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hands-on lab

Introduction to AWS Step Functions

Difficulty: Intermediate
Duration: Up to 1 hour and 30 minutes
Students: 9,728
Rating: 4.7/5
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Description

AWS Step Functions is a web service that enables you to coordinate the components of distributed applications and microservices using visual workflows.

Step Functions manage the operations and underlying infrastructure for you to ensure your application is available at any scale.

In this lab, you will see what AWS Step Functions are and what types of problems this service is best suited to solve. By the end of this lab, you will have created a solution that combines Lambda and Step Functions for a fictitious gaming application.

Learning objectives

  • Understand what AWS Step Functions is and how to use AWS Step Functions
  • Understand the different components of AWS Step Functions and how to configure AWS Step Functions
  • Understand how to implement Parallel Steps, when to use them and why
  • Understand the situations best suited to using Conditional Steps
  • Make a State Machine log to the CloudWatch service
  • Create and test a State Machine

Intended audience

  • Candidates for the AWS Developer Associate Exam
  • Application developers interested in workflow orchestration for data processing, automating security tasks or even modernizing monolithic architectures

Prerequisites

Familiarity with the following will be beneficial, but is not required:

  • AWS Step Functions
  • AWS Lambda
  • Amazon DynamoDB

The following can be used to fulfill the prerequisites:

Updates

May 7th, 2024 - Resolved deployment issue

November 30th, 2023 - Updated Lambda function versions and improved instructions for clarity

September 4th, 2023 - Updated screenshots and instructions to reflect latest UI

April 20th, 2023 - Resolved State Machine execution error

August 22nd, 2022 - Updated the instructions and screenshots to reflect the latest UI

June 23rd, 2021 - Improved lab formatting and screenshots for an improved learning experience. Updated content to reflect the latest AWS Console experience.

March 11th, 2021 - Updated AWS Lambda instructions to reflect latest user interface updates

January 22nd, 2021 - Updated AWS Lambda lab steps to reflect latest user interface updates

March 16th, 2020 - Updated to reflect the latest AWS Console experience and added code syntax highlighting for improved readability

January 31th, 2019 - Updated all sections of the lab to the standard format of CloudAcademy's labs

January 10th, 2019 - Added a validation lab step to check the work you perform in the lab 

Covered topics

Development
Amazon Web Services
Development for AWS
AWS Step Functions

Lab steps

Logging In to the Amazon Web Services Console
Understanding the AWS Step Functions Service
Using AWS Step Functions to Build a Game
Creating a Parallel Step Type
Creating a Conditional Step Type
Logging Results to Amazon CloudWatch
Creating a State Machine

Lab Rules