AWS Step Functions

AWS Step Functions is a serverless workflow orchestrator. Define your workflow as a state machine (JSON): task → conditional logic → parallel execution → error handling → retry. Invoke Lambda functions, call APIs, wait for approval, execute in sequence. Why it matters: Step Functions handles the orchestration plumbing (retries, exponential backoff, error handling, state persistence, timeouts) so you focus on business logic. Use cases: data pipeline (extract → transform → load), approval workflow, multi-service transaction, scheduled job orchestration. Learning path: 1 week basics (state machines, tasks, flow control), 1 week intermediate (error handling, retries, parallelization), 1 month production (monitoring, cost optimization, integration patterns).