Free interactive course · 17 quests · about 4.5 hours
Catch Pokémon.
Master DynamoDB.
Watch every request travel through partitions, write real AWS SDK code against a simulated table, and earn a badge for each concept you master.
No signup No AWS account or credentials Progress saved in your browser
Your first quest
–/1701Learn by watching
Animated scenes show each request hashing to a partition — and what breaks without the right pattern.
02Practice with real code
Write AWS SDK v3 code. A simulated DynamoDB checks it and replays exactly what happened.
03Check and collect
One question per quest. Get it right and the badge is yours.
Part 1 · Kanto
Foundations
Keys, hashing and every single-item operation — reads, scans, safe writes, updates, counters and deletes.
0 of 8 complete
- 01Start here
Understanding Partition Keys
Learn how DynamoDB decides where items live and why partition keys keep related Pokémon together.
12 minPrimary keysStart - 02Beginner
Simple Primary Key in Action
Build a table that stores Pokémon by name, then insert and retrieve data using a simple primary key.
15 minTable designStart - 03Beginner
Fetch All Pokémon
Learn when a full-table Scan is acceptable, what it costs, and how to paginate every 1 MB response safely.
14 minScanStart - 04Beginner
Get Your Starter Pokémon
Fetch the perfect partner Pokémon with a single GetItem request, using its exact primary key.
12 minGetItemStart - 05Intermediate
Put Mew into Your Party
Use conditional writes to welcome legendary Pokémon without clobbering existing party data.
16 minPutItemStart - 06Intermediate
Update Expression Mastery
Master UpdateExpression syntax to evolve your Pokémon records safely and predictably.
14 minUpdateItemStart - 07Intermediate
Boost Mew's Stats
Fine-tune stats with atomic counters so your mythical partner is always battle ready.
14 minAtomic countersStart - 08Intermediate
Release Mew Back to the Wild
Design safe delete operations that send Pokémon home while protecting the rest of your data.
12 minDeleteItemStart
Part 2 · Johto
Advanced patterns
Expressions, indexes, transactions, batches, pagination, TTL — and a production review to finish.
0 of 9 complete
- 09Intermediate
Speaking DynamoDB's Language (Expression Attributes)
Before Johto's advanced patterns, master the two placeholders every expression relies on: ExpressionAttributeValues and ExpressionAttributeNames.
16 minExpressionAttributeValuesStart - 10Advanced
The Johto Pokedex (GSIs)
Querying non-primary key attributes efficiently using Global Secondary Indexes without scanning.
18 minGSIStart - 11Advanced
Finding the Strongest (Sort Keys)
Using Sort Keys in GSIs for ordering and advanced KeyConditionExpressions.
16 minSort KeysStart - 12Advanced
Catching Lugia (Conditional Writes)
Use ConditionExpression to prevent duplicate legendary catches and invalid states.
20 minConditionExpressionStart - 13Advanced
Trading with Rival (Transactions)
Execute ACID transactions across multiple items to securely trade Pokémon.
20 minTransactWriteItemsStart - 14Advanced
Healing Party (Batch Operations)
Fetch multiple Pokémon efficiently, then retry UnprocessedKeys with exponential backoff.
18 minBatchGetItemStart - 15Advanced
Scrolling the Pokegear (Pagination)
Implement pagination using ExclusiveStartKey and LastEvaluatedKey to load lists efficiently.
15 minPaginationStart - 16Advanced
Burn Heal (Time to Live)
Mark temporary status effects for asynchronous TTL cleanup and exclude expired items from application reads.
16 minTTLStart - 17Advanced
Elite Four Production Review
Turn a working Pokédex into an operable production system by making explicit decisions about scale, recovery, security, and global behavior.
25 minCapacity & hot keysStart
Certificates
Prove it on LinkedIn
Finish a part to claim a verifiable certificate with its own page — one click adds it to your LinkedIn profile.
- 0/8 quests
NoSQL Foundations
for Amazon DynamoDB
Keys and hashing, Scan and GetItem, conditional writes, updates, atomic counters and safe deletes.
8 quests to go - 0/9 quests
NoSQL Advanced Patterns
for Amazon DynamoDB
Expressions, secondary indexes, sort keys, transactions, batches, pagination, TTL and a production review.
9 quests to go - 0/17 quests
NoSQL Practitioner
for Amazon DynamoDB
The complete course: every foundation and advanced pattern, 17 quests.
17 quests to go
Why this order works
Partition-key choices only make sense once you understand access patterns, hashing and how traffic spreads. Kanto teaches those ideas first, so every later code challenge builds on something you've already seen happen.