AWS CDK

Haiyue
6min

Chapter 1: CDK Overview and Environment Setup

Learning Objectives:

  1. Understand what AWS CDK is and the problems it solves
  2. Learn about the relationship between CDK and CloudFormation
  3. Master setting up the CDK development environment
  4. Complete the creation of your first CDK application

Brief Description: Introduces CDK core concepts, compares advantages and disadvantages of traditional IaC tools, establishes the development environment, and creates a Hello World application.

Chapter 2: CDK Core Concepts

Learning Objectives:

  1. Master the three core concepts: App, Stack, and Construct
  2. Understand CDK’s hierarchical structure and organization
  3. Learn to use basic CDK CLI commands
  4. Understand CDK lifecycle and deployment process

Brief Description: Deeply understand CDK’s architectural design, master basic project structure and development workflow.

Chapter 3: Basic Constructs Usage

Learning Objectives:

  1. Master the differences and use cases of L1, L2, and L3 Constructs
  2. Learn to create and configure basic AWS resources (S3, Lambda, IAM)
  3. Understand dependencies between resources
  4. Master parameter passing and configuration management in CDK

Brief Description: Learn to use Constructs at various levels to create AWS resources and understand best practices for resource configuration.

Chapter 4: Advanced Constructs Features

Learning Objectives:

  1. Master how to create custom Constructs
  2. Learn to use CDK Patterns and best practices
  3. Understand the use of Cross-Stack References
  4. Master the application of CDK Context and Feature Flags

Brief Description: Dive deep into CDK’s advanced features to improve code reusability and maintainability.

Chapter 5: Common AWS Service Integration

Learning Objectives:

  1. Master CDK implementation of VPC network architecture
  2. Learn to configure EC2, RDS, ElastiCache and other compute and storage services
  3. Understand serverless architecture implementation with API Gateway and Lambda
  4. Master configuration of monitoring and messaging services like CloudWatch, SNS, and SQS

Brief Description: Learn CDK configuration methods for mainstream AWS services and build complete cloud infrastructure.

Chapter 6: CDK Testing and Debugging

Learning Objectives:

  1. Master how to write CDK unit tests
  2. Learn to use CDK assertions for template validation
  3. Understand debugging techniques with CDK diff and synth commands
  4. Master error troubleshooting and log analysis methods

Brief Description: Learn testing strategies for CDK applications to ensure quality and reliability of infrastructure code.

Chapter 7: Deployment Strategies and Environment Management

Learning Objectives:

  1. Master management strategies for multiple environments (dev, staging, prod)
  2. Learn to implement CI/CD using CDK Pipelines
  3. Understand blue-green deployment and rolling update strategies
  4. Master version management and rollback mechanisms for CDK applications

Brief Description: Learn enterprise-level best practices for CDK application deployment and operations.

Chapter 8: Hands-on Project: Full-Stack Web Application Deployment

Learning Objectives:

  1. Design and implement a complete web application infrastructure
  2. Integrate frontend (S3+CloudFront), backend (API Gateway+Lambda), and database (RDS)
  3. Configure domain names, SSL certificates, and security policies
  4. Implement a complete monitoring and logging system

Brief Description: Consolidate learned knowledge through a real project and experience the complete CDK development workflow.

Chapter 9: Hands-on Project: Microservices Architecture

Learning Objectives:

  1. Build containerized microservices architecture using CDK (ECS/EKS)
  2. Configure service discovery, load balancing, and auto-scaling
  3. Implement inter-service communication and data consistency
  4. Build a complete DevOps pipeline

Brief Description: Learn to build complex microservices architecture using CDK and master deployment patterns for cloud-native applications.

Chapter 10: Performance Optimization and Cost Control

Learning Objectives:

  1. Master performance optimization techniques for CDK applications
  2. Learn to analyze and optimize AWS resource costs
  3. Understand resource tagging and cost allocation strategies
  4. Master automated cost monitoring and alert setup

Brief Description: Learn performance tuning and cost management for CDK applications to achieve efficient cloud resource utilization.

Chapter 11: Security Best Practices

Learning Objectives:

  1. Master implementation of IAM permission least privilege principle
  2. Learn to configure VPC security groups and network ACLs
  3. Understand data encryption and key management (KMS)
  4. Master integration of security scanning and compliance checking tools

Brief Description: Deeply learn security configuration in CDK and build cloud infrastructure that meets enterprise security standards.

Chapter 12: CDK Ecosystem and Extensions

Learning Objectives:

  1. Learn about CDK Constructs Hub and community resources
  2. Learn to publish and share custom Constructs
  3. Master integration with tools like Terraform and Pulumi
  4. Understand the future direction of CDK development

Brief Description: Explore the CDK ecosystem, learn how to contribute to the community, and stay current with technology trends.