AWS Cloud Quest – A quick look

New ways of learning are emerging across learning platforms. Many prefer to have interactive learning with role plays, personas, and hands-on labs. AWS is a leader in cloud computing and they provide various ways to keep up with the services offered by them.

What is it? – Cloud quest is the interactive role-playing gamified learning experience offered by AWS to get hands-on experience on AWS skills. Currently, Cloud Quest offers 5 different roles in the learning path.

AWS – Cloud Quest vs Certificates? – Preparing for certificates themselves does not involve any practical AWS experience. It is more theory-oriented. Cloud Quest is good for beginners and also experienced professionals to practically experience the AWS skills in the form of labs that run in a real AWS sandboxed environment. Even to clear the AWS certificates, Cloud Quest can be taken as one of the steps apart from other learning materials.

How does it work? – Every challenge in the Cloud Quest has 4 steps. – A) Learn, B) Plan, C) Practice, and D) DIY. Every quest is a problem statement. The solution center will help with all 4 steps.

A) Learn – Video and theory about the AWS services

B) Plan – Walkthrough of the entire solution design

C) Practice – Step by step guide to walk through part of the solution

D) DIY and validate – Few steps in the solution design have to be done by the learner and the result will be validated by AWS

Generally, the lab time is 2 Hours. There is no limit on the number of times to try the same challenge again and again until you make yourself comfortable with the challenge and the learning.

Is it available to all? – AWS skill builder is generally available for everyone across the globe.

How many languages are supported? – Currently, Cloud Quest is supported in 12 languages.

Why would I recommend AWS Quest for learning? – The hands-on lab experience helps to understand the theory part of the learning. Also, there is no necessity to clean the resource in the AWS account since the AWS sandbox account with the prerequisites is generated as part of the course. There is no need to worry about how much AWS billing would incur for trying out a new quest. It is all covered as part of the monthly or annual fixed subscription cost.

What’s the pricing? – For individuals – There are 2 options. 1) Free plan and 2) Paid subscription plan. The free plan offers access to only 1 role-playing learning. Other 4 role-playing learning options are available with the paid subscriptions.

How to pay for the subscription? – The subscription will be charged along with other AWS services in the AWS monthly bill. Signing up for an AWS account is mandatory for subscribing to cloud quest.

What are the different subscription options? – A) Individual and B) Team subscriptions are available.

Summary of all the role-play challenges offered in AWS Cloud Quest –

##	Topics Covered
1	Cloud Computing Essentials	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
2	Cloud First Steps	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
3	Computing Solutions	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
4	Networking Concepts	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
5	Core Security Concepts	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
6	Cloud Economics	✓	✓	✓	✓	⤫
7	Databases in Practice	✓	✓	✓	✓	⤫
8	File Sytems in the Cloud	✓	✓	✓	⤫	⤫
9	Connecting VPCs	✓	✓	⤫	⤫	✓
10	Auto-healing and Scaling Applications	✓	✓	⤫	⤫	⤫
11	Highly Available Web Applications	✓	✓	⤫	⤫	⤫
12	First NoSQL Database	✓	✓	⤫	⤫	⤫
13	Serverless Foundation	⤫	✓	✓	✓	✓
14	Resource Monitoring	⤫	✓	✓	⤫	⤫
15	Deploying RESTful APIs	⤫	✓	✓	⤫	⤫
16	API with Database	⤫	✓	✓	⤫	⤫
17	Single Page App	⤫	✓	✓	⤫	⤫
18	Data Ingestion Methods	⤫	✓	⤫	✓	⤫
19	Analyzing Network Traffic	⤫	✓	⤫	⤫	⤫
20	Resoure Governance	⤫	✓	⤫	⤫	⤫
21	Automation with CloudFormation	⤫	✓	⤫	⤫	⤫
22	Decoupling Applications	⤫	✓	⤫	⤫	⤫
23	Backing Up Data	⤫	✓	⤫	⤫	⤫
24	DNS	⤫	✓	⤫	⤫	⤫
25	Content Delivery Networks	⤫	✓	⤫	⤫	⤫
26	Container Services	⤫	✓	⤫	⤫	⤫
27	Setup a Cloud Development Environment	⤫	⤫	✓	⤫	⤫
28	Templating Serverless Applications	⤫	⤫	✓	⤫	⤫
29	Design NoSQL Databases	⤫	⤫	✓	⤫	⤫
30	Triggers – Aggregating Data	⤫	⤫	✓	⤫	⤫
31	Integrating Serverless Applications	⤫	⤫	✓	⤫	⤫
32	Parallel Data Processing	⤫	⤫	✓	⤫	⤫
33	Orchestrate Serverless Workflows	⤫	⤫	✓	⤫	⤫
34	Deploying APIs Gradually	⤫	⤫	✓	⤫	⤫
35	Continuous Delivery Pipeline	⤫	⤫	✓	⤫	⤫
36	Image and Video Analysis	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓	⤫
37	Setup ML Environment	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓	⤫
38	Spy Drones Detection	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓	⤫
39	Bring Your Own Model (BYOM)	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓	⤫
40	Anomaly Detection	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓	⤫
41	Reinforcement Learning	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓	⤫
42	Get Home Safe	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓	⤫
43	Tensorflow and Computer Vision	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓	⤫
44	Extract Text from Docs	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓	⤫
45	Text-to-Speech	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓	⤫
46	Speech-to-Text	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓	⤫
47	Customer Sentiment	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓	⤫
48	Identity and Access Management	⤫	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓
49	Security Policies	⤫	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓
50	Lambda Security	⤫	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓
51	Playing with Encryption	⤫	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓
52	Secrets Management	⤫	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓
53	Protecting Data at Rest	⤫	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓
54	Securing APIs	⤫	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓
55	Serverless Authentication	⤫	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓
56	S3 Security	⤫	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓
57	Compliance Enforcement	⤫	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓
58	Securing Your Servers	⤫	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓
59	Securing a Three-tiered Architecture	⤫	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓
60	Edge Protection	⤫	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓
61	Infrastructure as Code	⤫	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓
62	Secure Self-service Infrastructure	⤫	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓
63	Incident Response	⤫	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓
64	Application Logs	⤫	⤫	⤫	⤫	✓