AWS CDK Introduction

The AWS Certified Developer – Associate (DVA-C02) exam includes several tasks related to deploying applications, automating infrastructure, and using tools like the AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK). As cloud development increasingly involves managing infrastructure as code (IaC), the ability to define and deploy AWS resources programmatically is essential.

This lesson aligns closely with exam objectives in the “Deployment” domain, specifically where the exam expects candidates to implement and deploy infrastructure as code using tools such as AWS CDK. Mastery of the concepts here will help us pass the exam and prepare us for real-world scenarios where rapid, repeatable, and secure infrastructure deployment is critical.

What is AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK)?

The AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) is an open-source framework for defining cloud infrastructure using general-purpose programming languages. Unlike traditional infrastructure as code (IaC) solutions that use declarative templates like JSON or YAML, the CDK allows developers to use TypeScript, Python, Java, or C# to define infrastructure resources. The CDK then synthesizes this code into AWS CloudFormation templates used to provision and manage resources.

Why should we use AWS CDK?

Now that we have understood the basics of the CDK, let’s examine why we may want to use the CDK:

• Developer productivity: The CDK enables developers to dynamically define resources using loops, conditionals, and variables in code. This reduces repetitive declarations and makes complex deployments easier to manage. For example, we can create ten S3 buckets in a loop or configure a set of Lambda functions with similar parameters from one consistent pattern.

• Modularity: CDK supports breaking infrastructure into reusable modules called constructs. This allows teams to encapsulate patterns (like a Lambda connected to an API Gateway) and reuse them across multiple projects. It promotes consistency and accelerates onboarding for new developers who can use existing building blocks.

• Maintainability: Keeping infrastructure code in the same repository as our application code simplifies life cycle management. It makes changes traceable via version control, allows integration with CI/CD workflows, and ensures our deployment logic evolves alongside application requirements. This alignment is especially useful when deploying microservices or serverless functions.

• Best practices: By default, many CDK constructs apply AWS security and scalability best practices. For instance, an s3.Bucket created via CDK will have private access and encryption enabled unless explicitly ...