What I Learned About S3

What I Learned

• - S3 stores objects inside buckets instead of running like a normal file server.
• - Bucket policies, IAM policies, and public access settings all affect who can read or write objects.
• - Versioning, encryption, and lifecycle rules make S3 useful for safer long-term storage.

Why It Matters

S3 is used in many AWS projects, and one bad permission setting can expose private files or break an application.

Mistakes and Challenges

• - I first treated S3 like a regular folder and forgot that object permissions are controlled separately.
• - I had to slow down and check the difference between blocking public access and allowing CloudFront access.

What I Built/Tested

• - Created an S3 bucket and uploaded test files.
• - Tested private vs public object access.
• - Reviewed how a static website can use S3 with CloudFront.