Because Portfolios Are Too Mainstream: Architecting ‘Not a Portfolio’ on AWS at the AWS Builder Challenge

This week was all about getting hands-on with different AWS services - starting small, experimenting with the Free Tier, and layering security, scalability, and automation along the way. Step by step, I learned how these services connect, how to avoid rookie mistakes , and how to build something lightweight yet professional.

🎯 Here's the website deployed using AWS Amplify : https://main.dptsxffn4s6jf.amplifyapp.com/

🎯 Here's the AWS Builder Article : https://builder.aws.com/content/31hXlqsngOCrdv5ThSQUdFOcJ7D/because-portfolios-are-too-mainstream-architecting-not-a-portfolio-on-aws-at-the-aws-builder-challenge

Day 1 – Setting Up the AWS Free Tier Account

What I Did:

• Signed up for AWS Free Tier

• Secured the account with MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication)

• Created a budget alert to stay mindful of Free Tier limits

• Created an Admin IAM user instead of using the root account

Key Learnings:

• Budget Alerts: Cloud services are pay-as-you-go, which is awesome, until you forget to “go” and the meter runs. Budget alerts prevent that. Cloud learning should be exciting, not financially stressful.

• MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication): AWS accounts hold serious value - keys, IAM policies, workloads. A leaked password without MFA = instant compromise. MFA makes brute-forcing useless.

• Root vs Admin: Root account = master key. Admin IAM = scoped keys you can rotate, monitor, and revoke. Always use an Admin IAM user, not the root account.

Aha! Moment:
I stopped thinking like “just a user” and started thinking like an owner. Every decision -storage, design, deployment, now gets filtered through two lenses: budget and security.

Tips for Future Builders:

• ✅ Set up a budget alarm before you spin up your first resource
• ✅ Lock your root account with MFA and don’t use it casually
• ✅ Think like an engineer + accountant: skills + cost-awareness

Day 2 – Creating a Secure S3 Bucket

What I Did:

• Created a private S3 bucket

• Learned why buckets should be private by default

• Uploaded files (including a personal image)

• Explored ACLs, bucket policies, and block-public-access settings

• Organized files in proper folder structure

Why S3 for Websites?
S3 is:

• Highly durable (11 9’s durability = almost indestructible)

• Cost-effective (Free Tier = perfect for experiments)

• Simple to integrate with CloudFront for global delivery

• Static hosting-ready out of the box

Key Learnings:

Security-first design clicked here. Realizing that S3 is private by default taught me the philosophy of AWS: open things only when they need to be open.

• Organizing folders is crucial: in large-scale apps, you rely on prefixes for lifecycle rules and cost optimization. Tips for Future Builders:

• ✅ Always keep buckets private, use CloudFront for public access

• ✅ Learn IAM policies early—they’re everywhere in AWS

• ✅ Start organizing folders from day one

Day 3 – Making the Website

What I Did:

• Built my website purely in HTML + CSS, keeping it light for Free Tier

• Decided not to create a “standard portfolio” (too heavy, too common)

• Focused on a theme that reflects discipline + chaos—my philosophy

The Page’s Philosophy:
Life works like code: structure helps, but chaos is inevitable. My site embraces this balance.

Key Learnings:

• Simplicity helps with performance—no JS frameworks = instant load.
• A small site can tell a story if the design is intentional.

Aha! Moment:
As a MERN developer, dropping down to bare HTML felt refreshing, like lifting weights with no fancy machines, just raw basics.

Tips for Future Builders:

• ✅ Don’t over-engineer. Use the Free Tier to focus on core principles
• ✅ Your theme should be yours, stand out from the template
• Don’t underestimate plain HTML—it’s fast, cheap, reliable

Day 4 – Global Distribution

What I Did:

• Connected S3 with CloudFront

• Deployed with global edge caching

• Enforced HTTPS with ACM certificates

Key Learnings:

• Latency is physics - you can’t beat the speed of light, but CDNs cheat it by caching closer to users.

• CloudFront isn’t just speed, it’s security (DDoS protection, HTTPS enforcement).

Aha! Moment:
I learned CloudFront caches responses at the edge locations for a default TTL (Time To Live). Without cache invalidation, outdated assets might linger globally. That’s why cache behaviors (per path) and invalidations are key for version control at scale.

Tips for Future Builders:

• ✅ Always enable HTTPS, it’s free and improves SEO

• ✅ Use cache behaviors to control what gets cached (HTML vs images vs CSS)

Day 5 – Professional Deployment

What I Did:

• Migrated code storage from S3 → GitHub

• Integrated AWS Amplify for CI/CD

• Enabled automatic redeployments

Why GitHub + Amplify Beat S3 Manual Uploads:

• S3 doesn’t version HTML files properly, you overwrite the file, and the old one is gone.

• As developers, we constantly iterate. Without version control, debugging is impossible.

• GitHub tracks history, Amplify automates redeployment = less time babysitting infra, more time coding.

Key Learnings:

• CI/CD pipelines prevent human error.

• Amplify = production-grade deployment with Free Tier simplicity.

Aha! Moment:
I discovered Amplify hooks directly into GitHub webhooks. That means a git push triggers a build pipeline with pre-build, build, and post-build phases. It’s literally DevOps “for free”, and made me think about how enterprise teams structure CI/CD pipelines.

Day 6 – Contact Form & Pub-Sub Architecture

What I Did:

• Built a contact form with Lambda backend

• Used SNS (Simple Notification Service) for pub/sub

• Configured IAM roles for security

• Sent email notifications on submissions

Why It Was My Favorite:
I love backend design, this was a mini system design challenge. Using SNS decouples producers (form submissions) from consumers (email notifications).

Key Learnings:

• Event-driven architecture = scalable by design
• Decoupling makes systems more fault-tolerant

Aha! Moment:
Realizing that even a simple form can showcase enterprise-grade design principles. I learned SNS doesn’t just do fan-out, it supports multiple protocols (HTTP, Lambda, SQS, email). That means the same event (form submission) can trigger multiple consumers in parallel. It’s a simple form today, but the same architecture powers large-scale microservices.

Tips for Future Builders:

• ✅ Don’t connect services directly, decouple with SNS/SQS
• ✅ Practice IAM scoping early, it’s the hardest but most important part

 My Innovative Use Case

To be honest, this isn’t about building a big, world-changing use case. It’s more of a reminder, about balancing order and chaos. Instead of making a typical "about me" or portfolio page, I wanted to create something that gives visitors a real glimpse into my life. It’s personal, a little unconventional, and that’s exactly the point.

Final Reflection

The AWS Builder Challenge wasn’t about spinning up services, it was about building with intent.
Security, budget, creativity, and discipline, all mattered equally. AWS Free Tier is surprisingly generous when you know how to combine services smartly. And through it, I didn’t just create a website.
I created a site that tells my story while living entirely on the Free Tier.

Onto the next challenge !

Cheers. Manyolo. :)