AWS Developer Associate Course

The AWS Certified Developer Associate exam tests developers who build and maintain applications on AWS. It covers core services, serverless applications, CI/CD, security, data, and monitoring. You should know Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3, SQS, SNS, CodeCommit, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, CodePipeline, IAM, KMS, CloudWatch, and X-Ray. The exam uses scenario-based questions that test practical choices, such as which service decouples components or how to reduce Lambda cold starts. A good study path starts with core services, then serverless, then CI/CD, then security and data, and finally monitoring and strategy. This course follows the exam structure and links to a practice bank with 60 original questions.

Serverless development centers on Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3, SQS, and SNS. Lambda runs code without servers, and the handler is the entry point. Layers share dependencies, and provisioned concurrency reduces cold starts. API Gateway exposes HTTP endpoints that invoke Lambda, and HTTP APIs are often simpler and cheaper than REST APIs. DynamoDB provides NoSQL storage, TTL deletes expired items, and streams trigger Lambda on changes. SQS decouples components with queues, while SNS provides pub/sub notifications. Step Functions orchestrates workflows, and event source mappings poll streams and queues. Choose the simplest service that meets the requirement, and think about latency, cost, and error handling.

AWS CI/CD services include CodeCommit, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, and CodePipeline. CodeCommit hosts git repositories, CodeBuild builds and tests code, CodeDeploy deploys to targets, and CodePipeline automates the release process. Buildspec files define build steps, and appspec files define deployment behavior. Deployment strategies include blue/green, rolling, canary, and all-at-once. Blue/green switches traffic between environments, rolling replaces instances gradually, and canary routes a small percentage to the new version. Elastic Beanstalk provides a PaaS for web apps, and CloudFormation manages infrastructure as code. Choose the strategy that balances speed, risk, and rollback ease.

Security questions cover IAM, KMS, Secrets Manager, Cognito, WAF, and encryption. IAM roles provide temporary credentials, policies define permissions, and least privilege limits access. KMS manages encryption keys, Secrets Manager stores secrets, and Cognito provides user authentication. WAF protects web applications, and presigned URLs grant temporary access. Data topics include S3 lifecycle, versioning, and presigned URLs, DynamoDB indexes and streams, RDS read replicas, Aurora, ElastiCache, and EFS. Choose the service that matches the data shape and access pattern, and always protect data at rest and in transit.

Monitoring and operations use CloudWatch, CloudWatch Logs, X-Ray, CloudTrail, and Trusted Advisor. CloudWatch collects metrics and triggers alarms, CloudWatch Logs stores application logs, X-Ray traces requests across services, CloudTrail records API activity, and Trusted Advisor gives best-practice recommendations. Developers should add structured logging, set alarms for errors and latency, and trace requests to find bottlenecks. Strategy questions ask you to choose the most cost-effective, reliable, and secure option. Read the scenario carefully, eliminate options that do not fit, and prefer managed services over custom solutions when they meet the requirement.