If you’re preparing for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) exam and want to go beyond theory, these micro-projects are for you. Each project is designed to help you practice a specific AWS service hands-on, with clear objectives, and all projects fall within the AWS Free Tier.

✅ Project 1 – Host a Static Website on Amazon S3

Objective:
Learn how to use Amazon S3 to host a public-facing static HTML website with public access via a browser. This project introduces you to S3’s storage and static website capabilities, including bucket permissions, file upload, and endpoint access.

AWS Services:
Amazon S3

Free Tier Benefits:

• 5 GB standard storage
• 1 GB data transfer out/month

What You’ll Do:

• Create an S3 bucket with public access
• Upload an index.html file
• Enable static website hosting
• Access your website via the public S3 website endpoint

Bonus:
Try adding CSS, images, and folder structures to simulate a multi-page website.

✅ Project 2 – Create a Hello World Lambda Function

Objective:
Deploy a serverless function using AWS Lambda that returns “Hello from Lambda”. This project introduces serverless computing and event-driven architecture using a simple function.

AWS Services:
AWS Lambda

Free Tier Benefits:

• 1M requests/month
• 400,000 GB-seconds of compute time/month

What You’ll Do:

• Create a Lambda function using Python or Node.js
• Write a simple function to return a greeting
• Test it from the AWS console
• View execution logs in CloudWatch

Bonus:
Return the current time or request metadata using environment variables or logging.

✅ Project 3 – Create a DynamoDB Table for a To-Do List

Objective:
Create a NoSQL database using DynamoDB to store and retrieve to-do items. You’ll define a schema, add data entries, and use the AWS console or CLI to interact with the database.

AWS Services:
Amazon DynamoDB

Free Tier Benefits:

• 25 GB storage
• 25 Write Capacity Units (WCU)
• 25 Read Capacity Units (RCU)

What You’ll Do:

• Create a TodoList table
• Add items with task_id, description, and status
• Retrieve entries via console or CLI
• Understand partition keys and item structure

Bonus:
Set up a Lambda function to log new tasks automatically.

✅ Project 4 – Create a Budget and Billing Alert

Objective:
Use AWS Budgets to track your Free Tier usage and avoid surprise charges. This project helps you stay cost-aware while experimenting on AWS.

AWS Services:
AWS Budgets, AWS Billing, Amazon SNS

Free Tier Benefits:

• Always free for up to two budget alerts

What You’ll Do:

• Create a budget (e.g., ₹50 or $1)
• Set up SNS notifications to send budget alerts to your email
• Monitor service usage from the AWS Billing Dashboard

Bonus:
Configure service-level budgets (e.g., only EC2 or S3 costs).

✅ Project 5 – Build a Serverless Contact Form

Objective:
Create a simple HTML contact form that uses API Gateway to trigger a Lambda function, which then sends an email using Amazon SES. This project walks you through a full serverless contact submission pipeline.

AWS Services:
Amazon API Gateway, AWS Lambda, Amazon SES

Free Tier Benefits:

• 1M API Gateway calls/month
• 1M Lambda requests/month
• 62,000 outbound emails/month (in sandbox)

What You’ll Do:

• Write an HTML form
• Configure an API Gateway endpoint (POST method)
• Create a Lambda function to read form data and call SES
• Send the email and verify delivery

Bonus:
Store submissions in DynamoDB for future reference.

✅ Project 6 – Send Email Notifications with Amazon SNS

Objective:
Use Amazon SNS to send push-style notifications via email. This project introduces publish-subscribe patterns and demonstrates how decoupled messaging works in AWS.

AWS Services:
Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)

Free Tier Benefits:

• 1M publish requests/month
• 1,000 email deliveries/month

What You’ll Do:

• Create a topic in SNS
• Subscribe your email address to the topic
• Publish a test message using the AWS Console

Bonus:
Use Lambda or CloudWatch Events to publish automated messages.

✅ Project 7 – Simulate a Message Queue with Amazon SQS

Objective:
Get hands-on with message queuing by creating a queue, sending messages, and retrieving them. This is foundational for understanding distributed systems and asynchronous processing.

AWS Services:
Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS)

Free Tier Benefits:

• 1M requests/month

What You’ll Do:

• Create a standard SQS queue
• Send a few test messages
• Retrieve and delete messages using the AWS Console
• Explore visibility timeout settings

Bonus:
Trigger a Lambda function when a new message arrives.

✅ Project 8 – Schedule a Cron Job with Amazon CloudWatch

Objective:
Use CloudWatch Events to schedule automated tasks in AWS. In this case, you’ll trigger a Lambda function every 5 minutes — perfect for health checks, periodic cleanups, or reports.

AWS Services:
Amazon CloudWatch, AWS Lambda

Free Tier Benefits:

• 1M metrics/month
• 10 custom metrics and alarms/month
• 1M Lambda requests/month

What You’ll Do:

• Set up a CloudWatch Event rule using rate(5 minutes)
• Create a Lambda that logs timestamps
• Review logs in CloudWatch to confirm periodic execution

Bonus:
Use this to clean up unused S3 files or keep-alive EC2 checks.

✅ Project 9 – Launch and SSH into a Free EC2 Instance

Objective:
Understand virtual machine provisioning in the cloud by launching a free-tier EC2 instance. You’ll connect via SSH and explore the instance like a Linux server.

AWS Services:
Amazon EC2

Free Tier Benefits:

• 750 hours/month of t2.micro or t3.micro instances

What You’ll Do:

• Launch a new EC2 instance (Ubuntu preferred)
• Create or use an existing key pair
• Configure security group to allow SSH (port 22)
• Connect via terminal (or PuTTY on Windows)

Bonus:
Install Apache or NGINX and serve a simple HTML page from /var/www/html.

✅ Project 10 – Deploy an S3 Bucket Using CloudFormation

Objective:
Use a YAML-based CloudFormation template to provision an S3 bucket automatically. This is your first taste of Infrastructure as Code (IaC).

AWS Services:
AWS CloudFormation, Amazon S3

Free Tier Benefits:

• Always free for usage

What You’ll Do:

• Write a simple YAML template to define an S3 bucket
• Deploy it as a CloudFormation stack
• Check the Resources and Events tab for status
• Delete the stack to clean up

Bonus:
Add metadata tags, versioning, or bucket policy into your template.

✅ Project 11 – Create a Least-Privilege IAM User

Objective:
Understand identity and access management by creating an IAM user with minimal permissions. This project helps you grasp how roles, users, and policies work in AWS.

AWS Services:
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)

Free Tier Benefits:

• Always free

What You’ll Do:

• Create a new IAM user
• Attach an S3 read-only policy
• Log in as the IAM user and verify access
• Test what resources are accessible or restricted

Bonus:
Use IAM Policy Simulator to preview access behavior.

✅ Project 12 – Enable MFA for an IAM User

Objective:
Improve account security by enabling Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for an IAM user.

AWS Services:
AWS IAM

Free Tier Benefits:

• Always free

What You’ll Do:

• Enable MFA on the IAM user account
• Use an authenticator app (like Google Authenticator)
• Login using username + password + OTP code

Bonus:
Create a policy that denies all actions unless MFA is enabled.

✅ Project 13 – Encrypt and Decrypt Data Using AWS KMS

Objective:
Use AWS Key Management Service (KMS) to create a CMK (Customer Master Key) and perform basic encryption and decryption.

AWS Services:
AWS KMS

Free Tier Benefits:

• 20,000 free requests/month

What You’ll Do:

• Create a CMK in your region
• Use the console or CLI to encrypt a sample string
• Decrypt the ciphertext back into plaintext

Bonus:
Enable automatic rotation for your CMK.

✅ Project 14 – Store a Secret in AWS Secrets Manager

Objective:
Securely store a database password or API key using AWS Secrets Manager and retrieve it programmatically.

AWS Services:
AWS Secrets Manager

Free Tier Benefits:

• 30 days free per secret

What You’ll Do:

• Create a secret (e.g., DB credentials)
• Retrieve the secret using AWS Console or SDK
• Use tags and rotation settings

Bonus:
Use Lambda to retrieve the secret securely at runtime.

✅ Project 15 – Query Data in S3 Using Amazon Athena

Objective:
Use Athena to run SQL queries directly on CSV or JSON files stored in S3 without setting up a database.

AWS Services:
Amazon Athena, Amazon S3

Free Tier Benefits:

• 1 TB queries/month (Athena)

What You’ll Do:

• Upload a sample CSV to S3
• Create a table in Athena using the Glue Data Catalog
• Write and run SQL queries on the dataset

Bonus:
Visualize your query results using Amazon QuickSight.

✅ Project 16 – Create a Dashboard in Amazon QuickSight

Objective:
Visualize data stored in S3 or queried via Athena by building a report or dashboard in QuickSight.

AWS Services:
Amazon QuickSight

Free Tier Benefits:

• Free for 1 user (Standard Edition trial)

What You’ll Do:

• Connect to an S3 dataset or Athena table
• Create visualizations (bar chart, pie chart, etc.)
• Publish and share your dashboard

Bonus:
Try adding calculated fields or filters.

✅ Project 17 – Detect Sentiment Using Amazon Comprehend

Objective:
Use AWS Comprehend to perform basic sentiment analysis and named entity recognition on a block of text.

AWS Services:
Amazon Comprehend

Free Tier Benefits:

• 50K units/month for entity/sentiment detection

What You’ll Do:

• Input a few customer reviews or sentences
• Run them through Comprehend
• Review extracted entities and sentiment scores

Bonus:
Combine with Transcribe or Textract for pipeline use.

✅ Project 18 – Build a Chatbot with Amazon Lex

Objective:
Create a basic conversational bot that can handle predefined user intents like greeting or asking for help.

AWS Services:
Amazon Lex

Free Tier Benefits:

• 10,000 text requests/month

What You’ll Do:

• Define a bot with sample utterances and responses
• Test it using the AWS Lex console
• Integrate with a frontend (optional)

Bonus:
Use Lambda to dynamically generate responses.

✅ Project 19 – Convert Text to Speech Using Amazon Polly

Objective:
Use Amazon Polly to generate an MP3 audio file from text input.

AWS Services:
Amazon Polly

Free Tier Benefits:

• 5 million characters/month

What You’ll Do:

• Input text into Polly using the console
• Choose a voice and language
• Download and play the resulting audio file

Bonus:
Serve generated audio from an S3-hosted page.

✅ Project 20 – Translate Text with Amazon Translate

Objective:
Use Amazon Translate to convert text between different languages and integrate it into multilingual applications.

AWS Services:
Amazon Translate

Free Tier Benefits:

• 2 million characters/month

What You’ll Do:

• Input sentences and detect language
• Translate English to other languages
• Analyze confidence scores and alternate translations

Bonus:
Build a simple multilingual chatbot using Lex + Translate.

✅ Project 21 – Track Resource Changes with AWS Config

Objective:
Enable AWS Config to track configuration changes in your resources and gain visibility into compliance.

AWS Services:
AWS Config

Free Tier Benefits:

• 10,000 configuration items/month

What You’ll Do:

• Enable AWS Config in your region
• Choose to record all resources
• Launch or modify an EC2 instance or S3 bucket
• View recorded changes in the AWS Config console

Bonus:
Enable compliance rules like “S3 buckets should not be public.”

✅ Project 22 – Log All API Activity with AWS CloudTrail

Objective:
Set up CloudTrail to record all API activity across your AWS account. This helps in audits and troubleshooting.

AWS Services:
AWS CloudTrail

Free Tier Benefits:

• Management events: 90 days free
• 1 trail per account always free

What You’ll Do:

• Enable CloudTrail
• Launch and delete a test EC2 or S3 resource
• Go to CloudTrail Event History to review API activity

Bonus:
Send CloudTrail logs to S3 for long-term storage.

✅ Project 23 – Set Up a Private Git Repository with AWS CodeCommit

Objective:
Host your own Git repositories using AWS CodeCommit and integrate them with CodeBuild or CodePipeline.

AWS Services:
AWS CodeCommit

Free Tier Benefits:

• 5 users, 50 GB/month

What You’ll Do:

• Create a CodeCommit repository
• Clone it to your local machine
• Add, commit, and push some files
• View repo activity in the console

Bonus:
Trigger builds or deployments via commits.

✅ Project 24 – Build and Test Code with AWS CodeBuild

Objective:
Use CodeBuild to compile source code and run unit tests automatically when triggered.

AWS Services:
AWS CodeBuild

Free Tier Benefits:

• 100 build minutes/month

What You’ll Do:

• Connect a CodeCommit repo
• Define a buildspec.yml file
• Create and run a build project
• View logs and artifacts

Bonus:
Run a simple test script in Python or Node.js.

✅ Project 25 – Automate Deployments with AWS CodePipeline

Objective:
Set up a CI/CD pipeline that automatically deploys your application every time you push new code.

AWS Services:
AWS CodePipeline, CodeCommit, CodeBuild

Free Tier Benefits:

• 1 active pipeline/month

What You’ll Do:

• Connect your CodeCommit repo
• Add CodeBuild as a stage
• Push new commits and see the pipeline trigger

Bonus:
Add a manual approval step before deployment.

✅ Project 26 – Extract Text from Documents Using Amazon Textract

Objective:
Extract structured text data (like tables and form fields) from scanned documents.

AWS Services:
Amazon Textract

Free Tier Benefits:

• 1,000 pages/month for 3 months

What You’ll Do:

• Upload a scanned PDF to the console
• Run Textract to extract key-value pairs
• Review structured output

Bonus:
Use the API to process documents programmatically.

✅ Project 27 – Create a Knowledge Search Engine with Amazon Kendra

Objective:
Build an intelligent search experience by indexing PDFs, docs, or text and retrieving answers to natural language queries.

AWS Services:
Amazon Kendra

Free Tier Benefits:

• Free developer edition (up to 750 hours/month)

What You’ll Do:

• Create a Kendra index
• Upload sample FAQs or help docs
• Run a search query to get ranked results

Bonus:
Integrate Kendra results into a Lex chatbot.

✅ Project 28 – Secure Your Web App with AWS WAF

Objective:
Protect your website against common web exploits using AWS Web Application Firewall.

AWS Services:
AWS WAF

Free Tier Benefits:

• Up to 10 web ACLs and rules per month

What You’ll Do:

• Attach WAF to an existing CloudFront distribution
• Add a rule to block IPs or common attacks
• Test your WAF by accessing from blocked IPs

Bonus:
Enable AWS Managed Rules for OWASP protection.

✅ Project 29 – Enable DDoS Protection Using AWS Shield

Objective:
Understand AWS Shield Standard and how it automatically protects public AWS endpoints against DDoS attacks.

AWS Services:
AWS Shield (Standard)

Free Tier Benefits:

• Always free and automatically enabled

What You’ll Do:

• Deploy a public S3 website or CloudFront endpoint
• Go to AWS Shield Dashboard
• View real-time protection metrics

Bonus:
Pair Shield with WAF for layered security.

✅ Project 30 – Register and Configure a Domain with Route 53

Objective:
Buy and configure a custom domain name for your app or website using Route 53.

AWS Services:
Amazon Route 53

Free Tier Benefits:

• No free domain, but hosted zone management is low-cost

What You’ll Do:

• Register a domain (costs ~$12/year)
• Create a public hosted zone
• Add A/AAAA/CNAME records for your app
• Test domain resolution

Bonus:
Use latency-based routing or weighted routing policies.

✅ Bonus Project 31 – Simulate a Server Migration with AWS Application Migration Service

Objective:
Understand how to simulate the lift-and-shift migration of an on-premises server to AWS using the Application Migration Service (MGN).

AWS Services:
AWS Application Migration Service

Free Tier Benefits:

• 2,160 hours/month for 2 months for migration instances

What You’ll Do:

• Set up the MGN agent on a simulated source (like a local VM or lightweight EC2)
• Configure replication settings
• Launch a test instance in AWS
• Validate the cutover process

Bonus:
Test rollback and failback procedures to gain real-world readiness.

✅ Wrapping Up: Your Practical Path to CLF-C02

These 31+ micro-projects are designed to help you gain real, hands-on experience across nearly every service covered in the AWS Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) syllabus. Whether you’re a beginner or brushing up your cloud fundamentals, these projects will give you confidence beyond the whiteboard.

✅ All projects stay within the AWS Free Tier
✅ Each project focuses on a single concept or service
✅ No prior cloud experience required

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Pro Tip:
Track your AWS Free Tier usage from the Billing Dashboard and set up alerts using AWS Budgets.

If you found this helpful, consider turning these micro-projects into portfolio entries or GitHub demos — they make great conversation starters in interviews!

Happy building ☁️🚀 Team Elastropy