Networking and Content Delivery
CoreAmazon API Gateway
Managed service for creating, publishing, securing, monitoring, and operating REST, HTTP, and WebSocket APIs.
Key points
- Request validation, transformations, authorizers, integration responses, and status mappings enforce the API boundary.
- Stages bind API deployments and settings to environment endpoints.
- Custom domains map stable hostnames and paths to APIs and stages; they do not create deployments.
Best-known use cases
- Front Lambda or HTTP application integrations with a managed API.
- Separate development and production API deployments through stages.
What candidates often confuse it with
- API Gateway stages are deployment/configuration surfaces; custom domains are hostname and route mappings.
- API Gateway fronts request/response APIs; AppSync is a managed GraphQL API service.
Key takeaway
Use API Gateway to enforce and deploy API contracts while keeping stage, domain, authorization, and backend integration separate.
Related services
- AWS Lambda
- Amazon Cognito
- Amazon CloudWatch
- AWS WAF
Relevant exam tasks
- D1.1 — Develop code for applications hosted on AWS
- 1.1.6 — Create, extend, and maintain APIs (for example, response/request transformations, enforcing validation rules, overriding status codes)
- D2.1 — Implement authentication and/or authorization for applications and AWS services
- 2.1.2 — Secure applications by using bearer tokens
- D3.2 — Test applications in development environments
- 3.2.3 — Test applications by using development endpoints (for example, configuring stages in Amazon API Gateway)
- D3.3 — Automate deployment testing
- 3.3.2 — Deploy API resources to various environments
- D3.4 — Deploy code by using AWS Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) services
- 3.4.2 — Describe API Gateway stages and custom domains
- 3.4.10 — Use existing runtime configurations to create dynamic deployments (for example, using staging variables from API Gateway in Lambda functions)