👈

✅ AWS Cloud Practitioner – Personal Checklist (Dev)

🧱 1️⃣ AWS BASICS

• ✅ AWS account & Free Tier
• ✅ AWS Management Console navigation
• ✅ Regions & Availability Zones (basic)
• 🔲 Edge locations (CloudFront context)

🔐 2️⃣ IAM & SECURITY (COMPLETED ✅)

• ✅ Root user best practices
• ✅ MFA importance
• ✅ IAM Users
• ✅ IAM Groups
• ✅ IAM Roles
• ✅ User vs Role
• ✅ Role vs Policy
• ✅ AWS Managed vs Customer Managed Policies
• ✅ Security Groups (Inbound / Outbound rules)

🎯 STATUS: COMPLETE

🖥️ 3️⃣ EC2 & COMPUTE (COMPLETED ✅)

EC2 Core

• ✅ Launch EC2 instance
• ✅ Connect via SSH
• ✅ Key pairs (create, delete, recover access)
• ✅ EC2 instance lifecycle
• ✅ Instance types
• ✅ Purchasing options (On-Demand, Reserved, Spot)

Storage & Images

• ✅ EBS attach / detach / resize
• ✅ Snapshots (backup & restore)
• ✅ AMI creation (custom image)

Automation

• ✅ EC2 User Data (boot-time automation)

🎯 STATUS: COMPLETE

⚖️ 4️⃣ LOAD BALANCING & AUTO SCALING (COMPLETED ✅)

• ✅ Application Load Balancer (ALB)
• ✅ Target Groups
• ✅ Health Checks
• ✅ Auto Scaling Group (ASG)
• ✅ Scaling concepts (high availability)

🎯 STATUS: COMPLETE

🌐 5️⃣ NETWORKING (MOSTLY DONE ✅)

• ✅ Elastic IP
• ✅ Route 53 (Domain mapping)
• 🔲 Public vs Private subnet (concept)
• 🔲 NAT Gateway (concept only)
• 🔲 Security Group vs NACL (theory)

🎯 STATUS: 80% DONE

🪣 6️⃣ S3 – OBJECT STORAGE (CRITICAL ❌)

• 🔲 What is S3

• 🔲 Buckets & Objects

• 🔲 Storage classes

  • Standard
  • Standard-IA
  • One Zone-IA
  • Glacier

• 🔲 Versioning

• 🔲 Encryption (SSE-S3 / SSE-KMS – concept)

• 🔲 S3 vs EBS vs EFS

🎯 STATUS: NOT DONE (HIGH PRIORITY)

🗄️ 7️⃣ DATABASES (THEORY ONLY 🔲)

• 🔲 RDS (what it is)
• 🔲 Multi-AZ meaning
• 🔲 Read replicas
• 🔲 DynamoDB (NoSQL, serverless)
• 🔲 RDS vs DynamoDB
• 🔲 Aurora (why it’s special)

🎯 STATUS: NOT DONE (THEORY)

📊 8️⃣ MONITORING & LOGGING (LIGHT 🔲)

• 🔲 CloudWatch (metrics & alarms)
• 🔲 CloudTrail (API activity tracking)
• 🔲 Trusted Advisor (cost, security, performance)

🎯 STATUS: NOT DONE

💰 9️⃣ BILLING & PRICING (VERY IMPORTANT ❌)

• 🔲 AWS Free Tier types

• 🔲 Pricing models comparison

  • On-Demand
  • Reserved
  • Spot

• 🔲 AWS Budgets

• 🔲 Cost Explorer

• 🔲 TCO Calculator

• 🔲 Consolidated billing (concept)

🎯 STATUS: NOT DONE (EASY MARKS)

🌍 🔟 GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE (QUICK WIN 🔲)

• 🔲 Region vs AZ vs Edge Location
• 🔲 CloudFront use cases
• 🔲 High availability concept

🎯 STATUS: NOT DONE

🧠 1️⃣1️⃣ CLOUD CONCEPTS (PARTIAL 🔲)

• 🔲 Shared Responsibility Model
• 🔲 IaaS vs PaaS vs SaaS
• 🔲 Elasticity vs Scalability
• 🔲 Fault tolerance vs High availability

🎯 STATUS: PARTIAL

🎯 FINAL SUMMARY

✅ Completed Strongly

• IAM & Security
• EC2 & Compute
• Load Balancing & Auto Scaling
• Real application deployment

⚠️ Still Required for Exam

1️⃣ S3 (Top priority) 2️⃣ Billing & Pricing 3️⃣ Databases (theory) 4️⃣ Monitoring & Logging 5️⃣ Global Infrastructure & Cloud concepts

📈 CURRENT STATUS

• Completion: ~80%
• Exam-safe level: 90%+
• Effort needed: ~3–4 focused days

🧪 AWS Cloud Practitioner – HANDS-ON LABS LEFT

🪣 1️⃣ Amazon S3 (TOP PRIORITY 🔥)

🔲 LAB 1 – Create S3 Bucket

• Create a bucket
• Understand bucket naming & region

🔲 LAB 2 – Upload & Manage Objects

• Upload files
• Download
• Delete objects

🔲 LAB 3 – Public Access & Bucket Policy

• Block / unblock public access
• Make an object public
• Understand bucket policy vs ACL

🔲 LAB 4 – Enable Versioning

• Enable versioning
• Upload multiple versions
• Restore old version

🔲 LAB 5 – Storage Classes

• Move object between:

  • Standard
  • Standard-IA
  • Glacier (lifecycle rule)

🔲 LAB 6 – Static Website Hosting

• Host a static website on S3

🔲 LAB 7 – S3 vs EBS Comparison (Demo)

• Compare S3 object access vs EBS block storage

💰 2️⃣ Billing & Cost Management (EASY MARKS 🟢)

🔲 LAB 8 – Billing Dashboard

• Open billing console
• Check Free Tier usage

🔲 LAB 9 – Cost Explorer

• Enable Cost Explorer
• View monthly service-wise cost

🔲 LAB 🔟 – AWS Budgets

• Create a budget alert
• Set email notification

🔲 LAB 11 – Trusted Advisor (Free Tier)

• View cost & security checks

🗄️ 3️⃣ Databases (BASIC HANDS-ON)

🔲 LAB 12 – Create RDS Instance

• Launch RDS (MySQL/PostgreSQL)
• Understand Multi-AZ option
• Stop / Delete DB

🔲 LAB 13 – Create DynamoDB Table

• Create table
• Add item
• Query item

📊 4️⃣ Monitoring & Auditing

🔲 LAB 14 – CloudWatch Metrics

• View EC2 CPU metrics
• Network In/Out

🔲 LAB 15 – CloudWatch Alarm

• Create CPU utilization alarm

🔲 LAB 16 – CloudTrail

• Enable CloudTrail
• View API activity logs

🌍 5️⃣ Global Infrastructure (Quick Labs)

🔲 LAB 17 – Explore Regions & AZs

• Switch regions
• View AZ mapping

🔲 LAB 18 – CloudFront Demo

• Create CloudFront distribution
• Use S3 as origin

🧠 6️⃣ Cloud Concepts (DEMO-LEVEL)

🔲 LAB 19 – Shared Responsibility Model

• Map AWS vs customer responsibilities (diagram)

🔲 LAB 20 – Service Models Demo

• Identify IaaS, PaaS, SaaS services in console

✅ MINIMUM REQUIRED (If Short on Time)

If you want maximum score with minimum effort, do these 👇

✔ S3 Labs (1–6) ✔ Billing Labs (8–10) ✔ CloudWatch Labs (14–15)

📌 After Completing These

You will be at:

• Hands-on coverage: ~95%
• Exam readiness: 90–95%
• Confidence level: HIGH 🔥

--

🧮 Realistic Time Calculation

⏰ Daily study time

• Minimum: 2 hours
• Maximum: 3 hours

I’ll calculate using 2 hours (safer assumption).

🧪 Hands-on + Revision Time Needed

🔴 Remaining work (from checklist)

👉 Total = ~18–21 hours

📅 Days Required (With 2–3 hrs/day)

✅ Best-case (3 hrs/day)

• 6–7 days

✅ Safe & relaxed pace (2 hrs/day)

• 8–10 days

👉 This is realistic, not rushed

🎯 FINAL ANSWER (Max Date You Should Book)

🟢 Recommended exam booking window:

10–12 days from today

This gives you:

• Buffer for revision
• Time to re-attempt weak areas
• Confidence (very important in exam)

📌 Simple Day-by-Day Plan (Optional)

Day 1–2

• S3 (all labs + theory)

Day 3

• Billing & Pricing

Day 4

• RDS + DynamoDB

Day 5

• CloudWatch + CloudTrail

Day 6

• Global infra + cloud concepts

Day 7–8

• Mock tests + revision

Day 9–10

• Final revision + weak areas

Day 11–12

• 🧠 Light revision
• 🧘 Rest
• ✅ EXAM DAY

🧠 Honest Mentor Advice

• You are already ahead of many candidates
• Do not delay more than 2 weeks
• Momentum matters

✅ My clear recommendation:

👉 Schedule your exam for ~10 days from now (max 12 days)