AWS

Cloud Platform

AWS Learning Roadmap

Amazon Web Services is the world's largest cloud platform, holding ~32% market share. EC2, S3, Lambda, RDS — AWS services power the majority of the internet. Cloud skills are the single biggest career accelerator for backend and DevOps engineers, and AWS certification is the most recognized credential in the field.

Total time

4–6 months

Stages

6 stages

Job-ready at

Stage 4

Career paths

3 paths

Before you start — Prerequisites

✓

Basic Linux command line

Most AWS work involves SSH-ing into Linux servers and running shell commands.

✓

Any backend programming language

AWS is infrastructure for applications — you need an app to deploy.

✓

Basic networking (IP, DNS, HTTP)

VPCs, Security Groups, and load balancers all require understanding of networking fundamentals.

✓

Docker basics recommended

ECS and Lambda container runtimes make much more sense if you already understand containers.

Stage 1: Cloud Fundamentals

How the cloud works and AWS core concepts

1–2 weeks

Topics to cover

IaaS vs PaaS vs SaaS — the service modelsAWS global infrastructure: regions and AZsAWS Console, CLI, and SDKIAM: users, groups, roles, and policiesAWS Free Tier — what is and isn't freeBilling alerts and Cost ExplorerShared responsibility modelThe 6 pillars of the Well-Architected FrameworkAWS support plansPrinciple of least privilege for IAM

Bold = especially important

Milestone

You have an AWS account, billing alerts set, a non-root IAM user, and the AWS CLI configured. You understand the global infrastructure model.

Project to build

Secure AWS account setup

Create an IAM admin user, enable MFA on root, set a $10 billing alert, configure AWS CLI with named profiles.

Stage 2: Core Compute & Storage

EC2, S3, and the building blocks

3–4 weeks

Topics to cover

EC2: instance types, AMIs, key pairsSecurity Groups as stateful firewallsElastic IPs and Elastic Network InterfacesS3: buckets, objects, storage classesS3 bucket policies and ACLsS3 presigned URLs for temporary accessEBS volumes and instance storageAMI: create custom images for faster launchEFS: shared file system for EC2CloudFront CDN for S3 and EC2

Bold = especially important

Milestone

You launch EC2 instances, serve static files from S3, configure security groups, and understand the difference between EBS and instance storage.

Project to build

Static site on S3 + CloudFront

Upload an HTML/CSS site to S3, configure static website hosting, add CloudFront distribution with HTTPS.

Stage 3: Networking & Databases

VPCs, RDS, and production architecture

3–4 weeks

Topics to cover

VPC: subnets, route tables, internet gatewaysPublic vs private subnetsNAT Gateway for private subnet egressRDS: PostgreSQL or MySQL managed databaseRDS Multi-AZ for high availabilityElastiCache: Redis for cachingApplication Load Balancer (ALB)Auto Scaling GroupsRoute 53: DNS and health checksVPC Peering and PrivateLink

Bold = especially important

Milestone

You design a three-tier VPC architecture: public subnets for load balancers, private subnets for app servers, isolated subnets for RDS.

Project to build

Three-tier VPC architecture

VPC with public/private subnets, ALB, EC2 app servers, RDS in isolated subnet — deployed via the Console, documented with a diagram.

Stage 4: Serverless, Containers & IaC

✓ Min. Job Ready

Modern deployment patterns

4–5 weeks

Topics to cover

Lambda: functions, triggers, and invocation modelsAPI Gateway: REST and HTTP APIsSQS and SNS: messaging and eventsECS: task definitions and servicesECR: private container registryCloudFormation basicsTerraform for infrastructure as codeEventBridge for scheduled and event-driven triggersStep Functions for serverless workflowsSecrets Manager and Parameter Store

Bold = especially important

Milestone

You deploy a serverless API with Lambda + API Gateway, run containers on ECS, and define infrastructure with CloudFormation or Terraform.

Project to build

Serverless image processing API

S3 upload triggers Lambda to resize images, stores results in S3, API Gateway exposes endpoints — deployed with CloudFormation.

Stage 5: Security, Monitoring & CI/CD

Production-grade operations

3–4 weeks

Topics to cover

CloudWatch: metrics, logs, alarms, dashboardsAWS X-Ray for distributed tracingCodePipeline + CodeBuild CI/CDGitHub Actions → deploy to AWSWAF and Shield for DDoS protectionAWS Config for compliance auditingGuardDuty for threat detectionCloudTrail: audit log of all API callsKMS: key management and encryption at restAWS Organizations and Control Tower

Bold = especially important

Milestone

You set up CloudWatch dashboards, CI/CD pipelines deploying to AWS, and understand the core security services for compliance.

Project to build

Monitored production deployment

Deploy a containerized app, add CloudWatch alarms, set up GitHub Actions CI/CD pipeline, enable CloudTrail.

Stage 6: Certification & Specialization

AWS SAA-C03 and advanced tracks

Ongoing

Topics to cover

📜 SAA-C03 Solutions Architect – Associate📜 DVA-C02 Developer – Associate⚙️ DevOps: EKS, CodeDeploy, Systems Manager🤖 ML: SageMaker, Bedrock, Rekognition📊 Data: Redshift, Glue, Athena🔐 Security specialty: GuardDuty, Macie, Inspector🌐 Networking specialty: Transit Gateway, Direct Connect💰 FinOps: Cost Optimization, Savings Plans, Spot

Bold = especially important

Milestone

You hold at least one AWS Associate certification and have a specialization track. Senior cloud engineer roles are within reach.

What to learn next with AWS

Skills that pair directly with AWS in job postings

Docker

ECS and Lambda container support — containers are the deployment unit on AWS

Kubernetes

EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service) is the standard for container orchestration on AWS

Terraform

Infrastructure as Code — define AWS resources in code, written in Go

Linux

EC2 instances run Linux — deep shell skills are essential

SQL

RDS (PostgreSQL/MySQL) is the most common AWS database service

Career paths that use AWS

DevOps Engineer Backend Developer Cloud Architect

Frequently asked questions

Which AWS certification should I get first?

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) if you are completely new to cloud — it covers concepts without hands-on depth. AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) is the most respected and valuable first technical cert, covering architecture, compute, storage, networking, and databases.

AWS vs Azure vs GCP — which should I learn?

AWS has the largest market share and the most jobs. If you have no preference, learn AWS. Azure is dominant in enterprise Microsoft-heavy companies. GCP is strong for data and ML workloads. One cloud platform transfers 70–80% to the others — AWS first is the pragmatic choice.

Can I learn AWS for free?

The AWS Free Tier provides 12 months of limited free usage for EC2, S3, RDS, and Lambda after signing up. Most of this roadmap can be completed within the Free Tier. Watch out for accidentally leaving resources running — set billing alerts from day one.

How long does it take to get the AWS Solutions Architect cert?

Most people study 2–3 months (1–2 hours/day) for the SAA-C03. The exam covers breadth rather than depth — you need to know the purpose of 50+ services and common architectural patterns. Practice exams are essential (Tutorials Dojo / Jon Bonso).

Do I need to know everything about AWS to get a job?

No. Most junior cloud roles focus on a subset: EC2, S3, VPC, IAM, RDS, Lambda, and CloudFormation/Terraform. Deep expertise comes on the job. Focus on understanding the core services and being able to deploy a complete three-tier application.

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