Qwiklabs for AWS

A little while ago I wrote about getting started with AWS. I have since been reintroduced to Qwicklabs and felt I should talk a little about this resource.

I have always been a hands-on learner. I built a home lab to teach myself VMware, I had a Windows domain in my house, and so on. The easiest way to learn AWS is to dig in and with the free tier you don’t even have to pay. I appreciate everything the free tier offers but, with over 90 tools, it is hard to decide where to begin. can solve this issue with their hands on labs.

As of this writing qwiklabs offers 133 labs, at least 15 of those are totally free. The labs can be completed in 20 - 30 minutes and won’t cost a dime. They are fairly simple but cover the basics well. You don’t have to enter a credit card to make a qwiklabs account but you can buy credits to pay for more in depth labs.

If you want to game while you learn there are Learning Quests you can enroll in. They give more structure to the labs and give you a distinct learning path. At the end you get a badge to show the world how cool you are.

I learned about this by signing up for the AWS Monthly Webinar Hands on Labs for Windows. I received free access to a lab and got 15 credits in my account for watching a webinar. I would assume new webinars are posted every month so I’ll keep signing up for those.