Azure Fundamentals vs AWS Cloud Practitioner: which to choose
AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals and AWS Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) are the entry-level certifications for the two biggest clouds, both foundational and beginner-friendly — the right choice is whichever platform matches your target job or current employer, not which exam is “better”. The two credentials do the same job at the same level: they certify cloud literacy, assume no hands-on experience, and act as the first rung on their vendor’s certification ladder. That makes the comparison less about exam content and more about direction — which cloud will you actually be working with? This guide lays out what each exam certifies, where they genuinely differ, how to choose between them, and whether taking both is ever worth it.
What each certification actually certifies
Both exams are foundational certifications with no prerequisites, designed for people at the start of their cloud journey — including career changers and non-engineering professionals who work around cloud projects rather than inside them. Both cover the same conceptual territory: what cloud computing is, the core service categories (compute, storage, networking, databases), how security responsibility is shared between provider and customer, and how pricing, support and governance work on the platform.
The difference is the platform the concepts are attached to. Cloud Practitioner teaches those ideas through AWS’s services and vocabulary; AZ-900 teaches them through Azure’s, including Microsoft-specific pieces such as Microsoft Entra ID (the identity service formerly called Azure Active Directory). Neither exam expects you to build anything — they test whether you know what things are, what they are for, and when they apply.
The honest similarities — and the few real differences
Side by side, the two exams are more alike than different, which is exactly why the choice should not be agonised over:
- Same level and purpose — both are foundational, beginner-friendly, and assume no hands-on experience.
- Same delivery — both are administered by Pearson VUE, at a test centre or online with remote proctoring.
- Similar scoring — both use scaled scoring with a pass mark of 700 (AWS scales 100–1000; Azure scores out of 1000).
- Different validity — this is the clearest structural difference: AWS certifications are valid for three years, whilst Azure Fundamentals certifications do not expire at all.
- Different vocabulary — the underlying concepts overlap heavily, but every service wears a different name, so the credential signals familiarity with one specific platform.
- Different pricing models — AWS publishes a single exam fee per tier (check AWS’s pricing page for the current foundational figure), whilst Azure exam prices vary by country and region, so check the official exam page on Microsoft Learn for yours.
How to choose: follow the platform, not the exam
The deciding question is not which exam is easier or more respected — at this level they are peers. It is which cloud your target employers use. Look at the job adverts in your market and the organisations you want to join: if they run on Azure — common in Microsoft-heavy enterprises, government and organisations already deep in Microsoft 365 — AZ-900 is the natural start. If they run on AWS — common across startups and a broad slice of the wider market — Cloud Practitioner is. If you are already employed somewhere with a cloud commitment, that decision has effectively been made for you.
This is the same reasoning behind the broader “should I learn AWS or Azure first” question: the platform choice is a market-fit decision, not a quality verdict. Both clouds are enormous, both ecosystems hire, and both foundational certs open the same kind of door on their respective platform. If you are truly undecided — no employer, no regional signal, no preference — either exam is a fine cloud-literacy starting point, and the concepts you learn will transfer to whichever platform you end up on.
Is it worth taking both?
Rarely, at this level. The two syllabuses overlap so heavily on concepts that the second exam mostly teaches you a new set of service names — real knowledge, but thin reward for a second round of fees and study time. A foundational certificate is a starting move, and its value is in what you build on top of it: the better use of that second block of effort is almost always the next rung on your chosen platform’s ladder, such as an AWS associate or Azure’s AZ-104.
The exception is a genuinely multi-cloud situation — a consultant serving clients on both platforms, or a role that straddles two estates. There, holding both foundational certs is a cheap, honest way to signal fluency across both ecosystems. For everyone else: pick the cloud that matches your direction, take its foundational exam, and spend the saved effort going deeper rather than wider.
How to prepare for each
Both vendors publish free official study material, and both are good. For Cloud Practitioner, AWS Skill Builder offers the official exam-prep courses and practice material. For AZ-900, Microsoft Learn provides free learning paths that map directly onto the exam’s objectives. In both cases, pair the reading with a free-tier account on the platform — even at foundational level, clicking through a console makes the service categories concrete in a way slides cannot.
Then rehearse with realistic practice questions until full-length sets feel comfortable. Foundational exams are passable from structured study alone — no year of hands-on experience required — so the preparation loop is short: learn the concepts, drill the questions, review what you miss, and book the exam once your practice scores are consistently clear of the pass mark. If you want the AWS-side detail, our guide to whether AWS certifications are worth it covers what happens after the foundational rung.
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