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This cheat sheet covers all major AWS services you need to know for the CLF-C02 exam. Each service is grouped by category so you can quickly locate what you need during study sessions or last-minute review. Focus on understanding the core purpose of each service — the exam tests recognition and situational judgment, not deep implementation details.
Compute
Storage
Database
Networking
Security
Management
App Integration & AI
Compute services provide the processing power behind your applications. For the exam, understand when to choose managed/serverless options over raw EC2 instances.
Service
What It Does
Key Use Case
Amazon EC2
Virtual servers in the cloud
Web servers, application hosting
AWS Lambda
Serverless function execution
Event-driven, short-duration functions
AWS Fargate
Serverless container runtime
Run containers without managing servers
Amazon ECS
Container orchestration service
Docker workload management
Amazon EKS
Managed Kubernetes service
Kubernetes workloads on AWS
AWS Elastic Beanstalk
PaaS application deployment
Web apps without infrastructure management
Amazon Lightsail
Simple virtual private server
Small websites and basic applications
The exam frequently asks you to choose between EC2 and a managed/serverless option. When the scenario emphasizes reducing operational overhead, prefer Lambda, Fargate, or Elastic Beanstalk over raw EC2.
Storage services span object, block, file, archive, and physical transfer. Know the differences between S3 storage classes and when to use EBS vs EFS.
Service
Type
Key Use Case
Amazon S3
Object storage
Files, backups, static website hosting
Amazon EBS
Block storage
EC2 boot volumes and persistent disks
Amazon EFS
File storage (NFS)
Shared filesystem across multiple EC2 instances
S3 Glacier
Archival object storage
Long-term, infrequent-access data archiving
AWS Storage Gateway
Hybrid storage bridge
Connecting on-premises systems to AWS storage
AWS Snow Family
Physical data transfer
Migrating large datasets to AWS offline
S3 Glacier is not the same as the S3 Glacier storage class inside S3. Glacier is a standalone archival service; the S3 Glacier storage classes (Instant, Flexible, Deep Archive) are tiered options within S3.
AWS offers purpose-built databases for relational, NoSQL, in-memory, and analytical workloads. The exam tests your ability to match the right database type to a given scenario.
Service
Type
Key Use Case
Amazon RDS
Managed relational database
MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server apps
Analytics, business intelligence, large-scale queries
Amazon DocumentDB
Managed document database
MongoDB-compatible workloads
DynamoDB is AWS’s flagship NoSQL service and appears frequently. Remember: it is serverless, fully managed, and scales automatically — ideal when questions mention “millions of requests” or “variable traffic.”
Networking services control how your resources connect to each other, to the internet, and to your on-premises environments. VPC is the foundational building block.
Service
What It Does
Amazon VPC
Creates an isolated, logically defined private network in AWS
Amazon CloudFront
Content Delivery Network (CDN) that caches content at edge locations
Amazon Route 53
Scalable DNS service with domain registration and health checking
AWS Direct Connect
Dedicated private network connection from on-premises to AWS
Elastic Load Balancing
Automatically distributes incoming traffic across multiple targets
AWS VPN
Encrypted IPSec tunnel between your network and AWS over the internet
Direct Connect vs VPN is a common exam scenario. Direct Connect is a physical, dedicated line (more consistent, higher cost); VPN runs over the public internet (easier to set up, lower cost, variable performance).
Security is the highest-weighted domain on the CLF-C02 exam at 30%. Know each service’s specific function — especially how IAM, GuardDuty, Shield, WAF, and CloudTrail differ.
Service
What It Does
AWS IAM
Manages users, groups, roles, and permissions for AWS resources
Amazon GuardDuty
Intelligent threat detection using ML and anomaly analysis
AWS Shield
DDoS protection (Standard is free; Advanced is paid)
AWS WAF
Web Application Firewall that filters malicious HTTP/S traffic
AWS KMS
Creates and manages cryptographic keys for data encryption
AWS CloudTrail
Records all API calls and account activity for auditing
AWS Config
Tracks resource configuration changes and evaluates compliance
Amazon Macie
Uses ML to discover and protect sensitive data stored in S3
AWS Secrets Manager
Stores, rotates, and retrieves secrets like database credentials
AWS Artifact
Self-service portal for AWS compliance reports and agreements
CloudTrail = auditing (who did what, when). CloudWatch = monitoring (metrics and alarms). This distinction appears on almost every exam attempt.
Management and governance services help you monitor, automate, and control your AWS environment. These are critical for cost control and operational excellence.
Service
What It Does
Amazon CloudWatch
Collects metrics, logs, and events; sets alarms and dashboards
AWS CloudTrail
Logs all API activity across your AWS account for auditing
AWS Trusted Advisor
Analyzes your account and gives best-practice recommendations
AWS Cost Explorer
Visualizes historical and projected AWS spending
AWS Budgets
Creates alerts when costs or usage exceed defined thresholds
AWS Organizations
Centrally manages multiple AWS accounts with policy control
AWS CloudFormation
Deploys and manages infrastructure using JSON/YAML templates
AWS Systems Manager
Provides operational management across EC2 and on-premises servers
AWS Organizations enables consolidated billing, letting you aggregate charges from all member accounts into a single payer account. This can unlock volume pricing discounts.
Application integration services decouple components for resilient architectures. AI/ML services provide pre-built intelligence without requiring data science expertise.
Service
What It Does
Amazon SQS
Managed message queue for decoupling distributed application components
Amazon SNS
Pub/sub messaging service for notifications and fan-out patterns
Amazon API Gateway
Creates, publishes, and manages REST and WebSocket APIs at scale
AWS Step Functions
Serverless workflow orchestration using visual state machines
Amazon Rekognition
Analyzes images and videos for objects, faces, and text
Amazon Comprehend
Natural language processing (NLP) for sentiment and entity detection
Amazon Polly
Converts text into lifelike speech audio
Amazon Transcribe
Converts speech audio into text transcriptions
Amazon Lex
Builds conversational chatbot interfaces using voice and text
Amazon SageMaker
End-to-end platform for building, training, and deploying ML models
For the exam, SQS = queue (point-to-point, one consumer processes each message), SNS = notifications (one-to-many broadcast). Step Functions orchestrates multi-step workflows across Lambda functions and other services.
Exam Domain 3: Technology & Services
This category carries 34% of the CLF-C02 exam weight — the largest single domain. Prioritize compute, storage, database, and networking services.
Study Tip: Use Cases Over Features
The exam rarely asks implementation details. Focus on when to use a service, not how to configure it. Practice matching scenarios to the right service.
