Key points

• Runtime, handler, memory, timeout, environment variables, layers, extensions, role, VPC attachment, triggers, and destinations form the function configuration.
• Reserved concurrency reserves and caps capacity; provisioned concurrency pre-initializes environments.
• Invocation mode and event source determine batching, retries, checkpointing, and failure routing.

Best-known use cases

• Event-driven APIs and service integrations.
• Near-real-time queue, object, and stream processing.

What candidates often confuse it with

• Lambda is managed function execution; EC2 and containers provide longer-lived compute environments.
• Lambda destinations carry async invocation outcome records; a DLQ retains discarded failure events with less context.

Key takeaway

Treat Lambda code and its runtime, identity, event, failure, and concurrency configuration as one deployable unit.

Related services

• Amazon API Gateway
• Amazon EventBridge
• Amazon SQS
• Amazon Kinesis
• Amazon CloudWatch

Relevant exam tasks

• D1.2 — Develop code for AWS Lambda
• 1.2.1 — Describe the access of private resources in VPCs from Lambda code
• 1.2.2 — Configure Lambda functions by defining environment variables and parameters (for example, memory, concurrency, timeout, runtime, handler, layers, extensions, triggers, destinations)
• 1.2.3 — Handle the event lifecycle and errors by using code (for example, Lambda Destinations, dead-letter queues)
• 1.2.4 — Write and run test code by using AWS services and tools
• 1.2.5 — Integrate Lambda functions with AWS services
• 1.2.6 — Tune Lambda functions for optimal performance
• 1.2.7 — Use Lambda functions to process and transform data in near real time

Learn more

• AWS Lambda