DynamoDB tutorials by topic

Choose a topic for guides, SDK examples, comparisons and practical tools.

These DynamoDB tutorials cover table keys, query patterns, data modeling and day-to-day operations. Start with the core concepts, then create a table and follow the examples for your SDK. Use the administration and comparison sections when planning costs, recovery or a database choice.

Start with a practical guide

New to DynamoDB? Follow the local orders-table tutorial or learn what serverless means for DynamoDB.
Updating items? Use the UpdateExpression examples for counters, nested attributes and conditional updates.
Building semantic search? Work through vector indexes and SearchVectors.
Studying the architecture? Compare the Dynamo and DynamoDB papers.

Core concepts

Comparison

Administration

Table creation

Querying

Query examples

Working with data

Books and courses

Core concepts

Introduction To DynamoDB

Core concepts

Understand DynamoDB tables, keys, items and managed NoSQL operations.

DynamoDB Tutorial for Beginners

Core concepts

Build a small orders table on DynamoDB Local, then write and query it step by step.

The Dynamo and DynamoDB Papers

Core concepts

What the 2007 Dynamo paper and the 2022 DynamoDB paper describe, and how DynamoDB works inside.

DynamoDB FAQ

Core concepts

Find direct answers about DynamoDB features, limits and common design choices.

Top DynamoDB Use Cases

Core concepts

Match application access patterns to DynamoDB use cases and tradeoffs.

DynamoDB Pros & Cons

Core concepts

Compare operational benefits with query, modeling and cost constraints.

Common DynamoDB Errors

Core concepts

Diagnose validation, permissions, throttling and transaction failures.

DynamoDB Performance & Latency

Core concepts

Separate service latency from client latency and investigate slow requests.

DynamoDB Interview Questions

Core concepts

Review DynamoDB concepts, design questions and technical answers.

DynamoDB Best Practices

Core concepts

Review practical choices for keys, capacity, queries and operations.

DynamoDB Capacity Modes

Core concepts

Compare on-demand and provisioned capacity for your workload.

All DynamoDB Keys Explained

Core concepts

Distinguish primary, partition, sort and secondary-index keys.

DynamoDB Sort Key

Core concepts

Design ordered item collections and sort-key range queries.

DynamoDB Partition Key

Core concepts

Choose partition keys that support lookups and distribute traffic.

DynamoDB Hot Partitions

Core concepts

Find the hot key behind partition throttling and fix it with caching, better keys or write sharding.

DynamoDB Composite Key

Core concepts

Identify items with partition and sort keys and model related records.

DynamoDB Global Tables

Core concepts

Compare multi-Region eventual and strong consistency, replication and recovery.

Comparison

DynamoDB Alternatives

Comparison

Choose a replacement by why you are leaving: cost, query flexibility, portability or a relational model.

DynamoDB vs Aurora

Comparison

Compare DynamoDB and Aurora: data models, query patterns, scaling and cost.

DynamoDB vs Amazon RDS

Comparison

Compare DynamoDB and Amazon RDS: data models, query patterns, scaling and cost.

DynamoDB vs Redis

Comparison

Compare DynamoDB and Redis: data models, query patterns, scaling and cost.

DynamoDB vs S3

Comparison

Compare DynamoDB and S3: data models, query patterns, scaling and cost.

DynamoDB vs Cosmos DB

Comparison

Compare DynamoDB and Cosmos DB: data models, query patterns, scaling and cost.

DynamoDB vs Cassandra

Comparison

Compare DynamoDB and Cassandra: data models, query patterns, scaling and cost.

DynamoDB vs DocumentDB

Comparison

Compare DynamoDB and DocumentDB: data models, query patterns, scaling and cost.

DynamoDB vs MongoDB

Comparison

Compare DynamoDB and MongoDB: data models, query patterns, scaling and cost.

DynamoDB vs ElastiCache

Comparison

Compare DynamoDB and ElastiCache: data models, query patterns, scaling and cost.

DynamoDB vs Keyspaces

Comparison

Compare DynamoDB and Keyspaces: data models, query patterns, scaling and cost.

DynamoDB vs Neptune

Comparison

Compare DynamoDB and Neptune: data models, query patterns, scaling and cost.

DynamoDB vs Redshift

Comparison

Compare DynamoDB and Redshift: data models, query patterns, scaling and cost.

DynamoDB vs Timestream

Comparison

Compare DynamoDB and Timestream: data models, query patterns, scaling and cost.

DynamoDB vs Google Datastore

Comparison

Compare DynamoDB and Google Datastore: data models, query patterns, scaling and cost.

DynamoDB vs Google Firestore

Comparison

Compare DynamoDB and Google Firestore: data models, query patterns, scaling and cost.

DynamoDB vs Memcached

Comparison

Compare DynamoDB and Memcached: data models, query patterns, scaling and cost.

DynamoDB vs Oracle

Comparison

Compare DynamoDB and Oracle: data models, query patterns, scaling and cost.

DynamoDB vs Aerospike

Comparison

Compare DynamoDB and Aerospike: data models, query patterns, scaling and cost.

DynamoDB vs Postgres

Comparison

Compare DynamoDB and Postgres: data models, query patterns, scaling and cost.

DynamoDB vs Cloud Spanner

Comparison

Compare DynamoDB and Cloud Spanner: data models, query patterns, scaling and cost.

Administration

DynamoDB Pricing Calculator

Administration

Estimate on-demand and provisioned costs for your Region and workload.

DynamoDB DAX Pricing Calculator

Administration

Price a DAX cluster by Region, node type and node count, and weigh it against the reads it saves.

DynamoDB pricing and cost drivers

Administration

Review capacity, storage, backups and other costs before using the calculator.

DynamoDB Free Tier

Administration

Separate the provisioned-capacity allowance, free storage and AWS credits from billable usage.

DynamoDB Backup & Restore

Administration

Create backups and restore data into a new table for recovery.

DynamoDB Security

Administration

Review IAM access, encryption, network controls and recovery safeguards.

DynamoDB Point-in-Time Recovery

Administration

Restore a new table to a selected time within your configured recovery window.

DynamoDB SLA

Administration

Understand availability commitments, service-credit conditions and exclusions.

DynamoDB Throttling

Administration

Identify table, index and hot-partition throttling with reason codes and metrics.

DynamoDB Access Control

Administration

Scope DynamoDB permissions with IAM and resource-based policies.

DynamoDB Encryption

Administration

Compare AWS owned, AWS managed and customer managed keys and transport encryption.

Build a DynamoDB VPC Endpoint

Administration

Compare gateway and interface VPC endpoints for private DynamoDB access.

Run DynamoDB Locally

Administration

Configure DynamoDB Local, Docker and SDK endpoints for development.

DynamoDB Local UI Setup

Administration

Connect a GUI to local DynamoDB tables and inspect their items.

Migrating from MongoDB to DynamoDB

Administration

Plan access patterns, keys and data conversion when moving from MongoDB.

DynamoDB Disaster Recovery

Administration

Plan backups, restores and regional recovery around your recovery objectives.

Access DynamoDB from Lambda

Administration

Give a Lambda execution role access to the tables and operations it needs.

Table creation

DynamoDB Table Creation Wizard

Table creation

Create a DynamoDB table and choose its primary key and capacity mode.

DynamoDB with Serverless Framework

Table creation

Define a DynamoDB table and application permissions with Serverless Framework.

DynamoDB with Terraform

Table creation

Manage DynamoDB tables, indexes and settings with Terraform.

DynamoDB Table Design Tool

Table creation

Design keys and ordinary GSIs, then generate a CreateTable request.

DynamoDB with AWS SAM

Table creation

Define DynamoDB-backed applications with AWS SAM templates.

DynamoDB with CloudFormation

Table creation

Describe DynamoDB resources and lifecycle settings in CloudFormation.

DynamoDB with SST

Table creation

Define DynamoDB tables and connect applications using SST.

DynamoDB with AWS CDK

Table creation

Create DynamoDB infrastructure with AWS CDK constructs.

DynamoDB with Pulumi

Table creation

Provision DynamoDB tables and indexes using Pulumi.

Querying

DynamoDB Queries Made Easy

Querying

Build DynamoDB queries visually with Dynobase.

DynamoDB Limits

Querying

Check item, request, index and throughput limits before designing a workload.

Understanding DynamoDB Scan

Querying

Understand full-table reads, pagination, filters and scan capacity costs.

DynamoDB Scan vs Query

Querying

Choose Query for key-based access and understand when Scan is necessary.

DynamoDB ACID Transactions

Querying

Group reads or writes into all-or-nothing transactions and handle conflicts.

DynamoDB TTL (Time-to-live)

Querying

Convert epoch seconds and configure asynchronous deletion of expired items.

DynamoDB Visual Query Builder

Querying

Generate Query and Scan parameters, JavaScript SDK v3 code and CLI commands.

DynamoDB reserved words and alias checker

Querying

Check reserved words and use attribute-name aliases in expressions.

DynamoDB Indexes

Querying

Compare local and global secondary indexes and their query behavior.

DynamoDB Global Secondary Index

Querying

Design alternate query keys with global secondary indexes.

DynamoDB Vector Search

Querying

Store embeddings, create a vector index and run nearest-neighbor searches on an on-demand table.

DynamoDB PartiQL guide

Querying

Use SQL-compatible statements for DynamoDB reads and writes.

Using GraphQL with DynamoDB

Querying

Connect GraphQL APIs to DynamoDB with AppSync, Amplify or Apollo.

DynamoDB Read Consistency

Querying

Choose eventual or strong reads and understand index and replication restrictions.

DynamoDB PutItem vs UpdateItem

Querying

Compare full-item replacement with attribute updates and conditional writes.

DynamoDB UpdateExpression

Querying

Use SET, REMOVE, ADD and DELETE on counters, lists, maps and sets, with examples that run.

DynamoDB Joins

Querying

Model related data and retrieve it without server-side relational joins.

DynamoDB Filter Expressions

Querying

Filter evaluated items and understand why filters do not reduce read capacity.

Query examples

DynamoDB query and operation examples

Query examples

Find query, write, batch and transaction examples organized by SDK and language.

DynamoDB Python Boto3 Query Examples

Query examples

Use boto3 for reads, writes, pagination and transactions, with Decimal handling.

DynamoDB JavaScript SDK v3 examples

Query examples

Use JavaScript SDK v3 and DynamoDBDocumentClient for queries, writes and retries.

DynamoDB Golang Query Examples

Query examples

Build DynamoDB requests and handle results with the AWS SDK for Go v2.

DynamoDB Java Enhanced Client examples

Query examples

Use the Java 2.x Enhanced Client and migrate older DynamoDBMapper code.

DynamoDB Rust Query Examples

Query examples

Create, query and update DynamoDB items with the AWS SDK for Rust.

DynamoDB C# Query Examples

Query examples

Work with DynamoDB tables and items using the AWS SDK for .NET.

DynamoDB PHP Query Examples

Query examples

Read and write DynamoDB items with the PHP SDK and Marshaler.

DynamoDB CLI Query Examples

Query examples

Run DynamoDB commands, expressions and paginated queries with AWS CLI v2.

Working with data

DynamoDB Data Types

Working with data

Understand scalar, document and set types and their JSON descriptors.

DynamoDB DAX

Working with data

Evaluate DynamoDB Accelerator for read caching, consistency and cost.

DynamoDB Streams

Working with data

Process item changes with stream records, Lambda consumers and retry handling.

Timestamps in DynamoDB

Working with data

Store timestamps and design time-based keys and queries.

DynamoDB Locking

Working with data

Coordinate updates with optimistic version checks or application-managed locks.

Using DynamoDB as a Cache

Working with data

Design a cache in DynamoDB and handle expiration in application reads.

DynamoDB Pagination

Working with data

Continue reads with LastEvaluatedKey and avoid dropping filtered pages.

Import CSV to DynamoDB

Working with data

Map CSV columns and key values when importing items into DynamoDB.

Import JSON to DynamoDB

Working with data

Import JSON data and check key types and item formats.

Export DynamoDB to JSON

Working with data

Export DynamoDB records as JSON for inspection or data movement.

Export DynamoDB to CSV

Working with data

Export DynamoDB records to CSV for spreadsheets and analysis.

Delete DynamoDB Table

Working with data

Delete a table after checking protection, backups and dependent applications.

Delete DynamoDB Item

Working with data

Delete a specific DynamoDB item using its complete primary key.

DynamoDB Update Item

Working with data

Change item attributes and protect updates with conditions.

Truncate DynamoDB Table

Working with data

Remove all items while retaining the table and its configuration.

DynamoDB query workspace

Working with data

Use visual filters and saved queries in the Dynobase query workspace.

DynamoDB Item Size Calculator

Working with data

Estimate stored item size and the capacity units required for reads and writes.

DynamoDB JSON Converter

Working with data

Convert plain JSON and typed DynamoDB JSON, including nested maps and lists.

Export DynamoDB Data To S3

Working with data

Export DynamoDB data to S3 and understand formats and recovery prerequisites.

DynamoDB Batch Operations

Working with data

Batch reads, puts and deletes, and retry unprocessed items.

DynamoDB Data Versioning

Working with data

Store item revisions and protect concurrent changes with version checks.

DynamoDB For Logging

Working with data

Design log records, time-based access patterns and retention.

DynamoDB Single-Table Design Guide

Working with data

Turn access patterns into keys and indexes for one table, and know when several tables are better.

DynamoDB ORMs Compared

Working with data

Compare ElectroDB, DynamoDB Toolbox, Dynamoose and OneTable on the same model.

DynamoDB Single-Table Design Examples

Working with data

Explore example models and their access patterns in an interactive library.

Working with DynamoDB Attributes

Working with data

Work with flexible attributes, nested documents and attribute updates.

DynamoDB Stream vs Kinesis Stream

Working with data

Compare change-stream retention, ordering, consumers and delivery behavior.

Add Item to DynamoDB Table

Working with data

Create a new DynamoDB item with the required key values.

DynamoDB Data Modeling

Working with data

Model entities and access patterns with the Dynobase single-table designer.

Using SQS with DynamoDB

Working with data

Combine DynamoDB storage with SQS queues and idempotent processing.

DynamoDB Data Migration

Working with data

Choose a table-copy method and account for keys, indexes and settings.

Using SNS with DynamoDB

Working with data

Publish notifications from DynamoDB changes through SNS.

Books, courses and AWS resources

Some third-party courses use older console screens or SDKs. Use their conceptual lessons alongside the current SDK examples above; check the provider's syllabus before purchasing.