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Learning Paths Guide ​

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The eight labs compose into different sequences depending on what you're solving for. Pick the path that matches the kind of system you're building toward, or work straight through all eight for full coverage.

Choosing a Path ​

Cloud-Native DevOps Engineer ​

A team is moving off manually-managed EC2 instances onto a container platform and needs the delivery pipeline and monitoring wrapped around it before it can carry production traffic.

Path: Lab 01 → Lab 02 → Lab 03 → Lab 04 → Lab 06

This path covers:

  • Infrastructure as Code
  • Kubernetes platform management
  • CI/CD pipeline automation
  • Production monitoring and observability
  • GitOps deployment strategies

Assumes: basic AWS knowledge, command line comfort

Total lab time: 6-8 hours

DevSecOps Engineer ​

Security review has become a blocker on every release, and the team needs guardrails that run automatically in the pipeline instead of a manual sign-off queue.

Path: Lab 01 → Lab 03 → Lab 05 → Lab 04 → Lab 06

This path covers:

  • Secure infrastructure design
  • Automated security scanning
  • Policy as code implementation
  • Security monitoring and alerting
  • Compliance automation

Assumes: security fundamentals, infrastructure knowledge

Total lab time: 6-8 hours

Platform Engineer ​

Delivery teams keep filing tickets for infrastructure they could provision themselves, and the ask is to turn repeatable patterns into a self-service platform.

Path: Lab 01 → Lab 02 → Lab 06 → Lab 08 → Lab 04

This path covers:

  • Internal platform design
  • Developer self-service platforms
  • Crossplane for infrastructure APIs
  • Backstage developer portals
  • Platform observability

Assumes: strong infrastructure and Kubernetes knowledge

Total lab time: 8-10 hours

Cloud Architect ​

A design decision needs to weigh containers against serverless for cost and operational overhead, then prove the chosen pattern out at production scale.

Path: Lab 01 → Lab 07 → Lab 02 → Lab 04 → Lab 08

This path covers:

  • Multi-tier architecture design
  • Serverless and event-driven patterns
  • Cost optimization strategies
  • Hybrid cloud deployments
  • Enterprise architecture patterns

Assumes: advanced AWS knowledge, architecture experience

Total lab time: 7-9 hours

Full Sequence: All Eight Labs ​

The engagement spans the full stack — infrastructure, platform, delivery, observability, security, GitOps, serverless, and internal platform enablement — end to end.

Path: Complete all labs in order: 01 → 02 → 03 → 04 → 05 → 06 → 07 → 08

This path covers: every domain above, in the order each one builds on the last

Total lab time: 10-12 hours

Path Detail ​

Path 1: Cloud-Native DevOps Engineer ​

Lab 01 - Terraform Foundations (45-60 min) ​

Focus: Infrastructure as Code

What You'll Learn:

  • Terraform module design
  • Multi-tier VPC architecture
  • Auto Scaling Groups
  • RDS database deployment
  • CloudWatch monitoring

Key Concepts:

  • Infrastructure as Code principles
  • Remote state management
  • Multi-environment deployments
  • Security best practices

Next: Lab 02

Lab 02 - Kubernetes Platform (60-90 min) ​

Focus: Container orchestration

What You'll Learn:

  • EKS cluster deployment
  • Helm chart management
  • Kubernetes networking
  • Ingress configuration
  • Pod autoscaling

Key Concepts:

  • Container orchestration
  • Kubernetes architecture
  • Service mesh basics
  • Cluster management

Next: Lab 03

Lab 03 - CI/CD Pipelines (30-45 min) ​

Focus: Automation and delivery

What You'll Learn:

  • GitHub Actions workflows
  • Automated testing
  • Container image building
  • Deployment automation
  • Pipeline security

Key Concepts:

  • Continuous Integration
  • Continuous Deployment
  • Pipeline as Code
  • Automated testing

Next: Lab 04

Lab 04 - Observability Stack (90-120 min) ​

Focus: Monitoring and alerting

What You'll Learn:

  • Prometheus metrics collection
  • Grafana dashboards
  • Distributed tracing with Jaeger
  • Log aggregation
  • Alerting rules

Key Concepts:

  • Observability pillars (metrics, logs, traces)
  • Monitoring best practices
  • Alerting strategies
  • Performance optimization

Next: Lab 06

Lab 06 - GitOps Workflows (60-90 min) ​

Focus: Declarative deployments

What You'll Learn:

  • ArgoCD deployment
  • Flux CD workflows
  • Kustomize configurations
  • Git-based deployments
  • Rollback strategies

Key Concepts:

  • GitOps principles
  • Declarative infrastructure
  • Automated deployments
  • Version control for infrastructure

Outcome: a Kubernetes-based delivery platform with automated CI/CD, production monitoring, and GitOps-managed releases.

Path 2: DevSecOps Engineer ​

Lab 01 - Terraform Foundations (45-60 min) ​

Foundation: Secure infrastructure design

Security Focus:

  • Security group design
  • Network isolation
  • Encryption at rest and in transit
  • IAM least privilege

Next: Lab 03

Lab 03 - CI/CD Pipelines (30-45 min) ​

Foundation: Secure automation

Security Focus:

  • Secrets management
  • Secure pipeline design
  • Automated security testing
  • Access control

Next: Lab 05

Lab 05 - Security Automation (75-90 min) ​

Core: DevSecOps practices

What You'll Learn:

  • Trivy vulnerability scanning
  • OPA policy enforcement
  • Falco runtime security
  • Security scanning automation
  • Compliance automation

Key Concepts:

  • Shift-left security
  • Policy as code
  • Runtime protection
  • Security automation

Next: Lab 04

Lab 04 - Observability Stack (90-120 min) ​

Enhancement: Security monitoring

Security Focus:

  • Security event monitoring
  • Anomaly detection
  • Security dashboards
  • Threat detection

Next: Lab 06

Lab 06 - GitOps Workflows (60-90 min) ​

Enhancement: Secure deployments

Security Focus:

  • Secure GitOps workflows
  • Policy enforcement
  • Secure configuration management
  • Audit trails

Outcome: security scanning, policy enforcement, and audit trails are wired into the pipeline instead of a manual review gate.

Path 3: Platform Engineer ​

Lab 01 - Terraform Foundations (45-60 min) ​

Foundation: Infrastructure automation

Platform Focus:

  • Reusable modules
  • Multi-environment support
  • Infrastructure APIs

Next: Lab 02

Lab 02 - Kubernetes Platform (60-90 min) ​

Foundation: Container platform

Platform Focus:

  • Kubernetes as platform
  • Cluster management
  • Resource provisioning

Next: Lab 06

Lab 06 - GitOps Workflows (60-90 min) ​

Foundation: Declarative platform

Platform Focus:

  • GitOps for platform
  • Automated provisioning
  • Self-service deployments

Next: Lab 08

Lab 08 - Platform Engineering (120-150 min) ​

Core: Internal developer platform

What You'll Learn:

  • Crossplane infrastructure APIs
  • Backstage developer portal
  • Self-service infrastructure
  • Platform observability
  • Developer experience optimization

Key Concepts:

  • Internal developer platforms
  • Infrastructure APIs
  • Developer self-service
  • Platform as a product

Next: Lab 04

Lab 04 - Observability Stack (90-120 min) ​

Enhancement: Platform observability

Platform Focus:

  • Platform metrics
  • Developer experience metrics
  • Platform health monitoring

Outcome: delivery teams can provision infrastructure through a self-service portal instead of filing a ticket.

Path 4: Cloud Architect ​

Lab 01 - Terraform Foundations (45-60 min) ​

Foundation: Infrastructure design

Architecture Focus:

  • Multi-tier architecture
  • High availability design
  • Scalability patterns

Next: Lab 07

Lab 07 - Serverless Operations (45-60 min) ​

Core: Serverless architecture

What You'll Learn:

  • Lambda functions
  • API Gateway
  • DynamoDB
  • Event-driven architecture
  • Serverless patterns

Key Concepts:

  • Serverless architecture
  • Event-driven design
  • Cost optimization
  • Scalability patterns

Next: Lab 02

Lab 02 - Kubernetes Platform (60-90 min) ​

Enhancement: Hybrid architecture

Architecture Focus:

  • Container vs serverless
  • Hybrid architectures
  • Multi-platform strategies

Next: Lab 04

Lab 04 - Observability Stack (90-120 min) ​

Enhancement: Architecture monitoring

Architecture Focus:

  • Architecture health
  • Performance monitoring
  • Cost optimization

Next: Lab 08

Lab 08 - Platform Engineering (120-150 min) ​

Advanced: Enterprise architecture

Architecture Focus:

  • Enterprise patterns
  • Multi-cloud strategies
  • Platform design

Outcome: a documented, cost-aware decision between container and serverless patterns, proven out at production scale.

What Completing More Labs Gets You ​

Lab 01 alone: a working multi-AZ VPC and web tier, and the Terraform patterns every other lab builds on.

3-4 labs (a single path above): a container platform or serverless system with CI/CD, monitoring, and either security automation or GitOps wired in — enough to describe a coherent production setup.

All 8 labs: the full stack — infrastructure, platform, delivery, observability, security automation, GitOps, serverless operations, and an internal developer platform on top of it.

Working Through the Labs ​

If this stack is new to you: start with Lab 01. The VPC, IAM, and remote-state patterns it sets up are assumed by every later lab.

If you already run this stack in production: use the Path Detail sections above to jump straight to the lab that matches your gap — each lab's README stands on its own.

If something breaks: each lab's README has its own troubleshooting section for stack-specific issues; the Troubleshooting guide covers issues that span labs.

Ready to start? Pick a path above and begin with the Getting Started Guide.

Released under the MIT License.

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