Faheem abid 011

Posted on Nov 19

Building a Serverless Student Management System Using AWS (Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3 & CloudFront)

#cloudcomputing #webdev #serverless #aws

In this project, I designed and deployed a complete serverless Student Management application using AWS services.
The system lets users add new student records and retrieve existing data, powered entirely by:

AWS Lambda

Amazon DynamoDB

API Gateway (REST API)

S3 Static Website Hosting

CloudFront CDN

IAM (Role-based permissions)

This article contains everything needed to recreate the project from scratch
1. Create DynamoDB Table

Open DynamoDB in the AWS Console

Click Create Table

Set:

Table name: studentData

Partition key: studentid (String)

Create the table.

🔎 Ensure the partition key name matches exactly with the name used inside your Lambda functions.

2. Create IAM Role for Lambda

Go to IAM → Roles → Create Role

Select Lambda as the use case

Attach the policy: AmazonDynamoDBFullAccess

Name it: lambda-dynamodb-full-access

Create the role.

3. Create Lambda Function – Fetch Students (GET)

Go to AWS Lambda

Click Create function

Choose Python 3.12

Select Use an existing role

Pick the role: lambda-dynamodb-full-access

Paste your getstudents.py code

Deploy the function

4. Create Lambda Function – Insert Students (POST)

Repeat the same steps as the GET function:

Create a new Lambda (Python 3.12)

Choose the same IAM role

Paste insertstudentdata.py

Deploy

*5. Build REST API Using API Gateway
*
Open API Gateway

Choose REST API → Build

Set:

API name: any

Endpoint type: Edge Optimized

Create the API

Add Methods

GET Method

Resource: /

Method: GET

Integration type: Lambda

Select the GET Lambda function

POST Method

Resource: /

Method: POST

Integration: Lambda

Select the POST Lambda function

Enable CORS

Select the resource

Click Enable CORS

Deploy the API

Deploy → New Stage → prod

Copy the Invoke URL

Add it to your script.js

6. Create S3 Bucket for Hosting the Website

Go to S3 → Create bucket

Keep Block Public Access ON

Upload:

index.html

script.js

7. Enable Static Website Hosting in S3

Go to Properties

Scroll to Static Website Hosting

Enable it and set:

Index document: index.html

Error document: index.html

8. Allow CloudFront to Access S3 (Bucket Policy)

Since your bucket will remain private, CloudFront needs permission to read files.

Use this policy template:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "AllowCloudFrontAccess",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Principal": {
        "Service": "cloudfront.amazonaws.com"
      },
      "Action": "s3:GetObject",
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::your-bucket-name/*",
      "Condition": {
        "StringEquals": {
          "AWS:SourceArn": "arn:aws:cloudfront::YOUR-ACCOUNT-ID:distribution/YOUR-DISTRIBUTION-ID"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Replace:

your-bucket-name

YOUR-ACCOUNT-ID

YOUR-DISTRIBUTION-ID

9. Create CloudFront Distribution

Open CloudFront

Click Create Distribution

Set:

Origin domain: Your S3 bucket

Origin access: OAC (Origin Access Control) → Create new

Viewer protocol policy: Redirect HTTP → HTTPS

Default Root Object: index.html
Ensure:
✔ Your S3 bucket is private
✔ CloudFront accesses S3 using OAC

Create the distribution.

Copy the CloudFront URL:

dxxxxxx.cloudfront.net

This becomes your main website link.

10. Add CORS to S3 (Optional but Recommended)

[
  {
    "AllowedHeaders": ["*"],
    "AllowedMethods": ["GET", "POST", "PUT", "DELETE", "HEAD"],
    "AllowedOrigins": ["*"],
    "ExposeHeaders": ["ETag"],
    "MaxAgeSeconds": 3000
  }
]

🎉 Final Output

Your serverless system now supports:

✔ Adding student records (POST Lambda)
✔ Fetching student data (GET Lambda)
✔ API handling with API Gateway
✔ Fast NoSQL storage using DynamoDB
✔ S3 hosting for the front-end
✔ CloudFront as a secure CDN
✔ OAC-based private bucket access
✔ Proper CORS configuration
✔ 100% serverless, scalable, and cost-efficient architecture

Conclusion