On July 25, 2025, AWS User Group Toronto came together for an evening that was part challenge, part collaboration—and 100% cloud-powered.
We hosted a high-energy AWS Jam Session where community members teamed up to solve real-world AWS scenarios in a timed, gamified environment.
It was hands-on. It was competitive. And most importantly, it was a ton of fun.
🧩 What is an AWS Jam?
If you’ve never participated in one—AWS Jam is a collaborative, team-based challenge format where participants work through a series of tasks that simulate real-world cloud problems. From security misconfigurations and observability bottlenecks to AI/ML troubleshooting and architecture gaps, these scenarios are designed to push your problem-solving skills using live AWS environments.
Whether you're a seasoned builder or just starting out, there's something in a Jam for everyone.
🛠️ The Theme: Security & GenAI
This session’s Jam focused on two major areas:
🔐 Security Challenges
Teams faced tasks like:
- Investigating IAM misconfigurations
- Tracing unusual S3 bucket access patterns
- Identifying exposed secrets or privilege escalations
- Locking down over-permissive roles
- These tasks tested knowledge across CloudTrail, IAM, Amazon GuardDuty, and AWS Config—under tight time constraints.
🤖 GenAI Scenarios
We also introduced new scenarios focused on Generative AI, where teams were asked to:
- Deploy sample applications using Amazon Bedrock
- Configure and test Amazon Q Business
- Implement security guardrails around GenAI prompts
- Build prompt templates with controlled access using IAM and LLM Guard
- These challenges highlighted how AWS is enabling safe, scalable GenAI deployment, and gave participants a chance to think critically about privacy, prompt injection, and content safety.
🔥 The Energy in the Room
With laptops out and snacks in hand, participants split into teams and got to work.
What started as quiet concentration quickly turned into a whirlwind of whiteboarding, console hopping, and “aha!” moments.
People discussed strategies, debated architecture decisions, helped each other debug configs—and celebrated every solved challenge like a team goal.
It wasn’t just about winning—it was about learning from each other and thinking like builders.
🏆 Winning Teams & Prizes
The top three teams who cracked the most challenges walked away with exclusive AWS swag—but more importantly, bragging rights.
And let’s be honest: nothing beats that feeling of solving a tricky scenario under pressure.
🎯 Why We Host AWS Jams
At AWS UG Toronto, our goal is to create more than just meetups—we want to build experiences where you can:
- Learn hands-on skills
- Collaborate with peers
- Try new AWS services in real-world contexts
- Build confidence in your ability to architect, troubleshoot, and innovate on AWS
Jams aren’t about perfect answers—they’re about problem-solving under pressure and growing as a cloud professional.
🙌 Thank You
A huge shoutout to all the amazing participants who brought their energy, curiosity, and team spirit to this Jam.
Special thanks to the AWS Community team for helping us host this experience and to our volunteers who kept the room organized and the snacks flowing.
🔗 Stay Connected
Want to join the next Jam or upcoming meetup?
📅 Follow us on Meetup
🔗 Connect on LinkedIn – AWS User Group Toronto
Let’s keep learning, sharing, and building together.
Did you have a favorite Jam task from the session?
Was there a moment your team cracked a tough one? Or a new service you learned about for the first time?
Drop your highlights in the comments—I’d love to hear what stuck with you!
—
Bansi Delwadia
AWS User Group Toronto Leader | AWS Community Builder
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