AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CRI series) study plan

Define cloud computing and distinguish the six advantages of cloud over on-premises infrastructure, writing each in your own words

Map the AWS global infrastructure hierarchy (Regions, Availability Zones, edge locations) and explain how each choice affects latency and resilience

Compare IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS and place at least six AWS services into the correct model

Describe the shared responsibility model and state which side owns patching for EC2 versus RDS versus Lambda

Set up a free-tier AWS account with a budget alert so no spend surprises accumulate during study

Explain the AWS shared responsibility model at the customer and AWS layers for compute, storage, and networking

Configure an IAM user, group, role, and policy, then prove with a test that least-privilege access blocks an action you did not grant

Differentiate identity-based and resource-based policies and identify when a role is preferable to an access key

Enable multi-factor authentication on the root account and describe why root should not be used for daily work

Summarize the purpose of AWS CloudTrail, GuardDuty, and Security Hub in one sentence each

Describe how security groups and network ACLs differ in statefulness and scope, and give a use case for each

Explain encryption at rest and in transit and name the AWS services that manage keys for each

Outline the AWS compliance and assurance program, including what an audit report such as SOC or ISO certification tells a customer

Identify the services used for threat detection, vulnerability findings, and centralized security posture

Draft a short incident-response sequence using CloudTrail logs and GuardDuty findings

Compare EC2 instance families and pricing models (On-Demand, Reserved, Spot, Savings Plans) and pick one for a stated workload

Launch an EC2 instance, attach an EBS volume, and explain the difference between instance store and EBS durability

Describe how an Application Load Balancer and Auto Scaling group work together to absorb traffic spikes

Differentiate S3 storage classes and lifecycle policies, and state when to use S3 versus EBS versus EFS

Explain the purpose of a VPC, subnet, internet gateway, and route table in a simple architecture

Compare managed databases: RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, and Redshift, matching each to a read/write pattern

Explain the difference between vertical and horizontal scaling and identify which AWS services handle each automatically

Describe serverless compute with Lambda, including triggers, timeouts, and when it beats EC2

Summarize the role of CloudFront, Route 53, and API Gateway in delivering and routing an application

List the core monitoring and logging tools (CloudWatch metrics, logs, alarms) and describe what each observes

Explain the AWS pricing philosophy: pay-as-you-go, pay-less-by-using-more, and pay-less-by-reserving

Use the AWS Pricing Calculator to estimate a small workload and break the estimate into compute, storage, and data transfer

Identify the main cost drivers, including data transfer out, idle resources, and storage class choice, and name one mitigation for each

Describe the AWS Support plan tiers and which one includes a technical account manager

Explain consolidated billing and how AWS Organizations helps control spend across accounts

Re-derive the shared responsibility split for five services without notes

Trace a request through Route 53, CloudFront, an ALB, and an EC2 instance, naming the security control at each hop

Compare the Well-Architected Framework pillars and cite one trade-off between security and cost

Review your earlier lab write-ups and correct any security misconfiguration you left in place

Practice explaining three services aloud in under two minutes each to test recall

Take two full-length timed practice exams and record scores by domain

Drill the two weakest domains until practice accuracy exceeds 80 percent in each

Review every missed question and write the underlying fact rather than the answer letter

Rehearse the exam logistics: question pacing, flagging strategy, and time per question

Confirm weak areas are closed by re-testing the same topics a day later