I'm Aswini — self-taught in frontend development (React, Tailwind, JavaScript) and Java, currently prepping for software development placements.
And as of today, I know almost nothing about AWS.
I've seen the acronym on every second job description. I've watched "AWS in 10 minutes" videos and understood maybe 40% of them. I've felt that specific kind of anxiety where a skill feels mandatory but also feels like a locked door with no obvious key.
So instead of quietly panicking about it, I'm doing what I did with React and Java: starting from zero, in public, and writing down the roadmap before I actually walk it. If it works, this becomes a useful trail for someone else starting at the same zero. If I get something wrong, hopefully someone corrects me in the comments before I get too far down the wrong path.
Why I'm Doing This Publicly
When I taught myself frontend development, the most useful posts I found weren't from people who'd mastered React for five years — they were from people one or two steps ahead of me, writing about what just confused them. That's the post I want to become for AWS.
Also, plainly: writing "I will learn AWS" in private is easy to quietly abandon. Writing it here means I have to show up with an update.
What I Actually Know Right Now (Baseline)
Being honest about the starting line:
- I know cloud computing exists so companies don't have to manage physical servers themselves
- I roughly know AWS, Azure, and GCP are the big three
- I've heard of EC2, S3, and Lambda as names — I could not explain what any of them actually do if you asked me right now
- I don't yet understand things like regions, availability zones, or IAM at all
That's it. That's the whole baseline.
My Roadmap (In the Order I'm Attempting It)
1. Cloud Computing Fundamentals — Before Touching AWS at All
Before opening the AWS console, I want to actually understand what "the cloud" means underneath the marketing language: what a server is, what "on-demand" really means, and why companies pay for this instead of owning hardware. I'd rather spend a few days here than get lost in AWS's console with zero mental model.
2. AWS Free Tier Account Setup
Setting up the free tier account, and — importantly — reading exactly what's free and for how long, so I don't accidentally get a bill because I misunderstood a limit. This step is boring but non-negotiable.
3. Core Services, One at a Time
Instead of trying to learn "AWS" as one giant subject, I'm picking a small number of services to actually get hands-on with first:
- S3 — storage, because it seems like the easiest on-ramp
- EC2 — virtual servers, because it comes up constantly in interviews and job descriptions
- IAM — because apparently half of real-world AWS mistakes are permission-related, so understanding this early feels important rather than optional
4. Build One Small, Real Thing
Reading documentation without building anything never sticks for me. So the plan is to deploy something small and real — even just a static site on S3 — so the concepts have somewhere to attach themselves in my head.
5. Understand Where AWS Fits for a Fresher, Not Just a Cloud Engineer
I'm not applying for cloud engineering roles specifically — I'm a fresher targeting general SDE roles. So part of this journey is figuring out realistically how much AWS a fresher actually needs to know, versus what's nice-to-have. I suspect the honest answer is "less than it feels like from job descriptions," but I want to find that out for myself instead of assuming.
What I'm Nervous About
Mostly: that this becomes another tab that stays open for three weeks and quietly closes. Writing this post is partly a way of making that harder to do quietly.
I'm also nervous about the classic beginner trap — reading about AWS for hours without ever actually clicking around in the console, which teaches you vocabulary but not intuition.
What's Next
Part 2 of this series will be the "reality check" post — what actually happened when I opened the console for the first time, what confused me that I didn't expect, and whether my roadmap survived contact with reality (roadmaps rarely do).
If you've learned AWS as a fresher — especially without a cloud-specific job in mind — I'd genuinely like to hear what you wish someone had told you on day zero. Drop it in the comments; it might save me a wrong turn.
Following along? This is the first post in a series documenting my AWS learning journey from absolute zero. Part 2 coming once I've actually opened the console.
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