AWS Serverless - Learn & Build your First Serverless Backend

Explore the three cloud service models—software as a service, platform as a service, and infrastructure as a service—and their use cases and examples.

Explain cloud computing's high level architecture, detailing the front-end client layer with browsers and mobile apps, and the back-end resources like virtual machines, storage, and security managed by providers online.

Discover why market leaders choose serverless backends, driven by pay-as-you-go pricing, rapid deployment, security through identity and access management, and flexible scaling.

Explore key identity and access management concepts, differentiate the root user from IAM users, and learn to create users with policies and permissions to control access.

Create and configure an AWS IAM user with programmatic and management console access, set a custom password with mandatory reset, manage permissions, and retrieve sign-in credentials.

Explore identity and access management policies in AWS, including crafting custom policies attached to users, groups, or roles, and evaluating statements with effect, action, and resource for allow or deny.

Attach the AWS administrative access policy to an IAM user to grant full permissions across all resources, then verify the policy by confirming access to services.

Explore groups in identity and access management, see how group permissions apply to users, how admins and developers share access, and note that a user can belong to multiple groups.

Learn how identity based policies grant or restrict permissions by attaching to users or groups, and specify actions and resources in AWS IAM.

Explore why storage matters and its history, and how S3, the simple storage service, provides scalable, reliable, fast, inexpensive object storage with buckets, objects, and REST-based access.

Explore Amazon S3 basics: buckets store objects with unique keys and metadata; understand prefixes and delimiters to organize folders, and regions to keep data local.

Explore how AWS regions and availability zones organize global hosting with multiple isolated data centers connected by fiber optic links to minimize latency.

Learn to create an S3 bucket with a lowercase, unique name, select a nearby region, upload an object, review object details, and preview basic access permissions.

Learn how to grant access to S3 resources using access policies, differentiate bucket and object permissions, and manage read and write rights for specific users.

Explore the AWS S3 storage classes, including standard, infrequent access, one zone infrequent access, intelligent tiering, glacier and glacier deep archive, plus lifecycle policies for cost optimization.

Explore the foundation of API gateway and how it enables serverless backends by providing a front door to access data, logic, and services with built-in traffic management, security, and monitoring.

Create a REST API using API gateway in AWS, from selecting the gateway and region to naming, describing, and authorizing the API as you build a serverless backend.

Learn how to create an http get request, define a resource with four blocks, explore options, and prepare the api for public use by creating stages.

Learn to send a custom API Gateway response (200) in an AWS serverless backend by adjusting integration responses and body mapping templates, testing with sample data, and deploying successfully.

Learn to invoke a lambda function with API gateway as a trigger, configure the endpoint, deploy to a stage, and verify the hello from lambda response with Postman.

Explore how JSON schema defines the incoming request structure with an instance and a schema, and how a model enables a mapping template to transform data in a lambda function.

Learn how to build a serverless backend by creating a model with name and age, configuring a POST method in API Gateway, and linking a lambda function with input.

Compare relational databases with predefined schemas and strong joins to NoSQL databases with dynamic, document-based structures; learn vertical vs horizontal scalability and when to use each for large datasets.

Learn DynamoDB primary keys, including partition keys, and composite keys with sort keys, and how hash functions determine partitions to store items together and enable artist-song queries.

Build a genuine serverless backend with a Lambda function that retrieves an item from DynamoDB via API Gateway. Configure permissions, query string parameters, and a body mapping template.

Build a serverless delete flow with AWS Lambda and API Gateway to remove a DynamoDB item by user ID, configuring mapping, permissions, deployment, and testing.

Test all apps to ensure proper operation, modify Lambda responses, and perform CRUD actions on DynamoDB by inserting, getting, and deleting items to validate the APIs.

Create a user with programmatic access, grant administrator access, and securely download and store the access key and secret access key for programmatic access to resources Amplify will use.

Discover what Amplify is and why it helps, and learn to use AWS Amplify to develop mobile labs, integrate the SDK, and make service calls to LWR services.

Learn how to initialize an AWS Amplify project, configure environments and credentials, and set up user sign up and sign in with authenticated access to resources.

Configure an AWS Amplify project with a Cognito user pool and identity pool, then integrate authentication using the Amplify library and copy the required pool configurations for registration and login.

Learn to implement sign in with the Amplify SDK using email and password, validate sign-in, navigate to the welcome screen, and configure authenticated requests to the backend.

Authenticate a client request and post data to API gateway using the Amplify SDK, then insert the item into DynamoDB via Lambda and display the server response.

Learn to make an authenticated delete item request from a client to an API, deleting a DynamoDB item by passing the primary key as a query parameter and displaying response.

Explore authentication and authorization in a serverless backend, showing how users sign up and sign in and how Lambda, API Gateway, and DynamoDB manage image uploads and access.

Create a Cognito user pool in the AWS console and configure email login. Enable email verification and read/write attributes while skipping MFA and Lambda triggers.

Create a Cognito identity pool after setting up a user pool, configure authenticated and unauthenticated roles, and prepare Amplify configurations for a serverless backend.

Create a DynamoDB table named binary health in the console, with a string partition key and a string sort key to uniquely identify each item and store blood pressure values.

Create a Lambda function to insert items into a DynamoDB table, and attach a policy granting PutItem permissions to enable serverless data storage.

Build a serverless rest api by creating a bp resource and a post method backed by a Lambda function that writes to DynamoDB, powering the Binelli Help app.

Configure a rest api get method to trigger a lambda function that fetches a user's blood pressure data, using a query string user id and a mapping template.

Learn to enhance an AWS Lambda function to insert BP data into DynamoDB, using boto3, PutItem, and a composite primary key of user id and month-year.

Modify a lambda function to query all BP data for a user in a given year using DynamoDB, the Minority Health table, and a decimal encoder.

Learn to make an authenticated get request from a client app to fetch a user's BP data and visualize it in a bar graph, using a Lambda-backed API Gateway.

Validate BP data on the backend and return a 400 error with a clear error message from the Lambda, mapped through API Gateway integration to the client.

Learn to handle api gateway responses in a serverless backend app, distinguish 4xx client errors from 5xx server errors, parse json messages, and show clear user feedback.

Explore how Alexa enables voice commands and built-in skills, and how to build custom, smart home, video, and flash briefing skills using the Ask SDK with interaction models.

Explore how users interact with Alexa, streaming speech to the Alexa voice service in the cloud. An interaction model defines intents and the skills service processes requests and returns speech.

Implement account linking for a custom Alexa skill using Cognito identity to identify the requesting user and access their health data, blood sugar level, via Lambda, using an access token.

Enable linking an existing Cognito user pool with a custom Alexa skill, exchange tokens for secure access, and test the integration using the account console, token exchange, and Lambda backend.

Handle a custom Alexa blood pressure intent with a Lambda function, parse slots and access tokens, retrieve user data from Cognito and monthly BP from DynamoDB, and respond to Alexa.