Alibaba CSA-C01 study plan

Alibaba CSA-C01 · Give each week a clear focus.

8 weeks · About 6 hours per week

Week 1

Elastic Compute Service (ECS)

Describe the ECS instance family categories (general purpose, compute optimized, memory optimized, big data, local SSD, GPU) and match three sample workloads to the right family
Create an ECS instance end to end: choose region/zone, image, instance type, system disk, and security group rules, then connect over SSH or RDP
Explain the difference between public IP, private IP, EIP, and NAT-based outbound access, and sketch when each is appropriate
Configure a security group with least-privilege ingress rules and verify connectivity changes

A one-page ECS decision matrix (instance family -> workload) plus screenshots of a working instance reachable only from your own IP

Week 2

Compare scaling approaches: manual scaling, scheduled scaling, and auto scaling with rules, and state the trigger metric for each
Build a custom image from a configured instance and use it to launch a second instance
Enable CloudMonitor on an ECS instance and interpret CPU, memory agent, disk, and network metrics
Write three alert rules (CPU high, disk usage high, instance down) and describe the notification path

A runbook documenting image creation, auto scaling trigger settings, and three alert rules with thresholds and rationale

Week 3

Design a VPC with two vSwitches in different zones and explain how route tables direct traffic between them
Configure a security group and a network ACL together and articulate which layer blocks what
Deploy a Server Load Balancer in front of two ECS instances and verify health check failover by stopping one backend
Explain DNS resolution choices (Alibaba Cloud DNS, private zone) and when to use CDN for static content

A network diagram of your VPC (subnets, route table, SLB, security groups, ACLs) with a written failover test result

Week 4

Distinguish OSS storage classes (standard, IA, archive, cold archive) and pick a class for three access-pattern scenarios
Explain OSS bucket policies, ACLs, and versioning, and enable versioning on a test bucket
Compare RDS engines and explain read-only instances, backups, and connection endpoints
Describe when to choose ApsaraDB for Redis versus a relational database for a given workload

A storage and database selection worksheet mapping five scenarios to OSS class, RDS/Redis choice, and backup strategy

Week 5

Create RAM users, groups, and custom policies, and attach a least-privilege policy to a test user
Explain the difference between RAM roles and users, and describe STS temporary credentials for cross-service access
Configure ActionTrail and identify which events prove who did what and when
List the shared responsibility boundary for ECS, OSS, and RDS and give one customer-owned control per service

A RAM policy JSON for a read-only auditor role plus a table of shared-responsibility controls per service

Week 6

Describe Alibaba Cloud regions and zones and explain how to choose a region for latency, compliance, and disaster recovery
Compare IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS using ECS, RDS, and a managed application as examples
Explain the Alibaba Cloud product map by category (compute, network, storage, database, security, management) and place ten products
Summarize encryption options at rest and in transit across OSS, RDS, and ECS disks

A region-selection checklist and a product-category mind map covering at least ten Alibaba Cloud services

Week 7

Explain the pay-as-you-go, subscription, and savings-plan/prepaid models and compute a monthly cost for a small three-tier app
Describe how billing alerts, budgets, and cost center tags help control spend
Compare support plans by response time and channel, and map a severity-1 incident to the right plan
Use CloudMonitor dashboards and logs together to investigate a simulated performance incident

A cost estimate spreadsheet for a three-tier app with a tagging and budget-alert plan, plus a written incident investigation timeline

Week 8

Design a highly available web architecture across two zones using SLB, ECS, RDS, and OSS, and justify each choice
Identify single points of failure in a given architecture and propose fixes
Take two timed practice sets and review every missed question by domain
List your three weakest domains and write a final-week review checklist for each

A complete reference architecture diagram with a one-page design rationale and a scored practice-exam summary by domain

Week 2: Can launch, connect to, image, and monitor an ECS instance without notes, and explain auto scaling triggers

Week 4: Can draw a two-zone VPC with SLB failover from memory and correctly pick OSS storage classes for three scenarios

Week 6: Can write a least-privilege RAM policy and explain roles vs users and STS without reference

Week 8: Scores 80% or higher on a timed practice set and can defend every architecture choice in the final design