ACA CCE study guide
ACA CCE · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The ACA CCE (Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate – Cloud Computing Essentials) is an entry-level, multiple-choice certification for people starting out with Alibaba Cloud. It suits developers, sysadmins, pre-sales staff, and students who want a structured first credential before moving on to professional-level tracks. The exam is designed to test breadth rather than deep specialization: core cloud concepts (regions and zones, elasticity, shared responsibility), the main product families (compute, storage, networking, databases), Alibaba Cloud's AI and model services, and the practical side of running an account - security controls, billing, and support channels. Preparation works best in layers. The ACA CCE study guide has 4 sections and about 1,788 words.
01Cloud Computing Fundamentals
Cloud computing delivers compute, storage, and networking as metered services over a network. Candidates must be fluent in the service models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and deployment models (public, private, hybrid, community), plus the essential characteristics: on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service.
323 words, about 2 min02Core Alibaba Cloud Products
Map each workload to the right product family. ECS provides virtual machines with instance families tuned for compute, memory, or general use; pair with ESS (auto scaling) and SLB (Server Load Balancer) for elastic tiers.
305 words, about 2 min03Alibaba Cloud AI and Model Services
Alibaba Cloud's AI portfolio spans foundation models, managed model-serving platforms, and prebuilt AI APIs. Candidates should understand the Model Studio / DashScope -style model service (invoking foundation models via API), PAI (Platform for AI) for training, notebook, and model deployment, and prebuilt vision, speech, and NLP APIs for common tasks.
298 words, about 1 min04Security
Security questions test the shared responsibility model and identity-first thinking. RAM (Resource Access Management) is central: users, groups, roles, and policies govern who can do what.
862 words, about 4 min