Which AWS course type fits me?
I need to understand cloud for a business role     → Fundamentals
I already build on AWS at work, need the badge      → Exam crash course
I want my first cloud job                            → Hands-on track
I want cloud + automation / DevOps roles            → Cloud + DevOps combo

# after installing the AWS CLI and running: aws configure
aws sts get-caller-identity          # which account and user am I?
aws s3 ls                            # list buckets
aws ec2 describe-regions --output table
aws ec2 describe-instances --query "Reservations[].Instances[].InstanceId"

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["s3:GetObject", "s3:PutObject"],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-app-uploads/*"
    }
  ]
}

#!/bin/bash
# EC2 user data for Amazon Linux 2023: install and start a web server
dnf install -y nginx
systemctl enable --now nginx
echo "<h1>Hello from EC2</h1>" > /usr/share/nginx/html/index.html

# Create a monthly cost budget with an email alert (AWS CLI)
aws budgets create-budget \
  --account-id 123456789012 \
  --budget '{"BudgetName":"monthly-limit","BudgetLimit":{"Amount":"5","Unit":"USD"},"TimeUnit":"MONTHLY","BudgetType":"COST"}' \
  --notifications-with-subscribers '[{"Notification":{"NotificationType":"ACTUAL","ComparisonOperator":"GREATER_THAN","Threshold":80},"Subscribers":[{"SubscriptionType":"EMAIL","Address":"you@example.com"}]}]'
# replace the account id and email with your own

After every lab:
☐ Terminate EC2 instances you no longer need
☐ Delete unattached EBS volumes and old snapshots
☐ Release unused Elastic IPs
☐ Stop or delete RDS instances
☐ Delete NAT gateways and load balancers
☐ Empty and delete test S3 buckets
☐ Check the Billing console once a week

AWS Course Scorecard (1-5)
                     Course A   Course B   Course C
Course type fits me    ___        ___        ___
Core services hands-on ___        ___        ___
Lab account plan       ___        ___        ___
Cost control taught    ___        ___        ___
Capstone project       ___        ___        ___
Trainer in demo        ___        ___        ___
Batch and support      ___        ___        ___
TOTAL                  ___        ___        ___

Capstone you should build in a good course
Two-tier web app on AWS:
- VPC with public and private subnets in 2 AZs
- Application Load Balancer in public subnets
- EC2 Auto Scaling group in private subnets
- RDS database in private subnets
- S3 for static files
- IAM roles, no hard-coded keys
- CloudWatch alarm on CPU
- Architecture diagram + cost estimate in README

My AWS Study Plan
Before course: Linux basics, networking basics
Weeks 1-2: Cloud concepts, IAM, billing
Weeks 3-5: EC2, S3, EBS, VPC
Weeks 6-7: RDS, Lambda, CloudWatch
Weeks 8-9: Capstone project
Week 10: Exam practice tests
(Adjust to the course's schedule)