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Ready to earn your AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner credential? Our prepcast is your ultimate guide to mastering the fundamentals of AWS Cloud, including security, cost management, core services, and cloud economics. Whether you're new to IT or looking to expand your cloud knowledge, this series will help you confidently prepare for the exam and take the next step in your career. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com, your trusted resource for expert-driven cybersecurity education.
This episode shifts into rapid-fire quiz mode, focusing on service selection under time pressure. The exam gives you just over a minute per question, so building pattern-recognition reflexes is critical. Each of these scenarios frames a common AWS design choice. As you listen, try to answer before I explain, training yourself to spot keywords and eliminate wrong options quickly. The goal is not deep technical detail but mapping requirements to the simplest correct AWS service or feature.
First scenario: Which compute option should you choose? If the requirement is a long-running workload with custom operating system dependencies, that’s EC2. If the scenario describes short, event-driven functions that scale instantly, the answer is Lambda. And if the scenario says “containerized workloads without managing servers,” that’s Fargate. The exam cue is whether the workload is traditional, event-driven, or container-based.
Next, load balancers. Application Load Balancers (ALBs) handle HTTP and HTTPS with path- or host-based routing. Network Load Balancers (NLBs) manage ultra-low-latency TCP or UDP traffic, scaling to millions of requests. Gateway Load Balancers (GWLBs) integrate with network appliances like firewalls. If the exam question says “URL routing,” it’s ALB. If it says “millions of TCP connections” or “gaming protocol,” it’s NLB. If it says “inline firewall,” it’s GWLB.
For scaling policies, the exam may describe maintaining CPU at 50 percent—that’s target tracking. If it says “add two instances when CPU passes 70 percent,” that’s step scaling. If it says “predict demand and scale in advance,” that’s predictive scaling. The cue is the action language: maintain, step, or forecast.
Now let’s talk storage. If the data is accessed frequently, that’s S3 Standard. If rarely accessed but still needs immediate retrieval, Standard-IA or One Zone-IA. If archival with hours-long retrieval, that’s Glacier or Glacier Deep Archive. Intelligent-Tiering applies when patterns are unknown. The exam’s clue words are “frequent,” “infrequent,” or “archive.”
For block storage, compare EBS versus instance store. EBS volumes are durable and persist across reboots, making them fit for databases or critical apps. Instance store is ephemeral and disappears if the instance stops—useful for temporary or high-performance scratch space. On the exam, “persistent” equals EBS, “temporary” equals instance store.
Databases are another favorite exam area. If the requirement is “relational and transactional,” RDS fits. If the scenario adds “cloud-optimized, five times faster than MySQL,” that’s Aurora. If it says “NoSQL, millisecond latency at scale,” it’s DynamoDB. Those cues—relational, cloud-native, or NoSQL—map directly to the right service.
Endpoints and PrivateLink often confuse test-takers. Gateway endpoints are for S3 and DynamoDB, providing private access through route tables. Interface endpoints connect to most other services with private IPs inside your VPC. PrivateLink lets SaaS providers expose private services to your VPC. Exam cues like “S3 private access” point to gateway, while “private connection to an API” points to PrivateLink/interface.
Route 53 routing policies may show up in exam scenarios. If it says “single healthy endpoint,” that’s simple routing. “Split traffic 70/30” is weighted. “Send users to nearest Region” is latency-based. “Switch to backup if primary fails” is failover. “Send by geography” is geolocation. These keywords map directly to routing policies.
Edge acceleration often boils down to CloudFront versus Global Accelerator. CloudFront caches and distributes HTTP/S content globally. Global Accelerator provides static IPs and accelerates TCP/UDP across AWS’s backbone. If the exam says “cache web content,” pick CloudFront. If it says “static IP, gaming, or non-HTTP,” that’s Global Accelerator.
VPC access problems often ask whether to change a security group or a NACL. If the issue is with return traffic, the answer is security groups because they’re stateful. If it’s about explicit denies at the subnet boundary, that’s a NACL fix. Exam language like “stateless” or “ephemeral port range” usually points to NACLs.
Distinguishing CloudWatch, CloudTrail, and Config is another high-frequency test. CloudWatch is for metrics, logs, and alarms. CloudTrail is for recording API activity—who did what, when. Config is for evaluating compliance with resource rules. If the exam says “monitor performance,” it’s CloudWatch. If it says “audit activity,” it’s CloudTrail. If it says “check against compliance rules,” it’s Config.
Encryption appears in many questions. At-rest encryption usually means KMS integrated with the service—S3 SSE-KMS, EBS with KMS keys, or RDS encrypted at rest. In-transit encryption is about TLS and often uses ACM for managing certificates. The exam often phrases this as “meet compliance with at-rest and in-transit requirements,” expecting KMS plus TLS/ACM.
Finally, integration services. Step Functions provide orchestration for workflows with retries and branching. EventBridge routes events based on attributes, integrating with AWS and SaaS. SNS broadcasts to many, and SQS buffers between producers and consumers. If the exam says “orchestrate long workflows,” it’s Step Functions. If it says “route by pattern,” it’s EventBridge. If it says “broadcast,” that’s SNS. If it says “buffer,” that’s SQS.
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Let’s continue with more practice scenarios, this time focusing on service comparisons that the exam frequently tests. Remember, the goal is to match keywords in the scenario with the simplest AWS service that fully meets the requirement.
First, API Gateway versus Application Load Balancer for HTTP APIs. If the exam says “secure API front door with authentication, throttling, or request transformations,” the answer is API Gateway. If it simply says “distribute HTTP traffic to microservices,” that’s an ALB. Gateway adds API management, while ALB is a Layer 7 load balancer.
Next, DynamoDB consistency and indexes. The exam may ask about “strongly consistent versus eventually consistent reads.” By default, DynamoDB uses eventual consistency, but you can request strong consistency for the latest value at the cost of throughput. Global Secondary Indexes (GSIs) provide alternative query patterns across the entire table, while Local Secondary Indexes (LSIs) allow different sort keys but only within the same partition. Exam keywords like “alternative query attribute” map to GSIs, while “different sort key per partition” maps to LSIs.
ECR, ECS, and EKS are also tested together. Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR) stores container images. ECS is AWS’s container orchestration platform, while EKS provides managed Kubernetes. IAM roles for tasks in ECS or pods in EKS ensure least-privilege access to AWS resources. Exam cues like “container image storage” point to ECR, “orchestrate containers without Kubernetes” point to ECS, and “managed Kubernetes” points to EKS.
Data migration often comes down to whether AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) is the right tool. If the exam says “migrate with minimal downtime,” “support heterogeneous databases,” or “ongoing replication,” the answer is DMS. If it says “convert schema,” Schema Conversion Tool (SCT) may also be required. Together, these tools handle both structure and data movement into AWS.
Backup and disaster recovery questions rely on RTO and RPO requirements. If the exam says “minimal downtime,” Multi-AZ or cross-Region replication is the answer. If it says “point-in-time recovery,” think RDS snapshots or DynamoDB PITR. If it says “archive for compliance,” Glacier is correct. The exam maps recovery objectives to AWS features directly, so always link RTO/RPO to the right strategy.
Edge authentication is another exam theme. If the question says “temporary access to private content,” the answer is CloudFront signed URLs or signed cookies. Signed URLs restrict individual objects, while signed cookies cover multiple objects. Keywords like “short-term access to content” point directly to this feature.
S3 access control often comes down to bucket policies versus IAM. Bucket policies apply to the resource itself and can allow or deny access for specific accounts or principals. IAM policies are identity-based, controlling what a user or role can do. On the exam, “restrict access to a bucket from specific accounts” points to bucket policies, while “restrict a user’s actions” points to IAM.
The exam also tests AWS’s three major security monitoring services. GuardDuty is for continuous threat detection from logs and network flows. Detective helps analyze and investigate suspicious activity. Security Hub aggregates findings from multiple services for a unified compliance view. Keywords like “detect anomalies” point to GuardDuty, “investigate suspicious behavior” point to Detective, and “aggregate compliance findings” point to Security Hub.
Amazon Inspector appears in questions about vulnerability scanning. If the exam says “identify vulnerabilities in EC2 or ECR images,” Inspector is correct. If the scenario then asks about prioritizing or triaging findings, the right approach is to use Inspector reports to guide patching and remediation.
Monitoring elasticity signals often comes from CloudWatch metrics. Exam cues like “scale when utilization increases” or “detect queue backlog” point to CloudWatch alarms on CPU, memory, or SQS queue length. Logs and metrics provide the triggers for Auto Scaling or alerts to administrators.
Hybrid connectivity scenarios are also common. If the exam says “encrypted VPN tunnel,” that’s Site-to-Site VPN. If it says “dedicated, private connection with predictable bandwidth,” that’s Direct Connect. If it says “use both with failover,” then DX primary plus VPN backup is the expected design.
For Multi-Region workloads, the exam distinguishes failover versus active/active. If the scenario says “standby in another Region,” that’s failover with Route 53 health checks. If it says “serve traffic from multiple Regions simultaneously,” that’s active/active, often with Route 53 latency-based routing or Global Accelerator.
Finally, cost-aware defaults come up in many scenarios. If S3 costs are too high, apply lifecycle rules to move data into cheaper tiers. If egress charges are growing, use CloudFront caching. If compute is oversized, rightsize or apply schedules. The exam is consistent here: the simplest cost optimization lever is almost always the correct answer.
In conclusion, the key takeaway from this quiz is to map scenario keywords to the simplest correct AWS control. If the scenario mentions “serverless API management,” that’s API Gateway. If it says “temporary private content access,” that’s signed URLs. If it says “continuous threat detection,” that’s GuardDuty. Don’t overcomplicate answers. The exam rewards candidates who recognize patterns and apply managed, secure, and cost-aware defaults.