AZ-900 vs CLF-C02: which cloud certification should you start with?
Both are entry-level certifications covering the same territory — cloud concepts, core services, security, pricing and governance — one for Microsoft Azure and one for AWS. Neither is harder than the other in any meaningful way, and neither has prerequisites. So the choice is not about the exams at all: take the one for the platform your employer runs, or that the jobs you want name in their listings. If nothing points either way, one practical tiebreaker is that AZ-900 never expires, while CLF-C02 has to be renewed.
The two exams at a glance
| AZ-900Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals | CLF-C02AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Microsoft Azure | AWS |
| Level | Foundational | Foundational |
| Questions | 40–60 | 65 |
| Time limit | 45 minutes | 90 minutes |
| Passing score | 700 / 1000 | 700 / 1000 |
| Exam fee | $99 | $100 |
| Valid for | Does not expire | 3 years |
| Exam domains | 3 | 4 |
| On SaveMyCert | Fully live | Fully live |
Choose AZ-900 if…
- Your organisation runs on Microsoft — Azure, Microsoft 365, Entra ID or Windows Server estates.
- You work in or want a role at a company with an established Microsoft relationship, which is common in enterprise, public sector and healthcare.
- You want a certification that does not expire, so passing it once is genuinely the end of it.
- You are heading toward a Microsoft-specific path such as administration, security or data on the Fabric platform.
Choose CLF-C02 if…
- Your organisation runs on AWS, or you have no employer constraint and want the platform with the most job listings.
- You are aiming at a startup or product-engineering environment, where AWS is more commonly the default.
- You want the widest choice of follow-on certifications: AWS has more role-based and specialist exams than the other platforms.
- You want the broadest pool of third-party learning material, community answers and worked examples.
How similar are the two exams?
Closer than the branding suggests. Both test what the cloud is, what the core compute, storage, networking and database services do, how the provider splits security responsibility with you, how pricing and support tiers work, and what governance and compliance tooling exists. Both ask direct, recognition-style questions rather than the scenario judgement of higher-level exams.
The differences are vocabulary, not concept. A virtual machine is a virtual machine; the exam simply wants you to name it the way its vendor does. Someone who has passed one will find the other largely familiar, which is why very few people need both.
The renewal difference is the one that actually matters
Microsoft fundamentals certifications, AZ-900 included, do not expire. You pass once and it stays on your profile permanently.
AWS certifications, including Cloud Practitioner, are valid for a fixed term and you recertify by sitting the current exam again and paying again. Over a career that is a recurring cost and a recurring afternoon, and it is worth knowing before you choose. The facts table above shows each certification’s current validity period as published by its vendor.
Which one do employers actually ask for?
Neither, usually — foundational certifications rarely appear as a hiring requirement. What they do is get a CV past an early filter, prove to a hiring manager that you can learn a platform, and give you the vocabulary to hold a technical conversation. For a career-changer that is worth a great deal; for an experienced engineer it is worth much less.
The honest advice is to treat either as a stepping stone rather than a destination. The credential employers name in listings is the associate-level exam that follows, so pick the platform first and let the foundational exam be whichever one sits under it.
What if you genuinely have no preference?
Look at job listings for the role you want in the place you want to work, and count. That single exercise resolves the question better than any general argument about market share, because hiring is local and sector-specific in ways that global figures hide.
If that still comes out even, take AWS Cloud Practitioner first for the larger ecosystem of follow-on certifications and material, then add Azure Fundamentals later if you end up in a Microsoft shop. It is the cheaper mistake to correct: the concepts transfer, and the second foundational exam is far quicker the second time.