts You Must Nail
The 6 Pillars of AWS Cloud Value
- Pay‑as‑You‑Go – No upfront capital expense; billed per second or per request.
- Elasticity – Scale up, scale down automatically (Auto Scaling, Lambda concurrency).
- Agility – Global infra deploys in minutes, experiment faster.
- Reliability – Fault isolation via Availability Zones (AZs) and Regions.
- Security – Shared responsibility model (AWS protects the cloud, customers protect in the cloud).
- Global Reach – 33+ Regions, 100+ AZs, 400+ Edge Locations (2025 numbers—memorize the “33/100/400” trio).
Shared Responsibility Mnemonic: “Infra, Patch, Glue—Data, Apps, You.”
- AWS handles Infrastructure (Regions, AZs, hypervisors), Patching underlying hosts, plus Glue network.
- Customers secure Data, Applications, and User access/IAM.
Lock this phrase, and every “who is responsible for X?” question becomes trivial.
IaaS vs PaaS vs SaaS Quick Table
| Service Example | Category | You Manage | AWS Manages |
|---|---|---|---|
| EC2 | IaaS | OS, runtime, app, data | Hardware, hypervisor |
| RDS | PaaS | Schema, data | OS, DB engine patching |
| QuickSight | SaaS | Dashboards, users | Everything else |
Remember: if you can SSH into it (EC2, Lightsail), it’s IaaS.
AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials Cheat Sheet 2025: Pass the Foundational Exam Fast for Security & Compliance
IAM Core Facts
- Root user – Created at account signup, unlimited power. Lock with MFA and never use for daily ops.
- IAM Users – Credentials (password + access keys). Assign to groups for policies.
- IAM Roles – Assume rather than sign‑in; used by services (EC2, Lambda).
- IAM Policies – JSON documents granting
AlloworDeny. Least privilege default deny.
Mnemonic for policy sections: “SID, EFFECT, ACTION, RESOURCE” → SEAR like a steak.
Key Security Services Cheat Codes
| Service | One‑Liner | Default Quiz Gotcha |
|---|---|---|
| KMS | Managed key encryption, symmetric + XKS | Customer Master Keys cost $1/month |
| CloudHSM | Dedicated FIPS 140‑2 L3 hardware | Single‑tenant, not managed patching |
| AWS WAF | Layer 7 firewall | Uses WebACLs, attaches to ALB, API GW, CloudFront |
| Shield Standard | Always‑on DDoS protection | Free; Advanced is paid at $3 000/mo (stick in memory) |
| GuardDuty | ML threat detection | 30‑day free trial, regional service |
Compliance Match Game
- HIPAA – Health data, use “AWS BAA” (Business Associate Addendum)
- PCI DSS – Cardholder data, use PCI‑compliant services (S3, API GW)
- FedRAMP – U.S. public sector workloads, GovCloud Regions
- ISO 27001 – International standard, most core services covered
Technology Domain Essentials
Networking Nuggets
- VPC default size: /16 CIDR (65 536 addresses).
- Subnets live in one AZ; Internet Gateway must be attached for public.
- Route 53 routing policies: Simple, Weighted, Latency, Failover, Geolocation, Geoproximity, Multi‑Value. Remember “SWLFGM” acronym.
Security group basics:
- Stateful – return traffic auto allowed
- Default inbound deny, outbound allow
- NACLs are stateless, subnet level, numbered rules with eval order
Compute Quick Hits
| Service | Billing Granularity | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| EC2 | Per‑second for Linux, per‑hour for Windows | Full OS control |
| Lambda | Per ms, auto‑scales | Event‑driven, pay‑only‑when‑runs |
| Fargate | Per second vCPU+memory | Container workloads, no servers |
| Lightsail | Flat monthly | Simple VPS / dev sandboxes |
EC2 pricing models: On‑Demand, Reserved (1‑/3‑year), Savings Plans, Spot, Dedicated Hosts.
Storage Flashcards
- S3 Classes – Standard, Intelligent‑Tiering, Standard‑IA, One Zone‑IA, Glacier Flexible, Glacier Deep Archive.
- S3 durability = 11 nines (99.999999999%).
- EBS – gp3 baseline 3 000 IOPS, burst to 16 000; faster than gp2.
- EFS – Regional, NFS v4, pay per GB stored; Infrequent Access tier auto‑moves.
Database Cliff Notes
- RDS engines: MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server, Aurora.
- Aurora write availability: 6‑copy quorum across 3 AZs.
- DynamoDB: single‑digit ms latency, partition key + sort key, capacity modes On‑Demand or Provisioned (autoscaling).
- Redshift Serverless auto‑suspends; pay per second of usage.
Billing & Pricing Shortcuts
Key Cost‑Optimization Tools
- Cost Explorer – visualize past spend, forecast.
- AWS Budgets – alerts for cost or usage thresholds.
- Savings Plans – commit $/hour for 1 or 3 years; covers EC2, Fargate, Lambda.
- Compute Optimizer – recommends rightsizing.
- Cost & Usage Reports (CUR) – detailed line‑item CSV in S3.
Rule of Thumb memory hook: “Monitor → Alert → Commit → Optimize → Report” (MACOR) matches those five tools respectively.
Support Plans
| Plan | Key Benefit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | Billing + docs | Free |
| Developer | Business‑hour email, <24h response | $29/mo or 3 % monthly AWS usage |
| Business | 24×7 email/phone, <1h urgent | $100/mo or tiered usage % |
| Enterprise On‑Ramp | TAM Lite, concierge | $5 500/mo min |
| Enterprise | Full TAM, white‑glove | $15 000/mo min |
Remember: Business is required for AWS Shield Advanced SLAs.
Free Tier Cheat Sheet
- 12‑month free: 750 hours/month t2.micro or t4g.micro, 5 GB S3.
- Always free: Lambda 1 M requests, DynamoDB 25 GB on‑demand, 1 million API GW messages.
Watch out—free tier clock starts at new account creation, not first usage date.
Hands‑On Study Plan (7 Days)
- Day 1 – Cloud concepts video (3 h) + flashcard creation
- Day 2 – IAM & shared responsibility lab (1 h) + 50 practice questions
- Day 3 – Compute & storage tutorials; launch EC2, Lambda, S3 (2 h)
- Day 4 – Networking & CDN: VPC wizard, create CloudFront distribution (1.5 h)
- Day 5 – Billing console deep dive: set Budget alert, explore Cost Explorer (1 h)
- Day 6 – Full practice exam (90 min) → review every wrong answer
- Day 7 – Light review + rest → schedule real exam
Exam‑Day Memory Hacks
- 30‑Second Table Dump – On scrap paper, jot: “33R/100AZ/400Edge, 11 x9 S3, 6‑copy Aurora, gp3 3 K IOPS, Shield Std free.”
- Flag and Move – Mark calculations (Savings Plan) and return; time sinks rob easy points.
- Two‑Wrong Elimination – Usually two choices scream wrong. Pick between the remaining two.
FAQ
Is the Cloud Practitioner certification worth it compared to Solutions Architect Associate?
Yes if you’re non‑technical or brand‑new; it builds vocabulary and costs just $100. Tech pros might skip straight to SAA.
Do I need hands‑on labs to pass?
Not strictly, but a weekend of console clicks cements abstract terms far better than notes alone.
How much math is on the exam?
Very little—simple cost comparison or Savings Plan percentage questions; basic arithmetic suffices.
Can I use practice exams from 2022?
Yes, but memorize 2025 numbers (Regions, AZs) and new services like gp3 volumes or Redshift Serverless.
Does the exam include code snippets?
No. Unlike associate or professional exams, Cloud Practitioner stays high level—focus on service purpose and billing levers.
