13 lessons, 260 chapters, 7,800 assessment questions and 1,300 hands-on lab tickets — from your first Linux command to a full cloud architecture capstone you design, document, and defend under questioning.
What a cloud architect actually does
A request lands with real constraints, not a predefined answer. The job is turning that into an architecture you can justify — and the bootcamp teaches the decision, not just the button. Chapters 4.18–4.19 (the Well-Architected-style review) and 6.1 (first VPC design) are the real source for this example.
Three-tier web app, unpredictable traffic spikes, card data in the storage layer, a five-person team that has never run infrastructure before.
An unmanaged Kubernetes cluster run by a team with zero ops experience is the fastest way to miss Black Friday entirely — so it's rejected even though it scores well on paper for traffic.
Chosen · Managed compute (ECS/Fargate) Self-managed Kubernetes Single large EC2 instanceCard data moves into its own subnet with tightened security groups per Chapter 6.1 (Section D) and Chapter 7's IAM least-privilege pattern — satisfying PCI scope without rearchitecting the whole app.
Where this leads
The lessons map directly onto these roles — each one shown with the part of the bootcamp that builds it.
Lessons 4–7 and 11: requirements, trade-offs, and architecture patterns across a real system.
Lesson 5–6: compute, storage, database and networking architecture for a specific workload.
Lesson 8–9: Terraform, CI/CD, containers and Kubernetes — the platform other teams build on.
Lesson 10: monitoring, alerting, troubleshooting and cost control under real failure scenarios.
Lesson 7: IAM, identity architecture, secrets, KMS, and a full security architecture build.
Lesson 12–13: ADRs, stakeholder presentation, and a defended end-to-end capstone engagement.
Is this for you
No shortcuts taken on the fundamentals — Lesson 1 starts at what a computer actually is, before Lesson 2 even mentions a network.
You've never worked in IT, networking, or cloud — genuinely zero prior knowledge.
You want one primary platform (AWS) taught deeply, with Azure/GCP equivalents along the way.
You learn by doing — every chapter ends with a hands-on lab, not just reading.
You want to be able to explain and defend a decision, not just click through a console.
You already hold an associate-level AWS certification and real production experience.
You want a single-vendor deep-dive with no comparative Azure/GCP context at all.
You want video lectures — this is entirely self-study, reading- and lab-based.
You're looking for a 2-week crash course — this is a genuinely large curriculum.
Mission log — 13 lessons
Click a lesson number to see its real chapter list. Nothing is a locked preview.
Inside Chapter 1.1 — What Is a Computer?
Real material from the first chapter of the bootcamp — Section P (Practice) and one question from Section Q (Assessment).
Inventory Your Own Machine. On the computer or laptop you're using right now, find and write down: the CPU model (and if you can find it, core count and clock speed), the amount of RAM installed, and the total storage capacity.
How: Windows — open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc), click "Performance." macOS — Apple menu → About This Mac.
SELF-CHECK › Can you explain what each of the three numbers actually controls, without looking back at Section A?
Why is RAM described as "volatile"?
Lesson 13 — Final Capstone
A realistic business scenario and set of requirements — not a predefined architecture — is issued at the start of Lesson 13. Working independently, you produce the full package below, validate it against the Lesson 4 Architecture Review Checklist, then present and defend the major decisions under questioning.
Where this leads — salary benchmarks 2026
Base salary data from PayScale's "Cloud Solutions Architect" survey, the only title with dedicated figures in all three markets. Figures are gross annual base pay — total compensation (bonus, profit share) runs higher, and actual offers vary by city and company.
Full range €49k–€98k. Source: PayScale — Cloud Solutions Architect, Germany
Full range €51k–€134k (late-career up to €124k avg). Source: PayScale — Cloud Solutions Architect, Netherlands
Full range €33k–€116k; PayScale doesn't break Belgium out by early/experienced career stage for this title. Source: PayScale — Cloud Solutions Architect, Belgium
Never stuck, never alone
Self-paced doesn't mean unsupported. Mentor Bob is an AI study assistant built into every section — it already read whatever you're reading, so you can ask it to clarify a VPC diagram or walk through a Terraform error the moment you get stuck.
Included free — not an upsell.
Why does the VPC need its own route table per subnet instead of one shared table?
Because a public subnet's route table needs a path to the internet gateway, and a private subnet's shouldn't have one — Chapter 6.3 covers exactly this split.
Questions
No. Lesson 1 starts at what a computer and operating system are; Lesson 2 builds networking fundamentals from zero; the first cloud concept doesn't appear until Lesson 3. Every prerequisite is taught before it's used.
Chapter 3.17 walks through setting up your first AWS account with budgets and the free tier. Most of the curriculum stays inside free-tier limits; a handful of later labs (a running EKS cluster, for example) cost a small amount for the hours you leave them on — the bootcamp tells you exactly when and how much.
AWS is the primary platform for all hands-on work, since splitting hands-on labs across three providers would triple the setup cost without reinforcing the concepts any better. Azure and GCP equivalents are taught comparatively throughout, and the architecture principles — the actual subject of the bootcamp — transfer directly to either.
Both. Every chapter pairs a 30-question assessment with a hands-on lab (1,300 lab tickets total), and 13 major projects — one per lesson — culminate in a real capstone architecture engagement in Lesson 13.
The bootcamp is built around architectural thinking, not exam-cram — but the knowledge overlaps heavily with AWS Solutions Architect Associate material. Lesson 13's closing chapters cover how to approach certification once you've finished.
Self-study only — no videos, no live sessions. Every section is a written lesson page with diagrams, labs, and assessments, plus Mentor Bob for questions as you go.
There's no fixed schedule — it's entirely self-paced with lifetime access. 260 chapters, each with roughly 15–20 pages of material plus a lab and a 30-question assessment, is a genuinely large curriculum; most learners take it over several months alongside other commitments.
Mentor Bob has already read the exact section you're on and can walk through it with you. Self-check prompts at the end of every lab ticket also tell you what a correct answer should demonstrate, so you can verify your own work.
Full bootcamp access — all 13 lessons, 260 chapters — unlocked immediately on purchase.
✓ You already own this bootcamp. It's waiting in your Active Bootcamps.