AWS Developer / Engineer – 100+ Lab Exercises (Basic, Intermediate, Advanced)

🔰 Basic Level (30+ Exercises)

 

Goal: Gain fundamental understanding of AWS services, infrastructure setup, and basic automation.

 

Cloud Fundamentals & IAM

  • Create an AWS Free Tier account.

  • Navigate AWS Management Console & CLI.

  • Create IAM users, groups, roles, and policies.

  • Implement MFA and IAM best practices.

  • Understand shared responsibility model.

Compute (EC2)

  • Launch and connect to EC2 instances (Amazon Linux, Ubuntu).

  • Configure key pairs, security groups, and SSH access.

  • Install and host a static website on EC2.

  • Take snapshots and create AMIs.

Storage (S3, EBS)

  • Create S3 buckets and configure permissions.

  • Upload, download, and organize files in S3.

  • Enable versioning, lifecycle rules, and encryption.

  • Mount and manage EBS volumes with EC2.

Networking & Monitoring

  • Create and manage VPCs, subnets, and route tables.

  • Launch EC2 in custom VPC with public/private subnets.

  • Configure CloudWatch Alarms and Logs.

  • Use AWS Cost Explorer to track Free Tier usage.

 

🚀 Intermediate Level (40+ Exercises)

 

Goal: Strengthen cloud-native skills with serverless, databases, automation, and identity federation.

 

Serverless & Event-driven Architecture

  • Create Lambda functions using Python/Node.js.

  • Trigger Lambda via API Gateway and S3.

  • Build a simple REST API with Lambda + API Gateway.

  • Chain multiple Lambdas with Step Functions.

  • Schedule jobs with CloudWatch Events (cron).

Databases & Caching

  • Launch and connect to RDS (MySQL/PostgreSQL).

  • Create DynamoDB tables and perform CRUD with AWS SDK.

  • Implement data backup & restore strategies.

  • Use ElastiCache (Redis) for in-memory caching.

  • Write queries and indexing in DynamoDB.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

  • Write CloudFormation templates for EC2, S3, and IAM.

  • Use AWS CDK (Python/TypeScript) for IaC deployments.

  • Automate environment creation using CloudFormation stacks.

  • Use SAM CLI to deploy serverless apps.

Developer Tools & Automation

  • Set up CodeCommit, CodeBuild, and CodePipeline.

  • Deploy a full-stack app using CI/CD pipeline.

  • Automate testing and packaging with CodeBuild.

  • Use AWS CLI for scripting and deployment.

Identity & Access

  • Set up SSO with third-party identity providers (Google, Okta).

  • Configure federated access using Cognito.

  • Build secure login systems for web apps.

 

🧠 Advanced Level (40+ Exercises)

 

Goal: Architect, optimize, and secure large-scale systems using advanced AWS technologies.

 

High Availability & Load Balancing

  • Configure Elastic Load Balancers (ALB/NLB).

  • Deploy scalable web apps using Auto Scaling Groups.

  • Implement health checks and scaling policies.

Advanced Networking & Security

  • Use NAT gateways, internet gateways, and bastion hosts.

  • Implement VPC peering and Transit Gateway.

  • Deploy and manage AWS WAF and Shield.

  • Create secure hybrid environments with VPN.

Advanced Serverless Architectures

  • Build a GraphQL API using AWS AppSync.

  • Integrate Lambda with DynamoDB and SQS for decoupled systems.

  • Create a real-time chat app using API Gateway + WebSockets.

  • Manage complex workflows with Step Functions.

Data Lake & Analytics

  • Use AWS Glue to crawl and prepare data.

  • Query data in S3 using Athena.

  • Analyze real-time data with Kinesis Data Streams.

  • Create dashboards with QuickSight.

  • Deploy Redshift clusters for data warehousing.

Containers & Microservices

  • Deploy Docker containers with ECS (Fargate & EC2).

  • Use ECR for storing private images.

  • Orchestrate containers using EKS (Kubernetes).

  • Set up service discovery and autoscaling in ECS.

Observability, Security & Governance

  • Configure GuardDuty, Security Hub, and Config Rules.

  • Enable centralized logging with CloudTrail and CloudWatch.

  • Set up Budget Alerts and billing alarms.

  • Encrypt data at rest and in transit with KMS.

  • Manage access with Service Control Policies (SCPs) via AWS Organizations.

 

Capstone Projects

 

  • Build a serverless e-commerce backend with Lambda, DynamoDB, API Gateway.

  • Deploy a containerized microservices app with ECS and RDS.

  • Architect a secure multi-account landing zone.

  • Implement a CI/CD pipeline for React + Node.js app on AWS.

  • Build and analyze a real-time event processing pipeline.

 

✅ Tools & Services

 

  • Compute: EC2, Lambda, ECS, EKS, Fargate

  • Storage: S3, EBS, EFS, Glacier

  • Networking: VPC, Route 53, ELB, NAT, VPN

  • Databases: RDS, DynamoDB, Aurora, ElastiCache

  • IaC: CloudFormation, AWS CDK, SAM

  • CI/CD: CodePipeline, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy

  • Monitoring: CloudWatch, X-Ray, CloudTrail

  • Security: IAM, Cognito, KMS, GuardDuty, WAF, Shield

  • Analytics: Athena, Glue, Redshift, QuickSight

  • Dev Tools: AWS CLI, Boto3, SDKs (Python, JavaScript)

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