4.2. Developing with Specialized AWS Services

💡 First Principle: AWS provides higher-level services that abstract common patterns — use them to accelerate development rather than building from scratch.

Why reinvent authentication, GraphQL APIs, or ML inference when AWS offers managed services that handle the heavy lifting? For example, consider building a mobile app that needs user sign-up, social login, and JWT tokens — Cognito provides all of this in minutes instead of months. Amplify, AppSync, and SageMaker each solve specific development problems that would otherwise require significant custom code. Without these managed services, teams spend months building authentication systems, API layers, and search infrastructure that AWS already provides — and those custom solutions often fail to match the security, scalability, and reliability of the managed alternatives.

Unlike the core services in Phase 2, these are more specialized. The exam won't test deep configuration — it tests whether you know when each is the right tool.