- Identity Check: Which Credential This Sheet Covers
- Exam Specs at a Glance
- Eligibility: The Three-Credential Gate
- Scaled Score: What 245 Out of 350 Really Means
- The Five Blueprint Sections, Compressed
- Scenario Patterns to Rehearse
- Fees, Delivery and Retake Rules
- Validity and Renewal
- Cloud vs Security Track
- How to Sequence Your Review
- FAQ
- Exam 402 has 70 questions (65 scored, five pilot) in 105 minutes at US$180 per attempt via Pearson VUE.
- The pass mark is a scaled 245 on a 100-350 range, not 70% correct.
- Eligibility requires valid F5-CA BIG-IP, F5-CTS BIG-IP LTM and F5-CTS BIG-IP DNS certifications together.
- F5 publishes five section headings but no percentage weights, so do not trust sites that list them.
Identity Check: Which Credential This Sheet Covers
This cheat sheet covers F5 Certified Solution Expert, Cloud, shown as F5-CSE, CLD in the F5 learning portal and earned by passing Cloud Solutions exam 402. It is not the Security Solutions exam 401, not the DNS exam 302, not an F5 Distributed Cloud accreditation, and not an AWS credential. If you need a plain-language definition first, start with What Is F5-CSE Cloud Certification? and come back here for the facts you will want on one page.
Everything below is anchored to the current 402 exam blueprint (identifier 402.42019, five pages, linked from F5's Cloud Solutions support page). Facts were rechecked in October 2026. The blueprint PDF carries a 2021 copyright footer, but that footer does not create a new blueprint edition, and the exam is not built around version-specific TMOS features.
Exam Specs at a Glance
| Item | Published Fact |
|---|---|
| Exam | Cloud Solutions 402 |
| Credential awarded | F5 Certified Solution Expert, Cloud (F5-CSE, CLD) |
| Question count | 70 computer-based multiple-choice questions |
| Scored vs unscored | 65 scored, five pilot/beta items |
| Time limit | 105 minutes, excluding approved accommodations |
| Passing score | 245 on a 100-350 scaled range |
| Fee | US$180 per attempt, plus local taxes or fees where applicable |
| Delivery | Pearson VUE test centers, English |
| Question style | Multiple choice, some with exhibits or scenarios |
For a deeper look at dates and booking windows, see F5-CSE Cloud Exam Dates 2026. For the full cost picture, including prerequisite spend, see F5-CSE Cloud Certification Cost 2026.
Eligibility: The Three-Credential Gate
This is the fact third-party sites most often get wrong. The current 402 support page requires all three of the following to be valid:
- F5-CA BIG-IP (administrator)
- F5-CTS BIG-IP LTM
- F5-CTS BIG-IP DNS
One technology-specialist credential alone is not enough. Some competitor pages describe "any one CTS" or "CTS or equivalent knowledge"; those descriptions conflict with F5's own page. The issuer's Cloud learning path shows the route: the five F5CAB administrator exams or an eligible legacy administrator route, LTM exams 301a and 301b, DNS exam 302, then Cloud Solutions 402. The retained legacy entries do not reopen exam 101 to new candidates.
Registration also requires the F5 candidate agreement and two signed IDs, one of them government-issued with a photograph, matching your candidate account. Closed-book rules apply: no books, notes or personal electronics.
Scaled Score: What 245 Out of 350 Really Means
The passing score is 245 on a scale from 100 to 350. That is not 70% correct, and it is not any other fixed raw percentage. Sites that convert 245/350 into "about 70%" are doing arithmetic on the scale, not reporting how scoring works. Only 65 of the 70 questions count, and you will not know which five are pilot items, so treat every question as scored.
- Do not budget your exam around a target number of misses.
- Do not trust claims of an official percentage cut score.
- No official F5-CSE Cloud pass rate has been published; anything quoted as a pass rate lacks issuer evidence. See F5-CSE Cloud Pass Rate 2026 for what the available data does and does not show, and F5-CSE Cloud Passing Score 2026 for the scoring detail.
Pacing math is simple: 105 minutes for 70 questions is roughly 90 seconds per question. Exhibit and scenario questions will take longer than that, so bank time on the short recall items.
The Five Blueprint Sections, Compressed
F5 publishes five official section headings and objectives. It publishes no percentage weights and names no highest-weighted section, so objective counts should never be converted into weights. Study all five. The compressed notes below summarize what each heading asks you to reason about; the examples are illustrative, not exhaustive. For the long-form version, read F5-CSE Cloud Exam Domains 2026.
Domain 1: Foundational Cloud Concepts
The vocabulary and models that every later section assumes.
- Be able to separate service models and deployment models, and match business needs to each.
- Know what the business constraints and drivers behind a cloud decision look like.
- Understand how licensing and support differ when workloads move from owned hardware into a provider's environment.
Domain 2: Cloud Infrastructure Design
Where architecture judgment is tested most directly.
- Instance sizing and placement for application delivery components.
- SDN constraints and how they affect integration choices.
- How a BIG-IP-style delivery tier fits into a provider network and what limits it.
Domain 3: Cloud Migration
Moving an existing application without breaking it.
- Business constraints and dependencies that dictate migration order.
- Validation: how you prove a migrated workload behaves like the original.
- Cloud bursting as a pattern, including when it does and does not make sense.
Domain 4: Cloud Deployment
Standing up and licensing the solution in a provider environment.
- Deployment choices tied to licensing and support models.
- Placement and sizing decisions turned into a working deployment.
- Post-deployment checks that the design requirements were met.
Domain 5: Cloud Orchestration and Automation
Repeatability through APIs and templates.
- RESTful APIs and the N/E/S/W-bound API model.
- Deployment templates and the correct sequencing of orchestration steps.
- Integration between orchestration tooling and the application delivery layer.
Scenario Patterns to Rehearse
Because the exam is multiple choice with exhibits and scenarios, the hard part is rarely recalling a definition. It is choosing the best answer among plausible ones. Public sample questions on some third-party sites use conspicuously irrelevant distractors such as office furniture or weather, which does not resemble the reasoning you need. Rehearse patterns like these instead:
Constraint-first reading
Underline the business constraint before reading the options. A scenario about a licensing restriction or a support requirement usually eliminates two answers immediately, however technically elegant they look.
Dependency ordering
Migration and orchestration questions often hinge on sequence. Ask what must exist before the next step can run: network connectivity before validation, a template parameter before deployment, authentication before an API call.
Sizing and placement trade-offs
When an item compares instance sizes or placement options, identify the limiting resource named in the scenario and pick the option that addresses that resource, not the one with the most capacity overall.
Burst or stay put
For cloud bursting questions, look for the trigger and the data-locality or latency constraint. A scenario that cannot tolerate that constraint is a signal the burst pattern is the wrong answer.
Key Takeaway
Wrong options on this exam are usually correct statements applied to the wrong situation. Train yourself to ask "does this answer fit this scenario's constraint?" rather than "is this answer true?" Timed question practice at our practice test site helps build that habit.
Fees, Delivery and Retake Rules
- Fee: US$180 per attempt, with no member/nonmember split. Local taxes and fees, and any prerequisite or preparation costs, are additional.
- Provider: Pearson VUE test centers. F5's current provider list places 402 under Pearson VUE and not under Certiverse, so be skeptical of pages describing remote Certiverse delivery.
- Language: English.
- ID: two signed IDs, one government-issued with a photograph, matching your account.
Validity and Renewal
The credential is valid for two years from the qualifying exam. Per F5's renewal policy, retaking and passing 402 renews it. No dedicated Cloud recertification exam and no CEU/CPE route was verified. A few related points:
- Achieving or renewing Cloud can extend qualifying prerequisite credentials under the policy.
- F5CABR renews the administrator credential but does not substitute for renewing Cloud itself.
- Because eligibility depends on valid prerequisites, a lapse in F5-CA, LTM or DNS can complicate a later attempt. Track all four expiry dates together.
Cloud vs Security Track
Both Cloud (402) and Security (401) are current Solution Expert tracks, so candidates often ask which to pursue. The right answer depends on role, not prestige. Neither substitutes for the other.
| Factor | Cloud (402) | Security (401) |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Cloud architecture, migration, deployment, orchestration | Securing applications and application delivery |
| Typical role fit | Cloud/infrastructure architect or integrator | Security-focused architect or engineer |
| Prerequisites (Cloud as published) | Valid F5-CA, CTS LTM and CTS DNS | Check F5's current Security Solutions page |
| Awarded by | F5 | F5 |
Verify Security prerequisites directly with F5 before comparing costs. If you are weighing the investment itself, Is the F5-CSE Cloud Certification Worth It? and F5-CSE Cloud Salary Guide 2026 explain how to evaluate it without leaning on unsupported earnings claims. No credential-specific salary survey or official pass rate has been published, so judge ROI from job postings and your own total cost, including all three prerequisite credentials. Related roles are covered in F5-CSE Cloud Jobs.
How to Sequence Your Review
Since F5 publishes no weights, spread effort across all five sections but order them by dependency. A sensible rhythm for a roughly five-week final review:
Foundational Cloud Concepts
- Lock in models, business drivers, licensing and support vocabulary; every later scenario leans on it.
Cloud Infrastructure Design
- Work sizing, placement and SDN-constraint scenarios until you can name the limiting resource quickly.
Cloud Migration and Cloud Deployment
- Pair them: dependency ordering, validation, bursting, then licensing-aware deployment.
Orchestration and Automation
- RESTful API concepts, N/E/S/W-bound model, template and sequencing logic.
Timed mixed review
- Full-length practice at about 90 seconds per question, then review every miss by section.
F5 states that it does not create or maintain official study guides, and the F5-hosted community page for 402 explicitly says it is unofficial and not a complete guide. Treat third-party resources, including any reading list, as aids rather than proof of current coverage. For a fuller plan and resource discussion, see F5-CSE Cloud Study Guide 2026, F5-CSE Cloud Training and How Hard Is the F5-CSE Cloud Exam?. When you are ready to test yourself under timed conditions, use the F5-CSE Cloud Exam Prep practice tests.
FAQ
There are 70 multiple-choice questions, of which 65 are scored and five are pilot/beta items. You cannot tell which are unscored, so answer every question as if it counts.
No. 245 is a scaled passing score on a 100-350 range. F5 does not publish a raw percentage cut score, and converting 245/350 into a percent-correct figure is not supported.
Yes. The current Cloud Solutions support page requires valid F5-CA BIG-IP, F5-CTS BIG-IP LTM and F5-CTS BIG-IP DNS certifications. One technology-specialist credential alone does not meet the requirement.
The credential is valid for two years from the qualifying exam, and F5's renewal policy supports retaking and passing 402 to renew it. No separate Cloud recertification exam or continuing-education route was verified.
402 is delivered in English at Pearson VUE test centers for US$180 per attempt, with local taxes or fees and preparation costs extra. Pages claiming remote Certiverse delivery do not match F5's current provider list.