Udacity Cloud DevOps Nanodegree Review (2026): AWS + Azure Variants Compared

Last updated: 13 October 2026 (full refresh; syllabus, projects, prerequisites, instructors, ratings and prices re-checked on Udacity’s nd9991 and nd082 program pages that day). Originally written by Akshay Vikhe. Reviewed by the OnlineCourseing editorial team. See our review methodology.

Some links on this page are affiliate links: if you enroll through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change our verdict, and several of the alternatives we name pay us nothing.

Udacity’s Cloud DevOps Engineer Nanodegree (nd9991) is a 53-hour, intermediate program that teaches the core of AWS DevOps work: deploying infrastructure as code with CloudFormation, packaging microservices in Docker and running them on Kubernetes, and building CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions. It has four graded projects and was rated 4.6 from 471 reviews on Udacity’s page when we checked it on 13 October 2026.

This review explains what each course and project covers today, which parts of our older review were wrong (the program has changed a lot since 2021), who it suits, what it costs, and how it compares to the Azure version and cheaper DevOps courses.

QUICK VERDICT

See the Cloud DevOps Engineer Nanodegree →

Overview

DevOps engineers build and run the systems that take code from a developer’s laptop to production: cloud infrastructure, container platforms, and the pipelines that test and deploy every change. Most job ads ask for one major cloud, infrastructure as code, containers and a CI/CD tool, and that is the ground this Nanodegree covers on AWS.

Source: Udacity’s nd9991 program page, read 13 October 2026.

What changed since our last review

• The curriculum was rebuilt. Our 2021-era review described Ansible, Jenkins, Prometheus, a CircleCI pipeline for a project called UdaPeople, an “Operationalize a Machine Learning Microservice API” project and a capstone. None of those are in the current program. Today’s projects use CloudFormation, Docker, ECR, CodeBuild, Kubernetes and GitHub Actions, and there is no capstone.
• Course order changed. Infrastructure as code is now course 2, microservices on Kubernetes course 3, and CI/CD course 4.
• Duration and price. We quoted a 4-month timeline and 2021 prices. Udacity now estimates 53 hours and sells a subscription at $249 a month.
• Support. We described mentors who answer every question. Udacity’s current plan card lists project feedback from reviewers and personalized career coaching and interview prep; it does not promise a dedicated mentor.

About the Udacity Cloud DevOps Nanodegree

The program is built for people who can already write some code and want to learn how software is deployed and operated on AWS. Each course ends with a project that a Udacity reviewer grades against a published rubric; you resubmit until it passes, and you receive a Nanodegree certificate when all four pass.

Udacity lists four instructors: Justin Lee (data platform engineer), Byron Sommardahl (chief technology officer), Kesha Williams (AI systems architect) and Carlos Rivas. Lessons are short videos, readings and quizzes, with exercises in Udacity’s browser workspace and your own AWS account.

Who it suits

• Web developers who write features today and want to own how they are deployed.
• System administrators moving from manual server work to infrastructure as code and containers.
• Junior engineers on a team that already uses AWS who want structured practice outside production.

Who should look elsewhere

• Anyone new to programming or the command line: start with Udacity’s Cloud Developer Nanodegree or a free AWS fundamentals course.
• Teams that use Terraform: the AWS version teaches CloudFormation only. The Azure version (below) uses Terraform.
• Experienced DevOps engineers: the Site Reliability Engineer Nanodegree or Cloud Native Application Architecture Nanodegree goes further.

Job Scenario

“DevOps engineer” is a job title, not an occupation in federal statistics, so there is no official median salary for it. The closest Bureau of Labor Statistics occupations give a range: software developers earned a median of $135,980 in May 2025, computer network architects $134,050, and network and computer systems administrators $99,130. BLS projects employment of software developers, QA analysts and testers to grow 10% from 2025 to 2035 and network architects 8%, while systems administrator jobs are projected to shrink 4%.

That split matters for this program. Routine server administration is declining, and the growth is in automating infrastructure and delivery, which is what DevOps roles do. Job ads for junior DevOps or cloud engineers typically ask for one cloud, infrastructure as code, Docker and Kubernetes, a CI/CD tool and scripting; this Nanodegree covers the first four on AWS.

The salary figures in our previous version (one for the US, one for India) had no checkable source, so we removed them.

Costs and Duration of Udacity Cloud DevOps Nanodegree

Udacity estimates 53 hours of content. On 13 October 2026 its subscription card showed $249 billed monthly (cancel anytime) or $846 prepaid for four months, about $212 a month and described as 15% cheaper than paying monthly. New users saw a banner offering 40% off any plan, with the note that the discount applies to the first four months before the plan converts to month-to-month. The subscription gives access to every Udacity program, not one course.

Two costs sit outside Udacity’s price. First, AWS charges for the resources you create; the program page does not say whether a sandbox account is provided, so plan on your own account, check AWS’s current Free Tier terms and set a billing alarm. Second, time: four project reviews add waiting days, and some Trustpilot reviewers in late 2026 reported reviews taking weeks. Udacity’s terms of use give seven days from your first purchase to cancel for a full refund.

Check current Udacity pricing →

Prerequisite

Udacity lists these prerequisites for nd9991: command-line interface basics, Git and basic GitHub, HTML and basic web development, basic SQL, basic computer programming, basic JavaScript and object-oriented JavaScript, Node.js, and some AWS development. That is a longer list than our old review gave (front-end basics, object-oriented programming and Linux commands).

A quick readiness check

• Can you clone a repository, create a branch and open a pull request from the command line?
• Can you run a small Node.js app locally and explain what each part of its package.json does?
• Do you know what an IP address, a port and DNS are?
• Have you created anything in the AWS console, even an S3 bucket?

If you answered no to two or more, spend a few weeks on Git, Node.js and AWS basics first. Udacity’s prerequisite links point to its own short courses for each topic, and free options exist for all of them.

Syllabus of Udacity Cloud DevOps Nanodegree

The program has four courses plus a short welcome and a closing lesson. Hours are Udacity’s estimates.

Course 1: AWS Cloud Fundamentals (about 13.5 hours)

Seven lessons cover cloud computing and deployment models, compute (why servers need compute power and security), storage and content delivery, security, networking and elasticity, messaging and containers, and AWS management (logging, auditing and resource management). The project, Deploy Static Website on AWS, has you host a website in S3, secure it with IAM policies and serve it through CloudFront. This course and project are shared with the Cloud Developer Nanodegree.

Course 2: Deploy Infrastructure as Code (about 14.3 hours)

You set up the tools for AWS CloudFormation and deploy your first server from a template, then learn to turn business requirements into infrastructure diagrams. Later lessons build a VPC with public and private subnets, add servers and security groups using the principle of least privilege, and deploy a relational database with encryption. The project, Deploy a High-Availability Web App Using CloudFormation, provisions load-balanced web servers across availability zones entirely from code.

Course 3: Microservices at Scale using AWS and Kubernetes (about 11.5 hours)

This course covers Docker images and Dockerfiles, pushing images to Amazon ECR, why microservices change a DevOps engineer’s job, continuous integration with AWS CodeBuild, Kubernetes architecture and core objects, and operating Kubernetes in production with Helm charts, logging and scaling. The project, Operationalizing a Coworking Space Microservice, takes an existing service and makes it production-ready on Kubernetes in AWS using Docker, ECR and CodeBuild.

Course 4: Build CI/CD Pipelines, Monitoring, and Logging (about 12.5 hours)

The last course explains continuous integration and continuous deployment, their building blocks and best practices, then has you build pipelines in GitHub Actions that grow in complexity. The project, Movie Picture Pipeline, asks you to write CI/CD pipelines for a provided front-end and back-end application. Udacity’s skills list for the program also names Amazon CloudWatch, logging and cloud observability.

What the program does not cover

• Terraform, Ansible, Jenkins or Prometheus (all were in older versions or are common in job ads).
• Linux system administration in depth.
• Security tooling in the pipeline (secret scanning, image scanning).
• Exam preparation for AWS certifications.

Plan to learn Terraform separately if your target employers use it; it is the most common gap learners point out.

Pros and Cons of Udacity Cloud DevOps Nanodegree

Pros:

• The four projects follow the order real DevOps work happens in: hosting, infrastructure as code, containers, then pipelines.
• GitHub Actions is now the CI/CD tool, which is more widely used than the CircleCI and Jenkins setups in older versions.
• At 53 hours it is one of Udacity’s shorter career programs, so two months of subscription usually covers it.
• Rated 4.6 from 471 reviews, higher than most Udacity cloud programs.
• The subscription also covers related programs such as Cloud Developer, Site Reliability Engineer and Cloud Native Application Architecture.

Cons:

• CloudFormation only. Many teams use Terraform, and a 2020 r/devops thread already raised this gap; it is still there.
• Kubernetes coverage is introductory: about 11 hours shared with Docker, ECR and CodeBuild.
• You pay your own AWS bill and must remember to delete load balancers and clusters.
• Udacity’s price is high next to Udemy and Coursera courses on the same tools.
• Trustpilot complaints in 2026 mention slow project reviews and unanswered support tickets on a cloud-console project.

Nanodegree Certificate of Udacity Cloud DevOps Nanodegree

When all four projects pass, you receive a Udacity Nanodegree certificate that you can download from your account and add to LinkedIn. It is not accredited by a university and it is not an AWS certification. Employers who hire for DevOps roles look harder at what you built, so put each project in a public repository with a README, an architecture diagram and the pipeline or template that deploys it.

If you want an industry credential as well, the usual AWS path is a foundational or associate exam first; our AWS DevOps Engineer Professional (DOP-C02) guide explains where the professional exam fits.

The Advance features you get with Udacity Cloud DevOps Nanodegree

Udacity’s subscription card on 13 October 2026 listed four things: unlimited access to hundreds of courses, hands-on projects with expert feedback, personalized career coaching and interview prep, and program certificates. Here is what each means in practice.

1. Project reviews

Each project is graded against a rubric by a reviewer who leaves line-by-line comments. This is the main thing you pay for. Learner experiences vary: some value the detailed feedback, while older Reddit threads describe reviewers rejecting work for minor points.

2. Career coaching and interview prep

The plan card lists personalized career coaching and interview prep. Udacity does not publish placement figures for this program; see our analysis of Udacity job placement claims before you count on it.

3. Access to the whole catalog

A subscription covers every Udacity program, so you can take the Cloud Developer or Site Reliability Engineer program in the same months at no extra cost.

4. Certificates

You receive a certificate for each program you complete.

About Instructors

Udacity’s nd9991 page lists four instructors on 13 October 2026:

• Justin Lee, listed as a data platform engineer.
• Byron Sommardahl, listed as a chief technology officer.
• Kesha Williams, listed as an AI systems architect; she also teaches in Udacity’s Cloud Developer program.
• Carlos Rivas, listed as an instructor.

Our older review carried longer instructor biographies from 2021. We now give only the titles Udacity shows, because job titles change and we could not re-check the rest.

Noah Gift, who taught the Kubernetes course in older versions, now appears on the Azure version (nd082) instead.

View the Cloud DevOps syllabus on Udacity →

Reviews from Learners of Udacity Cloud DevOps Nanodegree

We read Udacity’s on-page reviews, Udacity’s Trustpilot profile and the main Reddit threads in October 2026. Older reviews describe earlier versions of the program, so we note the date of each.

• Udacity’s page: 4.6 from 471 reviews. The newest (February to June 2026) are positive; one June 2026 reviewer says the program covers a lot with practical examples but recommends some basic knowledge before starting.
• Trustpilot (udacity.com, read 13 October 2026): 4.5 from 3,406 reviews across all programs. Praise centers on real-world projects and detailed code reviews; complaints mention review delays, unanswered support tickets about a cloud-console project, and errors in newer content.
• r/devops, 2020: a learner who signed up during a free month found the early lessons rushed and the mentor answers thin, and asked why the program taught CloudFormation rather than Terraform. A reply from a company-paid learner on a different program reported content errors and picky reviewers.
• r/devops, 2023: a buyer of Udacity’s Site Reliability Engineer program said it took far less time than advertised; another commenter pointed out that the syllabus lists every lesson and project.

Two independent write-ups describe the older curriculum in detail: Ivan Penchev’s review and Dustin D’Avignon’s “The Road to DevOps”. Both praise the hands-on projects; both predate the current GitHub Actions and Kubernetes courses.

The first part of the program is an overview of the services available in the cloud, almost a solutions architect in a nutshell with hands-on exercises and theory.
Jose N., Udacity review of an earlier version

More Reviews

Two graduates of the earlier program shared their certificates on LinkedIn in 2021. Their projects used CircleCI and other tools that the current version has replaced, but the certificates show what you receive at the end.

Another milestone has been achieved! I’ve earned loads of information during this Nanodegree program about Cloud & DevOps technologies. Some of which is how to use AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, CircleCI.
Andrew Wilson, Principal Software Engineer, via LinkedIn (2021). Projects: final project, all projects

Finally received my Nanodegree certificate in cloud DevOps after months of hard work. It was a challenging experience but I got to learn a lot about configuration management and troubleshooting as well as hands-on experience in CICD, IaC, Docker, and K8S.
Peter Hanna, Site Reliability/DevOps Engineer and AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate, via LinkedIn (2021)

Is Cloud DevOps Engineer Nanodegree worth it?

For the right learner, yes. If you can code and use a terminal, and you want a reviewer to check four deployments that cover infrastructure as code, containers, Kubernetes and pipelines, this is a focused way to get them. At $249 a month and 53 hours, most people pay for two months.

It is not worth it if you are new to programming, if you mainly want an AWS certificate, or if your target employers use Terraform and you would rather learn it from the start. In those cases the alternatives below cover the same tools for less.

Comparing programs? Our ranked guide to the best Udacity Nanodegrees in 2026 re-checks the hours, projects and prerequisites of 10 programs on their live Udacity pages, including this one.

Enroll in the Cloud DevOps Engineer Nanodegree →

FAQ’s related to Udacity Cloud DevOps Nanodegree

Is the Udacity Cloud DevOps Engineer Nanodegree worth it?

It is worth it if you want four graded AWS projects that walk the path from a static site to CloudFormation, Kubernetes and GitHub Actions pipelines, and you can finish in about two months of subscription. Udacity estimates 53 hours. If you only need the concepts or an AWS certificate, cheaper courses cover them, and the program still teaches CloudFormation rather than Terraform.

Is a Udacity Nanodegree worth it in general?

A Nanodegree is worth paying for when graded projects matter to you: a reviewer checks each one against a rubric and you finish with work you can show. It is poor value if you only want the concepts. The certificate is a Udacity credential, not an academic degree or an AWS certification.

What jobs will this program prepare me for?

Entry-level cloud, DevOps, platform and build-and-release roles, or a DevOps-leaning move for a developer or system administrator. It is a starting point: most DevOps job ads also ask for Linux administration, scripting and production on-call experience that a 53-hour program cannot give you.

How do I know if this program is right for me?

Check Udacity’s prerequisites: command-line and Git basics, HTML, basic SQL, JavaScript including object-oriented JavaScript, Node.js and some AWS development. If you have built and deployed a small web app and are comfortable in a terminal, you are ready. If not, start with Udacity’s Cloud Developer Nanodegree or a free AWS fundamentals course.

Does it teach Terraform, Ansible or Jenkins?

No. The current AWS program uses AWS CloudFormation for infrastructure as code and GitHub Actions for CI/CD. Older versions taught Ansible, Jenkins, CircleCI and Prometheus, and Udacity’s own meta description still mentions Ansible and Jenkins, but they are not in the current syllabus. Terraform appears in the Azure version (nd082).

How long does it take?

Udacity estimates 53 hours. At 10 hours a week that is about five to six weeks of lessons plus time for four project reviews, so most people finish in two months. Our previous version said four months at 10 hours a week, which was the old program.

How much does it cost?

On 13 October 2026 Udacity charged $249 a month or $846 for four months (about $212 a month), and showed a 40% discount banner for new users. The subscription covers every Udacity program. Udacity’s terms give seven days from your first purchase to cancel for a full refund.

Will it prepare me for the AWS DevOps Engineer Professional exam?

No. DOP-C02 is a professional-level exam that assumes years of AWS experience and covers far more services. The Nanodegree is a useful hands-on base, but you would still need dedicated exam prep; our AWS DevOps Engineer Professional guide covers the exam.

Related Udacity Guides: Every Udacity Nanodegree in 2026 (Hub) | AWS DevOps Engineer Professional (DOP-C02) exam guide | Udacity AWS ML Engineer Review | Udacity ML DevOps Engineer Review | Udacity Agile Software Development Review

Related reading: Udacity Cloud Native Application Architecture Nanodegree review | About OnlineCourseing | our complete Udacity Nanodegree review.

Azure variant: Cloud DevOps using Microsoft Azure (nd082)

Udacity also sells Cloud DevOps using Microsoft Azure (nd082): intermediate, an estimated 54 hours, rated 4.3 from 83 reviews on 13 October 2026. Its prerequisites are the Linux command line, cloud computing fluency, scripting and cloud environment configuration. Instructors are Erick Galinkin, Noah Gift and Nathan Anderson.

What the Azure version teaches

• Azure Infrastructure Operations (about 16 hours): the DevOps lifecycle, Azure infrastructure (virtual machines, networking and load balancing), Azure security practices and policies, and infrastructure as code with Packer and Terraform. Project: deploy a web server behind a load balancer from a Terraform template.
• Agile Development with Azure (about 16 hours): Agile planning, continuous integration from Azure Cloud Shell, and continuous delivery. Project: build a CI/CD pipeline that tests and deploys a Flask and scikit-learn application.
• Ensuring Quality Releases (about 21 hours): deploying infrastructure and test pipelines with Terraform, performance testing with JMeter, UI tests with Selenium, integration tests with Postman, and alerts and log ingestion with Azure Monitor and Log Analytics. Project: a full test-and-monitor pipeline.

Corrections to our previous version: we said nd082 teaches ARM templates, Bicep, Azure Boards and Artifacts, AKS and Application Insights. Its syllabus and skills list name Terraform, Packer, Azure Pipelines, GitHub Actions, JMeter, Selenium, Postman, pytest, Azure Monitor and Log Analytics instead. We also removed an unsourced “$60 to $120 a month” Azure cost estimate.

Certification alignment

nd082’s final lesson points to Microsoft’s AZ-400 exam. To earn the DevOps Engineer Expert certification, Microsoft requires either the Azure Administrator Associate or the Azure Developer Associate certification as well as AZ-400. The Azure Developer Associate (AZ-204) certification has been retired, so new candidates usually take AZ-104 first. Our AZ-400 guide covers the exam.

See the Azure Cloud DevOps Nanodegree →

Choosing your cloud: AWS vs Azure for this career

Pick the platform your target employers use, and check local job ads rather than global market-share charts. The tooling also differs: choose the AWS version if you want CloudFormation, Kubernetes and GitHub Actions; choose the Azure version if you want Terraform and a heavier focus on automated testing. See our AWS vs Azure comparison for salaries and a decision framework by profile.

Looking for the certification path that complements this Nanodegree? See our AWS Data Engineer cert guide or Azure Data Engineer cert guide if data engineering is your target. Once DevOps is second nature, the Site Reliability Engineer Nanodegree is the natural next step. Other cert paths and Nanodegrees are on the Udacity Nanodegree review hub.

Alternatives Worth Considering

Learning Terraform on its own? Our best Kubernetes courses and best Docker courses guides cover the container side, and our cloud certifications ranking shows which credential to pair with this program.

A Two-Month Study Plan

1. Week 1: AWS Cloud Fundamentals. Create your AWS account, turn on MFA and set a billing alarm before anything else.
2. Week 2: Submit the static-website project, then delete the bucket and CloudFront distribution if you do not need them.
3. Weeks 3 and 4: CloudFormation course and the high-availability web app. Keep your templates in Git; they are your best portfolio piece.
4. Weeks 5 and 6: Docker, ECR, CodeBuild and Kubernetes, then the coworking-space microservice. Delete the cluster as soon as the project passes.
5. Weeks 7 and 8: GitHub Actions course and the Movie Picture Pipeline, then write README files and diagrams for all four projects.

If your target employers use Terraform, add a week after the program to rebuild the CloudFormation project in Terraform. It shows employers you understand the concepts behind both tools.

Start the Cloud DevOps Engineer Nanodegree →

More Udacity cloud reviews: Cloud Developer | Cloud Architect | AWS Solutions Architect Associate | Site Reliability Engineer