AWS S3, CloudFront, and Lambda — how do they work together for serverless?

Question

"Host Next.js static export + API on AWS without managing servers."

Interview OS Community · Accepted Answer

## Stack
S3 (static files) → CloudFront (CDN) → Users, Lambda (API) → API Gateway → CloudFront

```typescript
// Lambda handler
export const handler = async (event) => {
  const apps = await prisma.application.findMany();
  return { statusCode: 200, body: JSON.stringify(apps) };
};
// Pay per invocation (~$0.20/1M requests), cold start ~200ms
```

| Component | Traditional | Serverless |
|-----------|-------------|------------|
| Compute | $30/mo (always on) | $5/mo (pay per use) |
| CDN + Storage | $10/mo | $6/mo |
| **Total** | ~$40/mo | ~$11/mo |

Best for variable traffic. Not for constant heavy traffic or long-running processes.

Interview OS

AWS S3, CloudFront, and Lambda — how do they work together for serverless?

Question Details

Suggested Solution

Stack

Discussion (0)

Component	Traditional	Serverless
Compute	$30/mo (always on)	$5/mo (pay per use)
CDN + Storage	$10/mo	$6/mo
Total	~$40/mo	~$11/mo