AWS Cloud Career Roadmap

Each stage has a free path and a premium fast-track — your call.

1. 1 · Linux & networking foundations

   ~3 weeks

   You're comfortable on the command line and understand the networking every cloud is built on.

   Topics to learn

   • Linux shell, files & permissions
   • Processes, packages & systemd
   • TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP & ports
   • Subnets, CIDR & firewalls

   Hands-on practice

   • Spin up a Linux VM and live in the terminal for a week
   • Trace a request: DNS → TCP → HTTP with dig and curl
   • Draw a /24 network and split it into subnets
   • Write a bash script that backs up a directory

   Free45-day calendar (free)Free cloud resources

   Supporting kitAWS SAA Interview Q&A →
2. 2 · Core AWS services

   ~3 weeks

   You can stand up real infrastructure on AWS and explain why each piece exists.

   Topics to learn

   • IAM: users, roles & policies
   • EC2, AMIs & security groups
   • VPC, subnets & route tables
   • S3 & RDS fundamentals

   Hands-on practice

   • Launch an EC2 instance inside a custom VPC
   • Host a static site on S3 with the right bucket policy
   • Create an IAM role and attach least-privilege policies
   • Stand up an RDS database and connect from EC2

   Free45-day calendar (free)

   Supporting kitAWS SAA Interview Q&A →
3. 3 · Infrastructure as code (Terraform)

   ~2 weeks

   You stop clicking in the console and start provisioning everything in code — the line that separates engineers from button-pushers.

   Topics to learn

   • Terraform providers & resources
   • Variables, outputs & state
   • Modules & remote backends
   • Plan / apply workflow

   Hands-on practice

   • Recreate your stage-2 VPC + EC2 entirely in Terraform
   • Move state to an S3 + DynamoDB backend
   • Refactor repeated resources into a reusable module
   • Tear it all down with terraform destroy and rebuild

   Free45-day calendar (free)

   Supporting kitTerraform / IaC Q&A →
4. 4 · Containers & EKS

   ~2 weeks

   You can package an app in a container and run it on managed Kubernetes — the heart of modern cloud roles.

   Topics to learn

   • Docker images & registries (ECR)
   • Pods, deployments & services
   • EKS cluster basics
   • ConfigMaps, secrets & scaling

   Hands-on practice

   • Containerize a small app and push it to ECR
   • Deploy it to an EKS cluster with a Service
   • Scale the deployment and watch pods reschedule
   • Expose it through an ingress / load balancer

   Free45-day calendar (free)

   Supporting kitKubernetes & Docker Q&A →
5. 5 · CI/CD on AWS

   ~3 weeks

   You ship changes through an automated pipeline instead of by hand — that's the production bar.

   Topics to learn

   • Git in depth & trunk-based flow
   • GitHub Actions / CodePipeline
   • Build, test & deploy stages
   • Rollbacks & environments

   Hands-on practice

   • Build a pipeline that deploys to EC2 on every push
   • Add a stage that runs terraform plan on PRs
   • Push a container image and roll it out to EKS via CI
   • Add a manual approval gate before production

   Free45-day calendar (free)
6. 6 · Interview prep & portfolio

   ~1 week

   You package it all: a portfolio repo, a sharp cloud resume, and answers you can deliver.

   Topics to learn

   • Polish your Terraform + pipeline repo + README
   • ATS-ready cloud resume
   • Mock interviews out loud
   • An architecture diagram of what you built

   Hands-on practice

   • Write a README that sells your AWS project
   • Diagram your VPC → EKS → CI/CD architecture
   • Answer 10 AWS interview questions out loud
   • Apply to 3 roles with your repo link on top

   Free45-day calendar (free)Free cloud resources

   Supporting kitAWS SAA Interview Q&A →Cloud Engineer Resume →