Compare the easiest cloud certifications — AWS Cloud Practitioner, AZ-900, Google Cloud Digital Leader and more — by format, cost and study effort.
"Easiest" is doing a lot of work in this question, because the four realistic first cloud certifications are not easy in the same way. One is the shortest exam you will ever sit. One has the gentlest content. One never needs renewing. Ranking them properly means deciding which kind of easy actually matters to you.
Short answer: for most complete beginners, Microsoft's Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) is the easiest first cloud certification — it is a 45-minute exam with no prerequisites and, unusually, it never expires. AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) is the better-known credential and only slightly harder, while Google Cloud Digital Leader is the least technical of the three. All three sit at the foundational tier, cost roughly $99–$150 depending on provider and region, and assume no hands-on cloud experience.
This article compares only the foundational, first-attempt certifications — AWS Cloud Practitioner, Microsoft AZ-900, Google Cloud Digital Leader and CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ — on difficulty, format, cost and study effort. If your real question is which cloud provider to commit a career to, that is a bigger decision than exam difficulty, and our comparison of AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud certification tracks covers it properly.
Difficulty for a foundational cloud exam comes from four measurable things, and beginners tend to weigh only the first:
None of the major providers publishes pass rates, so ignore any article that claims "AZ-900 has a 70% pass rate" — that number does not exist officially. Compare formats and content instead.
AZ-900 is a 45-minute proctored exam — the shortest of the group as of 2026 — covering cloud concepts, Azure architecture and services, and Azure management and governance. Microsoft does not publish a question count, and pricing is set by country rather than as a flat USD figure, so check the fee for your region on the official certification page. The passing score is 700 on a 1,000-point scale (scaled, not 70% correct). There are no prerequisites.
Two things make AZ-900 the softest landing. First, fundamentals certifications never expire — you sit it once and it stays on your transcript for good, whereas AWS and Google both put a three-year clock on their foundational certs. Second, Microsoft provides a free practice assessment and an exam sandbox, so you can rehearse the interactive question styles before paying anything. If you fail, you can retake after 24 hours.
The trade-off: AZ-900 content is naturally Azure-flavoured. If your target employers are AWS shops, a Microsoft fundamentals badge is a weaker signal.
AWS's foundational exam is 65 questions in 90 minutes, multiple choice and multiple response, at $100 USD (regional pricing varies). The passing score is 700 scaled. There are no prerequisites; AWS suggests up to six months of general exposure to AWS Cloud, and explicitly says even that is not required. The certification is valid for three years, and you can renew by retaking it, by passing any Associate or Professional exam — the natural route if you keep progressing — or via AWS's free game-based Cloud Quest recertification path, which AWS lists as an option as of 2026.
Difficulty-wise, CLF-C02 sits a notch above AZ-900 for most candidates simply because there is more of it: a longer exam, a broad sweep of AWS's service catalogue, and billing and support-plan detail that trips up people who skim. The compensation is market weight — AWS reported more than 1.42 million active AWS certifications as of January 2025, and its ecosystem is the largest of the three, so the credential is widely recognised by recruiters. Passing also earns you a 50% discount voucher towards your next AWS exam, which quietly halves the cost of the Associate-level cert most people take next.
Cloud Digital Leader is Google Cloud's foundational certification: 50–60 multiple-choice and multiple-select questions in 90 minutes, $99 plus tax, no prerequisites, valid for three years. Google Cloud exams have no exam codes — the credential is simply the name — and Google reports results as pass/fail only, with no published passing score.
In content terms this is arguably the least technical exam of the three big-cloud options. It is aimed at people who collaborate with technical teams rather than people heading for engineering roles, and it leans towards digital-transformation and business-value framing. That makes it the gentlest read for a career changer from a non-IT background — and the least persuasive line on a CV for someone who wants a cloud engineering job, where Google's own Associate Cloud Engineer is the more meaningful (and harder) target. Note that Google refreshed the exam recently — a new version went live in August per Google's certification page — so make sure any study materials match the current exam guide.
One more Google-specific wrinkle: renewal. Rather than a full retake, Google offers a shorter renewal exam for Cloud Digital Leader — 20 questions, 45 minutes, $60 — or a course-completion path through Google Skills that extends validity by one year.
CompTIA's entry in this space is vendor-neutral: it covers cloud concepts and business considerations without tying you to AWS, Azure or Google Cloud. That neutrality is its main argument — it suits people who genuinely do not know which provider their future employer uses, or who work in procurement, sales or management roles around cloud rather than in it. CompTIA no longer prints exam prices on its certification pages, and the exam's current format details should be confirmed directly on CompTIA's site before you book. In practice, most beginners aiming at technical cloud roles skip Cloud Essentials+ in favour of a provider cert, because employers advertising cloud jobs name providers, not neutral bodies, at the foundational level.
| Factor | AZ-900 (Microsoft) | Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02 (AWS) | Cloud Digital Leader (Google) | Cloud Essentials+ (CompTIA) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Difficulty (relative) | Lowest overall friction | Slightly harder; broad service coverage | Least technical content | Conceptual, vendor-neutral |
| Format | 45 min, proctored, count not published | 65 questions, 90 min | 50–60 questions, 90 min | Confirm on CompTIA's site |
| Cost | Varies by country/region | $100 USD (varies by region) | $99 USD plus tax | Not published on cert page |
| Prerequisites | None | None | None | None |
| Validity | Never expires | 3 years | 3 years | CE renewal cycle — see CompTIA |
| Renewal effort | None | Retake, higher exam, or free Cloud Quest path | $60 short renewal exam or courses | Per CompTIA CE programme |
| Best for | First cert with least friction | Careers targeting the biggest ecosystem | Non-technical and business roles | Provider-agnostic business roles |
| Natural next step | AZ-104 Azure Administrator | Solutions Architect Associate | Associate Cloud Engineer | A provider-specific cert |
Work through these in order; stop at the first one that describes you.
No provider publishes official study-hour guidance for these exams, so treat any confident number online as an estimate. What you can plan around is the shape of the work: all four exams are concept exams, so preparation is reading, video courses and question practice rather than lab time. In our editorial experience, a candidate with basic IT literacy studying consistently can be ready for any of these foundational exams in a few weeks of part-time effort; a complete newcomer should budget longer and not treat a fast timeline as a target.
A sensible sequence for any of the three provider exams:
Which cloud certification is easiest with no IT experience at all?
Google Cloud Digital Leader has the least technical syllabus, and AZ-900 has the least exam friction. Either is achievable from zero; pick by which provider you would rather learn.
Is AWS Cloud Practitioner harder than AZ-900?
Marginally, for most people — it is a longer exam (65 questions, 90 minutes versus 45 minutes) with broad coverage of AWS's service catalogue and billing. Neither has prerequisites, and both use a 700 scaled passing score.
Can I skip the foundational cert entirely?
Yes. None of AWS, Microsoft or Google requires their foundational exam before associate-level certs. Skip it if you already have hands-on experience; take it if you want a confidence-building first pass at exam mechanics.
Do these certifications expire?
AZ-900 never expires. AWS Cloud Practitioner and Google Cloud Digital Leader are valid for three years, each with lighter renewal options than a full retake.
If forced to rank purely on ease: AZ-900 first for total friction, Cloud Digital Leader first for content lightness, Cloud Practitioner a close third that pays back the extra effort in recognition — and Cloud Essentials+ a niche pick for the deliberately vendor-neutral. But the ranking matters less than the direction: every one of these is a beginner-safe, no-prerequisite exam costing about a hundred dollars. Choose the provider that matches your job market, read its official exam guide, benchmark yourself with a timed practice set, and book the exam. The easiest cloud certification is the one you actually sit.
Exam facts in this guide were checked against official certification-provider pages on . Fees, exam codes and policies change — confirm on the provider’s own site before you book.
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