Certification path planner
Pick your platform, your target role and how much hands-on experience you have, and get an ordered certification roadmap — which exam to take first, which one matches your role, and what honestly belongs later. Free, no account needed.
- AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02)
Cloud Practitioner is where most people entering the AWS world should begin. It proves you understand the cloud, its core services, pricing and security model without assuming hands-on experience — the vocabulary every later AWS exam takes for granted. It is the fastest, lowest-risk first certification.
Study free - AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03)
Solutions Architect – Associate is the most widely recognised AWS certification. It tests how you design resilient, secure, cost-effective systems across the whole platform, which is what most cloud roles actually ask for. If you are not sure which associate to pick, this is the safe default.
Study free - AWS Certified Security – Specialty (SCS-C03)
Security – Specialty is the deepest AWS security credential, covering identity, detection, infrastructure and data protection, and incident response in depth. It is an advanced exam that assumes real hands-on experience, aimed at people already working in cloud security — not a starting point.
Study free - Later: the advanced tier
AWS’s professional and specialist exams assume serious hands-on depth, and not all of them are covered here. Treat them as milestones to grow into once real project experience backs them up, rather than something to book next.
Why this order: Foundation first, then your role. The foundational exam gives you the vocabulary and mental model the higher exams assume, so the one that follows is a far smaller jump. Everything past that level is a milestone to plan for once hands-on experience backs it up. Taking them in sequence can also be cheaper: AWS’s long-standing benefit is a 50% discount voucher toward your next exam when you pass one. AWS sets the terms and can change them, so confirm the benefit is current in your AWS Certification Account before counting on it.
The right certification order
If you are new to a cloud platform, the path is the same whichever one you pick: a foundational exam first, then the associate-level exam that matches your role — architecture for design work, developer for code, operations for running systems, data for pipelines and AI. If you already have hands-on experience, skip the foundational exam and go straight to that associate; no certification covered here has prerequisites, so the order is about what makes you most likely to pass, not what you are allowed to sit. Professional and specialist exams come later, once real project experience backs them up. Worth knowing too: not every useful certification is tied to one cloud — infrastructure-as-code and Kubernetes credentials travel with you between platforms. The planner above turns your platform, role and experience into an ordered path.
| Platform | Your goal | New to the platform | Already hands-on |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS | Just getting into cloud | CLF-C02 → SAA-C03 → SCS-C03 | SAA-C03 → SCS-C03 |
| AWS | Architect / cloud engineer | CLF-C02 → SAA-C03 → SCS-C03 | SAA-C03 → SCS-C03 |
| AWS | Developer | CLF-C02 → DVA-C02 | DVA-C02 |
| AWS | Operations / SRE / sysadmin | CLF-C02 → SOA-C03 → SCS-C03 | SOA-C03 → SCS-C03 |
| AWS | Data & AI | AIF-C01 → DEA-C01 | DEA-C01 |
| Microsoft Azure | Just getting into cloud | AZ-900 → AZ-104 | AZ-104 |
| Microsoft Azure | Architect / cloud engineer | AZ-900 → AZ-104 | AZ-104 |
| Microsoft Azure | Developer | AZ-900 → DP-700 | DP-700 |
| Microsoft Azure | Operations / SRE / sysadmin | AZ-900 → AZ-104 | AZ-104 |
| Microsoft Azure | Data & AI | AZ-900 → DP-700 | DP-700 |
| Google Cloud | Just getting into cloud | GenAI Leader → ACE | ACE |
| Google Cloud | Architect / cloud engineer | GenAI Leader → ACE | ACE |
| Google Cloud | Developer | GenAI Leader → ACE | ACE |
| Google Cloud | Operations / SRE / sysadmin | GenAI Leader → ACE | ACE |
| Google Cloud | Data & AI | GenAI Leader → ACE | ACE |
| CNCF | Just getting into cloud | KCNA | — |
| CNCF | Architect / cloud engineer | KCNA | — |
| CNCF | Developer | KCNA | — |
| CNCF | Operations / SRE / sysadmin | KCNA | — |
| CNCF | Data & AI | KCNA | — |
| HashiCorp | Just getting into cloud | Terraform 004 | Terraform 004 |
| HashiCorp | Architect / cloud engineer | Terraform 004 | Terraform 004 |
| HashiCorp | Developer | Terraform 004 | Terraform 004 |
| HashiCorp | Operations / SRE / sysadmin | Terraform 004 | Terraform 004 |
| HashiCorp | Data & AI | Terraform 004 | Terraform 004 |
| ISC2 | Just getting into cloud | CC | — |
| ISC2 | Architect / cloud engineer | CC | — |
| ISC2 | Developer | CC | — |
| ISC2 | Operations / SRE / sysadmin | CC | — |
| ISC2 | Data & AI | CC | — |
How to plan your certification path
Three questions settle the whole roadmap: which platform, how much hands-on time you have, and what you actually want to do. Everything else is ordering.
Pick the platform your work actually uses
Certify in what your employer runs, or what the roles you want name in their listings. A deep path on one platform is worth far more than a shallow one on three — and once you know one cloud well, the concepts transfer between them more easily than the marketing suggests.
Let your experience set the starting line
With little or no hands-on time, start with the platform’s foundational exam. It exists precisely to be your first one, and skipping it is the most common reason people fail an associate exam. With real experience, skip it: no exam has prerequisites, and the foundational paper would mostly re-test what you already know.
Pick one associate exam, matched to your role
Within a platform the associate exams are usually similar in difficulty — the difference is emphasis, not depth — so the exam feels easiest when its scenarios match your daily work. You do not need all of them. One that maps to where you are going is the signal that counts.
Consider a portable certification alongside the cloud one
Infrastructure-as-code and Kubernetes credentials are not tied to a single cloud, so they keep their value if you change platform or employer. Paired with one cloud certification, either usually adds more than a second cloud credential would.