clf-c02 sample questions

Understanding exam question types

The nine questions presented here show you the exact question types and reasoning patterns from the official AWS exam blueprint. The exam tests your knowledge across four domains with a mix of multiple-choice questions (one correct answer, three distractors) and multiple-response questions (two or more correct answers). Each question includes an explanation that teaches the AWS concept, not just the right answer.

Nine clf-c02 sample questions with answers

Question 1 — Billing, Pricing, and Support

A startup runs a production web service on Amazon EC2 instances spread across several AWS Regions and instance families. The founder expects the mix of instances to change as the company grows, but the total monthly compute spend will stay steady. The service cannot tolerate interruptions, and the founder wants the largest possible discount while keeping that flexibility. Which purchasing model should the founder choose?

A. Pay for the usage with Compute Savings Plans

B. Pay for the usage with Spot Instance pricing

C. Pay for the usage with EC2 Instance Savings Plans

D. Pay for the usage with On-Demand Instance pricing

Answer: A

Explanation: Compute Savings Plans are the key because the company has a steady monthly compute spend but needs the freedom to change instance families and Regions. A Compute Savings Plan applies a discounted hourly rate to all EC2 compute usage, so it is not locked to a particular instance family. The EC2 Instance Savings Plans option is the strongest distractor because it can give a deeper discount, but it is fixed to one instance family in one Region, so it breaks when the instance mix changes. Spot pricing fails because the service cannot tolerate interruptions, and On-Demand pricing works but has no commitment discount. The general rule is to choose Spot for interruptible work, On-Demand for short or unpredictable work, Compute Savings Plans for flexible steady spend, and EC2 Instance Savings Plans or Reserved Instances only when the workload is fixed.

Question 2 — Cloud Technology and Services

A school district has a fixed annual IT budget and runs a student information system on MySQL. The district wants to move the database to AWS to cut maintenance time and avoid hiring a database administrator. It cannot afford to rewrite the application. Which choice gives the LEAST operational overhead while keeping the MySQL application unchanged?

A. Replace the database with Amazon DynamoDB and rewrite the application to use NoSQL.

B. Run MySQL on an Amazon EC2 instance and manage backups with Amazon EBS snapshots.

C. Use Amazon RDS for MySQL with automated backups and AWS applies database patches.

D. Keep MySQL on the current on-premises server and copy nightly backups to Amazon S3.

Answer: C

Explanation: The RDS for MySQL option is correct because the district's constraint is the least operational overhead without changing its MySQL application. With RDS, AWS takes over responsibility for the database host, engine patching, and backups, while keeping MySQL compatibility. The DynamoDB option is the strongest distractor: it is also a fully managed service, so it looks like a lower-overhead choice, but it is NoSQL and would require changing the application, which the school district cannot afford. Running MySQL on EC2 keeps the application unchanged but leaves the guest OS, database, and backup work on the customer. General rule: under the shared responsibility model, managed services shrink the customer's operational responsibility, but the service must still fit the workload; compatibility is a customer-side constraint.

Question 3 — Cloud Concepts

A company's first AWS cost report shows a large charge for an Amazon EC2 instance running a MySQL database. To follow the design principle of using managed services, the team proposes replacing the EC2 database with Amazon RDS for MySQL. The CFO wants the choice with the LEAST operational overhead and asks which choice correctly applies the shared responsibility model to the company's AWS bill. Which choice should the company make?

A. Move the database to Amazon RDS for MySQL. AWS manages the RDS infrastructure, and the company pays a metered RDS charge.

B. Move the database to Amazon RDS for MySQL. AWS manages the RDS engine, but the company must patch and maintain the underlying EC2 instance.

C. Keep the database on EC2 and use AWS Systems Manager to automate patching. The company pays EC2 charges and keeps full database control.

D. Move the database to Amazon RDS for MySQL. AWS manages and pays for RDS, so the company no longer sees a database charge.

Answer: A

Explanation: Moving the database to RDS is correct because RDS is a managed service: AWS operates the database engine, operating system, and underlying hardware, so this option has the least operational overhead. The shared responsibility model does not transfer billing ownership, however. The RDS instance is still a metered resource in the company's account, so the company pays for it and remains responsible for its data, credentials, and access configuration. The strongest distractor is the option that also moves to RDS but has AWS become responsible for the RDS cost and makes the database charge disappear; that treats "AWS manages it" as "AWS pays for it." The general rule is that managed services move operational and security responsibilities to AWS, but every service you provision in your account is still billed to you.

Question 4 — Security and Compliance

A company has just signed its first AWS agreement. The security team is using the AWS Well-Architected Framework security pillar to review a new workload. Identity, data protection, and infrastructure protection practices are already in place, but the detection focus area has not been addressed. According to the AWS shared responsibility model, which action should the company take to support the detection focus area?

A. Creating IAM roles that grant least-privilege access to AWS resources

B. Applying security patches to the AWS hypervisor that hosts the Amazon EC2 instances

C. Enabling AWS CloudTrail to record API activity in the AWS account

D. Tagging resources with cost centers and reviewing AWS Cost Explorer reports

Answer: C

Explanation: Enabling AWS CloudTrail is correct because recording API activity is a detective control, so it directly supports the security pillar's detection focus area that the scenario says has not been addressed. It is also a customer responsibility under the shared responsibility model: AWS operates the CloudTrail service, but the customer must enable it and control access to its logs. The IAM least-privilege option is the strongest distractor because it is a genuine customer responsibility and a security control, but it belongs to identity and access management, not detection, and the scenario says identity practices are already in place. The hypervisor patching option is an AWS responsibility. General rule: identify the option that matches the specific Well-Architected pillar or focus area, then use the shared responsibility model to reject actions AWS itself manages.

Question 5 — Cloud Technology and Services

BookNook has a MySQL database of historical orders that is queried only a few times per year. The team wants to archive the data in Amazon S3 and run standard SQL reports on it with the LEAST operational overhead. Which service should they use?

A. Amazon Redshift data warehouse

B. Amazon Athena query service

C. Amazon RDS with the MySQL engine

D. Amazon DynamoDB database

Answer: B

Explanation: The Athena query service option is correct because Athena is serverless and runs standard SQL queries directly against data in Amazon S3, with no database instances or data warehouse clusters to manage. The Redshift data warehouse option is the strongest distractor: it is a real analytics service that can handle large-scale SQL, but it requires a provisioned cluster and loading the data into the warehouse, which is more operational overhead. The RDS with MySQL engine option matches the original database but still needs a managed database instance and importing the data. The general rule is to choose Athena for serverless SQL over S3, Redshift for petabyte-scale data warehousing, RDS for transactional relational workloads, and DynamoDB for key-value NoSQL data.

Question 6 — Billing, Pricing, and Support

A school district runs its student records portal on AWS. The security administrator must be able to run the full set of AWS Trusted Advisor checks, submit support cases through the AWS Support API, and call AWS support 24/7 for urgent security issues. The annual technology budget is fixed, so the administrator wants the lowest-cost support plan that still provides 24/7 access and full Trusted Advisor checks. Which support plan should the district choose?

A. Enterprise Support, which provides a dedicated technical account manager and concierge assistance.

B. Enterprise On-Ramp Support, which provides a pooled technical account manager and proactive guidance.

C. Developer Support, which provides one primary contact and business-hours access to AWS engineers.

D. Business Support, which provides 24/7 access to AWS engineers and full Trusted Advisor checks.

Answer: D

Explanation: This is correct because Business Support is the lowest support plan tier that combines 24/7 access to AWS engineers, the AWS Support API, and the full set of Trusted Advisor checks. Developer Support does not meet the requirement because its technical support is limited to business hours and one primary contact. The Enterprise On-Ramp option is the strongest distractor: it also provides 24/7 support and all Trusted Advisor checks, but it adds TAM features that raise the cost, so it violates the fixed-budget requirement to pick the lowest-cost qualifying plan. The rule to generalize is to compare support plans against the stated minimum requirements and then choose the least expensive tier that satisfies them, not the highest tier AWS offers.

Question 7 — Cloud Concepts

A charity runs its donation website on AWS. It has no dedicated IT staff and cannot hire an architect. It expects a large donation spike in December and wants the workload to keep working if one Availability Zone fails. Its priority is the Reliability pillar. Which AWS resource can identify gaps in redundancy with the LEAST operational overhead?

A. AWS Trusted Advisor automated checks

B. AWS Compute Optimizer recommendations

C. AWS Well-Architected Tool self-review

D. AWS Personal Health Dashboard alerts

Answer: A

Explanation: The Trusted Advisor option is correct because Trusted Advisor runs automated checks across areas such as fault tolerance and can point out missing redundancy (for example, a resource deployed in only one Availability Zone) without the charity having to perform a manual review. The Well-Architected Tool self-review also covers the Reliability pillar, but it requires someone to complete and interpret a structured assessment, so it has more operational overhead than an automated check. The rule to remember: when the question asks for the LEAST operational overhead, prefer the managed, automated resource that delivers the recommendation directly, rather than a tool that depends on ongoing human effort.

Question 8 — Billing, Pricing, and Support

A company is migrating an existing customer database to Amazon EC2. The database will run continuously for 18 months, then it will be decommissioned and all compute resources will be shut down. The workload cannot tolerate interruption. The team wants the most cost-effective compute pricing for this period. Which purchasing strategy should the team use?

A. On-Demand for the full 18 months

B. Three-year Reserved, all upfront

C. One-year Reserved, then On-Demand

D. Use Spot Instances for the database

Answer: C

Explanation: One-year Reserved Instances are a discount on compute usage for a 12-month commitment, so buying one for the first year and using On-Demand for the remaining six months matches the guaranteed 18-month lifespan without paying for capacity beyond it. The strongest distractor is the three-year all upfront Reserved Instance: it offers the largest discount but commits the company to two extra years of capacity that will be decommissioned, so it is not the most cost-effective. Spot Instances are not suitable because the workload cannot tolerate interruption, and On-Demand for the whole period avoids commitment but gives up the Reserved Instance discount. The general rule is to match the length of commitment pricing to the length of predictable usage.

Question 9 — Cloud Technology and Services

A charity with no dedicated IT staff runs a donor-tracking web application in a container. The developers want to stop maintaining servers, but they cannot change the packaged application. They want AWS to handle as much of the underlying infrastructure as possible. Which deployment has the LEAST operational overhead?

A. Run the container on Amazon ECS with the AWS Fargate launch type.

B. Run the container on an Amazon EC2 instance that the team manages directly.

C. Run the container on Amazon EKS with self-managed Amazon EC2 nodes.

D. Run the container on Amazon ECS with the Amazon EC2 launch type.

Answer: A

Explanation: This is correct because the Fargate launch type moves the underlying compute servers to the AWS side of the shared responsibility model: AWS operates the infrastructure that runs the containers, so the charity does not need staff to patch or maintain EC2 instances. The answer that uses Amazon ECS with the EC2 launch type is the strongest distractor because it also uses ECS, but the tasks run on EC2 instances that remain the customer's responsibility to manage, patch, and secure. The rule is that when a workload needs the least operational overhead, choose the launch type or service that shifts the underlying server responsibility to AWS, then use the shared responsibility model to confirm who is still responsible for the operating system.

Using these samples in your study

These clf-c02 sample questions are a snapshot of exam concepts. Work through them once to check your understanding, then review weak domains. The bulk of your study should be dedicated to our full-length practice test. Read every explanation carefully—even for questions you answer correctly—to reinforce the underlying AWS principle and prepare for scenario variations on exam day.

Next steps

Review the exam format and scoring, check the exam objectives, and see how to book and pay for the exam. Then launch our practice test under timed conditions.

Exam facts on this page come from Amazon Web Services’s own pages (official exam page). Prices, versions and policies change — confirm there before you book.