EC2

The EC2 instance state machine - pending, running, stopping, stopped, terminated - the billing boundary at each state, and exactly what each SDK operation changes.

Hands-on EC2 basics beyond the quickstart: describe and paginate instances, filter server-side, read instance fields, and create and remove tags in both SDKs.

Find the latest official AMI via SSM public parameters, query images with DescribeImages, bake a custom AMI from a running instance with CreateImage, and share it across accounts.

Create versioned launch templates with CreateLaunchTemplate, add new versions, launch from a template with RunInstances, and set a default version for repeatable provisioning.

Bootstrap instances with user data at launch, then read runtime facts from the Instance Metadata Service using the IMDSv2 token flow, and enforce IMDSv2 with MetadataOptions.

The EC2 SDK habits that prevent orphaned instances and surprise bills: tag at launch, resolve AMIs dynamically, use launch templates, wait on transitions, enforce IMDSv2, and clean up.