AWS Training and Certification Blog
Introducing the new AWS Cloud Quest: AI-powered practice, hands-on building, and a path to official AWS badges
A customer sits across from you with a problem: their app keeps falling over when traffic spikes, and they need it fixed. There’s no multiple-choice prompt, no transcript to skim. You have to ask the right questions, figure out what they actually need, then go build it in a real AWS environment. This is cloud learning that feels less like a course and more like the job.
That’s AWS Cloud Quest, the 3D, role-based learning game on AWS Skill Builder. Today we’re announcing a major refresh built around the four things that matter most when you’re stepping into a cloud career.
Practice the soft skills employers want, with AI
The new Cloud Quest puts an AI-powered customer conversation at the center of the experience. Each assignment starts with a conversation. A virtual customer describes their problem, and you have to figure out what they need by asking questions, the same way you would in a real meeting. The conversation is powered by generative AI, so it’s different every time, and a feedback panel shows you in real time how your soft skills are developing.
Build real solutions in live AWS environments
The core learning loop in Cloud Quest is hands-on building. Learners explore an interactive solution diagram, build the solution in a live AWS environment, then apply and validate their work in a do-it-yourself challenge. Every assignment is a real exercise in real services. Hands-on labs are complemented by short learning videos and quizzes, so learners build both practical and foundational understanding.
Augment certification prep with practice that sticks
Cloud Quest assignments map to the services and scenarios on AWS Certification exams, giving learners hands-on reps that complement digital courses and exam-prep content on AWS Skill Builder. Every learner, including free-tier players, can now relaunch any completed lab to revisit a topic or sharpen skills before exam day. The result is certification readiness built through doing, not just reading.
Earn official AWS badges as proof of what you can build
As learners complete assignments, they progress toward earning official AWS badges they can share with their professional network. The Cloud Quest Cloud Practitioner badge grounds learners in foundational cloud concepts like compute, storage, networking, and security, and prepares them for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam. The Generative AI Practitioner badge introduces core AI concepts like prompt engineering, foundation models, and responsible AI, and prepares learners for the AWS Certified AI Practitioner exam. These are just two of the roles available, with more spanning solution architecture, machine learning, security, and beyond. A redesigned heads-up display keeps badge progress front and center, so you always see how close you are to the next credential.
A richer experience and a refined UX
More than one million learners have trained in Cloud Quest since launch, and we’ve been listening. The new release rebuilds the player experience around the moments where learners told us they wanted more clarity, more agency, and more reward.
- Streamlined onboarding. A redesigned onboarding flow leads with role selection and career value, so learners reach their first hands-on build faster, with less friction.
- Effortless navigation. Teleportation lets learners jump to any assignment, NPC, or island at any time. A redesigned Quest Tracker keeps the next step always within reach, and updated character cameras and inputs make moving around the world smoother.
- Tournaments, online and global. Compete with players around the world or build a custom tournament from any role. A new Tournament Points scoring layer lets veterans and newcomers play on equal footing, with lab replay during tournament play to score in real time.
- A new avatar engine. A brand new editor gives learners far richer faces, hairstyles, outfits, and colors, and lets a character’s look evolve as the learner progresses.
- Builder Bonus rewards. At the end of select assignments, learners have a chance to earn premium avatar outfits that aren’t available anywhere else in the game. Builder Bonus is earned through gameplay, with no purchase or in-game currency cost.
- A refreshed garage. A new lineup of vehicles fits the updated visual world. Returning learners receive new vehicles in place of the retired ones at the same role tier they earned.
- Richer progression feedback. Player level upgrades, structure upgrades, and pet level changes all get clearer, more rewarding feedback moments, so the wins feel like wins.
Everything you earned carries over
The new Cloud Quest ships to all learners in a single release, and existing progress carries over: Reputation Level, Builder Level, badges, completed assignments, vehicles earned through role progression, and city building progress. A short welcome walks returning learners through what’s new.
“Cloud Quest has always been about learning by doing,” said Curtis Morton, Sr. Product Manager at AWS Training and Certification. “With this release we focused on the outcomes learners care about most: real practice with AI, hands-on building in live AWS, a clear path to certification readiness, and official badges that show what they can do. Everything else, the navigation, the visuals, the rewards, exists to make that path faster and more engaging.”
Get started
AWS Cloud Quest is part of the full suite of experiential learning within AWS Skill Builder, alongside hundreds of digital courses, AWS Builder Labs, and AWS Certification preparation resources. The new Cloud Quest is available now to all learners on AWS Skill Builder.