The new CompTIA Cloud+ exam (CVO–004): What to expect

Cloud services are everywhere today, and almost every role I see advertised has a cloud element to it. So if you want to get that next promotion or apply for a new role in IT, it’s important that you understand what cloud services are available and how we interact with them.

But with so many vendors offering cloud services and lots of training courses and certifications out there, where do you begin your learning journey? 

Well, for most learners, I advise you get a good grounding in core services offered by the largest cloud providers first, before moving on to study the more specialised topics that you’re interested in or will be working with. With that in mind, a very good place to start is CompTIA’s Cloud+ certification.

What is CompTIA’s Cloud+ certification?

CompTIA’s Cloud+ certification is vendor neutral; you learn technologies and skills that you can use to manage and secure any cloud environment. Whether you work in Operations, Deployment, Security or are on a Cloud Architect path, the CompTIA Cloud+ certification path is a great beginning to your learning journey.

What’s the difference between the CVO-003 and CVO-004 exams?

The current version of the Cloud+ certification is exam CVO-004. CVO-004 replaced the previous version CVO-003 in September 2024, and it will remain the current version of the exam for around the next three years. The new CVO-004 exam has been tailored to test competency in skills that map to real-world cloud job roles.

When studying for the Cloud+ CVO-004 exam, you will be studying topics organized into six domains.

There are a couple of differences between the CVO-004 and CVO-003 versions of the exam.

First, there are now six domains of topics instead of five. The new domain is DevOps Fundamentals. DevOps practices have become commonplace in development and operations teams today. Because of this, CompTIA expects that anyone working in the cloud should have an understanding of DevOps tools, continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, and source control concepts. 

Second, the weighting for the Cloud Architecture domain has increased from 13% in CVO-003 to 23% in CVO-004. So in CVO-004, we should expect to see more questions on cloud concepts, cloud service models, cloud storage, networking, and availability concepts.

We should also expect to see more questions on evolving cloud technologies such as AI and Internet of Things (IoT). This doesn’t mean you need to be an AI or IoT expert to take the exam, just that you will need to understand use cases for different types of AI, and how IoT devices are used today.

What hasn’t changed with the CompTIA Cloud+ exam?

Although the exam has been updated, if you’ve been studying for the CVO-003 version of the exam, there is good news. The topics you’ve been studying are still valid for the CVO-004 version of the exam, so you can take your existing learning and apply it to the new version of the exam. Some topics are now in different domains, but they’re all still covered somewhere in the new exam.

How to ace the CompTIA Cloud+ exam

The Cloud+ exam is not an introductory certification; it presumes that you have already been working in IT for 2 – 3 years. But this is only a guide; you may have relevant experience or learning that makes you comfortable studying for the Cloud+ exam even without 2 – 3 years of IT work experience.

1. Study for the CompTIA ITF+ exam (if you’re new to tech)

If you’re really new to IT, I would recommend studying for CompTIA ITF+ (FCO-U61) first. This certification is intended for those who are new to IT and seeking their first role in IT. Pluralsight has an excellent learning path you can work through that will prepare you for the (FCO-U61) exam.

2. Review the CompTIA Cloud+ overview documentation

To help prepare for the CVO-004 exam, I suggest spending time looking through the exam overview document. You can request this from the CompTIA Cloud+ certification website.

Here you can see a detailed list of the topics covered in the exam. By the end of your study, and before you take the exam, you should use the overview document as a checklist. You need to make sure that you can provide a one-line description of each topic listed.

Imagine being asked by a friend what each topic is and having to describe that topic in a sentence or two. If you can do this with each topic in the overview document, you are in a good place for the exam.

3. Complete Pluralsight’s CompTIA Cloud+ certification prep path

To help you build your knowledge and learn all the topics needed to pass the CompTIA Cloud+ (CVO-004) exam, you should work your way through all the courses in Pluralsight’s CompTIA Cloud+ (CVO-004) certification prep path.

Here you will find courses covering each of the six exam domains. Each course is filled with explanations of each topic you need to master. There are practical examples of how to implement the technologies being discussed and demonstrations showing how to implement cloud technologies using platforms such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS). You will also find course discussions, where you can ask questions and share your experiences with fellow learners and course authors.

If you can, I highly recommend following along with the demonstrations in the courses. Providers like AWS and Azure offer trial or free tier subscriptions and accounts, which you can use to get hands-on experience with different cloud environments. Getting hands-on practice with different technologies will help to cement your learning and make it easier for you to recall information during the exam.

The following links give information about signing up for a trial Azure Account and an AWS Free Tier account.

4. Take the CompTIA Cloud+ exam!

During the exam itself, you will get up to 90 questions in 90 minutes. These questions are mainly multiple-choice questions, but you may also be given a small number of performance-based questions. Performance-based questions are small simulations. You may be asked to perform a configuration or to interact with an interface to gather some information about a configured service. You can find more information on performance-based questions here.

Conclusion

Studying for the CompTIA Cloud+ certification exam is the perfect way to begin your cloud learning journey. The exam is well known and respected by employers. Passing the exam will show employers that you have a level of cloud knowledge which will make you a valuable member of their team.

The courses in Pluralsight’s Cloud+ path are the best way to cover all the required topics for a successful attempt of the exam. I would also recommend downloading the practice questions made available through the CompTIA Cloud+ page to help assess how close you are to a passing score before you attempt the real exam.

Good luck with the exam, and I hope you get a lot out of Pluralsight’s Cloud+ (CVO-004) courses.