Introducing: AWS CDK 100 Drill Exercises - Learn by Building

Source: Dev.to

What is AWS CDK 100 Drill Exercises?

AWS CDK 100 Drill Exercises is a comprehensive, hands‑on learning series where I create and share 100 practical AWS infrastructure implementations using the AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK). Each exercise focuses on real‑world scenarios, from basic networking setups to advanced multi‑region architectures.

Goal: Master AWS CDK through deliberate practice while building a valuable reference library for the community.

Tags for This Series

I’m using #100drillexercises as a dedicated tag for this learning series. Follow this tag to track all exercises as they’re published!

Additional tags: #aws #cdk #devtools

The Inspiration Behind This Project

The idea came from an article (or book) about design practice that recommended a “100 design challenge” – recreating existing designs, then analyzing and reflecting on each one. Designers expand their creative vocabulary through repetitive, deliberate practice.

When I read that, a question struck me:

Could this approach work for AWS CDK?

Why AWS CDK Needs This

The Problem: Limited Real‑World Experience

In day‑to‑day work we typically encounter a limited set of infrastructure patterns:

• Project constraints: Most engineers work on 1‑3 projects per year
• Pattern repetition: Similar architectures across projects
• Limited exposure: Rarely get hands‑on with cutting‑edge patterns
• Passive learning: Attending sessions and reading case studies is valuable, but without actually building, the knowledge doesn’t stick

The Reality Check

I’ve experienced this countless times:

• Watching AWS Summit technical sessions and thinking “I totally get this”
• Reading company tech blogs about innovative architectures
• Seeing lightning talks showcasing clever solutions
• Admiring architecture diagrams in presentations

But seeing ≠ understanding. When you sit down to implement an architecture, new questions appear:

• How do they handle cross‑account permissions?
• What’s the actual security‑group configuration?
• How do they manage deployment order?
• Why is my Lambda timing out when theirs works perfectly?

These questions only surface when you’re hands‑on‑keyboard, building it yourself.

Learning by Doing

You don’t truly understand something until you’ve built it yourself. By implementing 100 different infrastructure patterns with AWS CDK, I will:

• Deepen my understanding of AWS services and CDK patterns
• Discover edge cases that documentation doesn’t cover
• Gain practical experience with architectures I’d never encounter in my day job
• Create reusable patterns for future projects
• Document learnings to help others avoid common pitfalls

Mistakes are inevitable – that’s part of the point.

Community Contribution

For Learners

• Progressive difficulty: From Level 100 (Foundational) to Level 400 (Expert)
• Complete code examples: Every exercise includes working, tested code
• Real‑world focus: Patterns you’ll actually use in production
• Best practices: Aligned with the AWS Well‑Architected Framework

For the Community

• Reference library: Searchable collection of CDK patterns
• Open source: All code available on GitHub
• Collaborative learning: Feedback and improvements welcome
• Bridge the gap: From concept to implementation

What to Expect

Exercise Structure

Each exercise provides:

• Clear objectives – what you’ll build and why
• Architecture diagram – visual overview of the infrastructure
• Level indicator – 100/200/300/400 complexity rating
• Step‑by‑step implementation – annotated CDK code
• Best practices – security, cost optimization, operations tips
• Verification steps – how to test your deployment
• Common pitfalls – issues encountered and solutions

Coverage Areas

The 100 exercises span:

• Foundation & Networking: VPC, security groups, routing
• Storage & Data: S3, RDS, DynamoDB, EFS
• Compute & Serverless: Lambda, ECS, EC2, Auto Scaling
• Distribution & CDN: CloudFront, Global Accelerator
• Security & Compliance: IAM, Secrets Manager, KMS, Config
• Monitoring & Observability: CloudWatch, X‑Ray
• DevOps & Automation: CI/CD pipelines, multi‑region deployments

Release Schedule

• Initial release: Building a Basic VPC
• Regular updates: 1–2 new exercises per week
• Community‑driven: Taking requests and feedback

Exercise Levels & Focus Areas

The exercises are organized by AWS’s technical content complexity levels. Each level builds on the previous knowledge while introducing new concepts and patterns.

Foundational (Level 100)

Overview: Introduction to AWS CDK basics and fundamental AWS service configurations.

Target Audience:

• AWS CDK beginners
• Those learning Infrastructure as Code for the first time
• Developers familiar with the AWS Console who want to learn CDK

Example Patterns:

• Basic VPC with public/private subnets
• S3 bucket with versioning and encryption
• Single Lambda function with CloudWatch Logs
• Security groups with simple ingress/egress rules

Intermediate (Level 200)

Overview: Implementing best practices and service features with proper configurations.

Target Audience:

• Developers comfortable with Level 100 concepts
• Those implementing production‑ready infrastructure
• Engineers seeking to apply AWS best practices

Example Patterns:

• VPC with NAT Gateways and proper routing
• Static website hosting with S3 + CloudFront
• Lambda with API Gateway integration
• RDS with Multi‑AZ configuration
• Application Load Balancer setups

Advanced (Level 300)

Overview: Detailed implementations of complex architectures and service integrations.

Target Audience:

• Experienced CDK users
• Solution architects designing scalable systems
• Engineers handling complex production workloads

Example Patterns:

• Multi‑tier web applications with ECS/EKS
• Event‑driven architectures with EventBridge
• Aurora Global Database configurations
• Step Functions orchestration patterns
• Custom CDK Constructs (L3) development

Expert (Level 400)

Overview: Enterprise‑grade solutions that address large‑scale, high‑availability, and compliance requirements.

Target Audience:

• Senior architects and engineers
• Teams building mission‑critical, globally distributed systems

Example Patterns:

• Multi‑region, active‑active architectures with failover
• Complex CI/CD pipelines with cross‑account deployments
• Advanced security frameworks (e.g., Service Control Policies, custom compliance checks)
• High‑performance data pipelines using Kinesis, Firehose, and analytics services
• Automated cost‑optimization and governance tooling