AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner guideFormat & scoring
CLF-C02 Exam Format: 65 Questions, 90 Minutes and How Multiple Response Works
The AWS Cloud Practitioner exam has 65 questions in 90 minutes, 15 of them unscored and unmarked. Here is how multiple choice and multiple response work, what the exam screen lets you do, the pacing math, break rules and the ESL +30 extension.
Short answer
CLF-C02 has 65 questions and a 90-minute limit. Only 50 questions count toward your score; the other 15 are unscored trial questions that AWS does not identify, so treat every question as if it counts. Each question is either multiple choice (one correct answer out of four) or multiple response (two or more correct answers out of five or more options). Unanswered questions are scored as incorrect and there is no penalty for guessing, so answer everything. That works out to about 83 seconds per question.
The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam (CLF-C02) gives you 90 minutes for 65 questions, according to AWS's certification page. The rest of the format comes from the CLF-C02 exam guide and AWS's test-day policies, and a few of its details change how you should spend those 90 minutes.
CLF-C02 at a glance
| Feature | What AWS says |
|---|---|
| Questions | 65 in total |
| Time | 90 minutes |
| Scored questions | 50 |
| Unscored questions | 15, not identified on the exam |
| Question types | Multiple choice and multiple response |
| Unanswered questions | Scored as incorrect |
| Guessing | No penalty |
| Score | Scaled 100–1,000; 700 passes |
| Delivery | Pearson VUE test center or online proctored |
| Fee | 100 USD |
The passing score guide explains what the 100–1,000 scale means and why 700 is not 70%.
The 15 unscored CLF-C02 questions you can't spot
AWS adds 15 questions that do not affect your score so it can test them for future exams. The exam guide says plainly that these "are not identified on the exam." There is no pattern to look for: an unscored question can be easy, hard, short or long.
The practical consequence is simple. Give every question your full attention, and don't skip something because it "feels like a trial question."
Multiple choice vs multiple response on CLF-C02
The exam guide defines both types:
- Multiple choice: one correct response and three incorrect responses (distractors)
- Multiple response: two or more correct responses out of five or more response options
AWS describes distractors as answers that "a candidate with incomplete knowledge or skill might choose" and calls them "generally plausible." In practice, expect wrong options that name real AWS services doing a related job, not obvious nonsense.
Read each stem to the end before you judge the options, and check whether it asks for one answer or several. The exam guide does not describe partial credit for multiple response, so prepare as if a question counts only when every selection is right.
That is why explanations of the near-miss option matter more than the right answer alone. You can see how planned CLF-C02 prep explains the close wrong answer, such as AWS WAF versus AWS Shield, on the exam page.
CLF-C02 pacing: about 83 seconds a question
The arithmetic is Passy's:
| Situation | Time | Per question | Checkpoint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard exam | 90 minutes | About 83 seconds | Question 33 by about the 45-minute mark |
| With ESL +30 | 120 minutes | About 111 seconds | Question 33 by about the 60-minute mark |
Questions you know cold take less than the average. Bank that time for multiple-response questions and for the ones where two services look alike. If a question stalls you past two minutes, flag it, pick your best answer and move on; a blank is scored as wrong anyway.
How the four CLF-C02 domains fill the 50 scored questions
The exam guide weights the domains by percentage of scored content. Applied to 50 scored questions, the split is roughly (Passy's arithmetic; AWS does not publish per-domain counts):
| Domain | Weight | About this many scored questions |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Cloud Concepts | 24% | 12 |
| 2. Security and Compliance | 30% | 15 |
| 3. Cloud Technology and Services | 34% | 17 |
| 4. Billing, Pricing, and Support | 12% | 6 |
Domains 2 and 3 together are almost two-thirds of the score. Planned full prep for CLF-C02 follows the same proportions, and you can see how the planned 550 questions split across the CLF-C02 domains on the exam page.
What the CLF-C02 exam screen lets you do
AWS's During Testing page describes the Pearson VUE exam screen:
- Candidate Code of Conduct. You get 5 minutes to read and agree to it. Not agreeing, or letting the time run out, ends the exam with no refund.
- Exam section. A timer sits in the upper right, with a warning when 5 minutes remain. You can move to the next or previous question freely, and a Flag for Review button marks questions to revisit.
- Review screen. After the last question, you can review all questions, only incomplete ones, or only flagged ones.
- Survey. You get 5 minutes for end-of-exam survey questions.
- Exit screen. AWS says it provides information on exam results, and its FAQ adds that most AWS exams don't display a pass or fail result at the end. The official result arrives later in your AWS Certification Account.
One trap: each question has a Comment button, and AWS warns that time spent writing comments is subtracted from your exam time. AWS recommends flagging the question and adding comments after you have finished.
To see this interface before test day, AWS points to the "AWS Exam Demo" on its Pearson VUE page (Before Testing).
Breaks: test center vs online
AWS does not schedule breaks on its exams. The rules then depend on where you test:
- Test center: you may take an unscheduled break, but the timer keeps running, you must complete check-in again to come back, and you may not leave the building
- Online proctored: no breaks. You may not stand up or leave the camera's view for any reason, including a restroom break
If you think you will need a break during 90 minutes, that alone is a reason to choose a test center. The CLF-C02 scheduling guide compares the two options in full.
ESL +30 and CLF-C02 exam languages
AWS lists 12 languages for CLF-C02: Arabic, English, French (France), German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Spain), Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. The certification page adds that the Italian and German versions will be retired after December 31, 2026.
Two options help non-native English speakers:
- ESL +30. If English is not your native language and you take the exam in English, you can request a 30-minute extension. You request it once in your AWS Certification Account before registering, and it then applies to all future registrations.
- The English toggle. If you register for a translated exam, AWS says you can view questions in English during the exam with a toggle.
Request ESL +30 before you book. The accommodation must exist on your account when you register.
Practicing CLF-C02 under real conditions
Format knowledge helps only if you have practiced at this pace. Passy's free CLF-C02 practice questions are 20 original scenario questions across the four domains, with an explanation for every answer. They are not AWS items, and 20 questions cannot predict a score.
For a full run-through, you can later rehearse the 90-minute pacing with the mock exam planned for CLF-C02 prep, which uses the same 65-question length; checkout isn't open yet.
Trust the source
Official sources
Exam policies can change. Use these primary sources for the most current details.